Actors Nakajima Mihoemon II as Fujiwara no Shihei, Ichikawa Ebizô III as Matsuo-maru, Ichikawa Yaozô II as Sakura-maru, and Ichimura Uzaemon IX as Umeo-maru in “Sugawara’s Secrets of Calligraphy” (“Sugawara denju tenarai kagami”)

Katsukawa Shunsho assembles a four-figure composition from Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami ("Sugawara's Secrets of Calligraphy"), one of the three pillars of the kabuki history-play canon. The print shows Nakajima Mihoemon II as the villain Fujiwara no Shihei flanked by the three triplet brothers whose fate the play hinges on: Ichikawa Ebizo III as Matsuo-maru, Ichikawa Yaozo II as Sakura-maru, and Ichimura Uzaemon IX as Umeo-maru. The triplets, each named after a tree (pine, cherry, plum), are bound by competing loyalties: one serves Shihei, the others serve his enemy Sugawara, and the play follows their wrenching attempts to reconcile family bonds with feudal duty. Shunsho composes the four figures across the sheet in a roughly symmetrical arrangement, costumes color-coded by tree affiliation, faces individuated enough that Edo collectors could identify each player at a glance. The Katsukawa school's reform of Edo ukiyo-e yakusha-e is on full display here: a controlled palette, clear silhouettes, a disciplined printed outline, and a likeness specific to each named actor rather than the generic stage type that had characterized earlier Torii-school work. The Art Institute of Chicago preserves this impression, which functions as both a souvenir of a specific Sugawara production and as a primary document of one of Shunsho's most ambitious multi-figure designs. The print survives among the strongest demonstrations of the Katsukawa workshop's capacity to translate complex ensemble scenes into the language of single-sheet kabuki imagery.