The Actor Ichikawa Danzaburo II as Usui no Sadamitsu (?) in the Play Edo Katagi Hikeya Tsunasaka (?), Performed at the Ichimura Theater (?) in the Eleventh Month, 1772 (?)

This color woodblock print by Katsukawa Shunsho commemorates a kabuki staging at the Ichimura Theater in the eleventh month of 1772, depicting the actor Ichikawa Danzaburo II as the warrior Usui no Sadamitsu in the play Edo Katagi Hikeya Tsunasaka. The eleventh-month program in Edo, known as the kaomise or face-showing season, traditionally introduced the troupe's lineup for the new year and featured ambitious productions. Shunsho stages Danzaburo in the bold pose appropriate to a martial role from the medieval cycle of warrior tales that gave kabuki much of its dramatic repertoire. The actor's face is rendered with the kind of individualised features that defined the new style of yakusha-e introduced by the Katsukawa school, replacing the generic masks of earlier actor printing with portraits that an Edo audience could recognise. As a co-founder and central figure of the Katsukawa school, Shunsho was at this moment shaping the way kabuki performance was visualised, and his prints functioned as both portrait and review for theatre-going collectors. The print is held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, where it contributes to a documented record of Edo kabuki performances of 1772 and stands as a representative example of how Shunsho's prints rooted yakusha-e in specific theatrical occasions during one of the most productive seasons of his career.