Memorial Portrait of Actor Ichikawa Ebizô II (Danjûrô II) as a Peddler of the Medicine Uirô

This 1763 memorial portrait by Katsukawa Shunsho commemorates the celebrated Ichikawa Ebizo II, also known as Danjuro II, in the iconic role of the Uiro peddler, a part forever linked with the Ichikawa acting lineage. The print depicts the actor mid-performance of the Uiro-uri, a virtuoso speech routine in which the peddler hawks his curative pellets with a torrent of tongue-twisting eloquence. Shunsho captures the figure in a distinctive standing pose, dressed in a striped robe bearing the kamawanu crest associated with the role, an elaborate striped sash secured at the waist, and a wide-brimmed travel hat slung at his back. The peddler's open mouth and animated posture convey the breathless cadence of the speech itself. As founder of the Katsukawa school, Shunsho transformed yakusha-e by capturing the recognizable likenesses of individual Edo ukiyo-e actors rather than producing the generic, idealized faces of the preceding Torii school. The memorial nature of this sheet honors a performer who died in 1758, and Shunsho's choice to immortalize him in his signature comic showpiece reflects how deeply the Uiro-uri had become identified with the Ichikawa house. This impression is preserved in the Art Institute of Chicago collection, an important repository for early Katsukawa school prints. The work documents a pivotal moment in Edo theatrical printmaking when actor portraiture began moving toward the more naturalistic, biographically aware style that would define late eighteenth-century kabuki imagery.