The Actor Arashi Sangoro II as Sakura-maru in the Play Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami, Performed at the Ichimura Theater in the First Month, 1772

This color woodblock print by Katsukawa Shunsho commemorates a performance at the Ichimura Theater in the first month of 1772, depicting the actor Arashi Sangoro II as Sakura-maru in the play Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami. Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami, often translated as Sugawara and the Secrets of Calligraphy, is one of the foundational works of the Japanese theatrical canon, drawn from earlier puppet theatre and centred on the historical statesman Sugawara no Michizane and his loyal triplet retainers Matsuomaru, Umeomaru, and Sakuramaru. The first-month program was traditionally the year's most auspicious staging, and Shunsho's print preserves a moment from one of its most charged dramatic roles. Sangoro II is rendered with the individualised features that defined the new style of yakusha-e introduced by the Katsukawa school: observed angles of brow, jaw, and hairline replace the generic masks of earlier actor printing. The figure stands against a plain ground, focusing attention on costume, stance, and the particular performance occasion. The print is held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, where it forms part of an extensive Shunsho holding and stands as an important record of Edo kabuki at the start of 1772, the year in which the Katsukawa school's reform of yakusha-e was reaching maturity.