Segawa Kikunojō III as Teruha

Katsukawa Shunsho's hosoban yakusha-e portrays Segawa Kikunojo III in the female role of Teruha. Kikunojo III was the leading onnagata of Edo in the An'ei and Tenmei eras, and his appearances in graceful, refined female roles were among the most heavily collected subjects of the period's Edo ukiyo-e. Shunsho's portrait registers him in the standard Katsukawa school manner: full-length on a narrow vertical sheet, kosode and obi rendered in carefully balanced colour, the face individualised so that viewers familiar with the Edo stage would recognise this particular player even within the conventions of an onnagata's idealised appearance. The Cleveland Museum of Art holds this impression. It is part of a body of Shunsho prints of Kikunojo III preserved in that collection that taken together document one of the longest and most influential acting careers of the late eighteenth-century kabuki stage. As founder of the Katsukawa school, Shunsho set the visual conventions by which Edo audiences came to know their favourite onnagata: a recognisable face above the stage costume, the body's posture and gesture clearly conveyed, all within a print format compact enough to be carried home, mounted in an album, or pasted into a personal record of theatre-going. This sheet is a representative example of that decisive contribution to yakusha-e.