The Actor Ichikawa Danzo IV as Soga no Goro Tokimune in the Play Chigo Suzuri Aoyagi Soga, Performed at the Nakamura Theater in the First Month, 1777

This Katsukawa Shunsho print at the Art Institute of Chicago shows Ichikawa Danzo IV as Soga no Goro Tokimune in Chigo Suzuri Aoyagi Soga, a Soga revenge drama performed at the Nakamura Theater in the first month of 1777. The Soga story, in which the brothers Goro and Juro avenge their father's murder by Kudo Suketsune, was the seasonal centerpiece of every Edo new year's repertoire, and a fresh staging at one of the three licensed theaters guaranteed a steady demand for commemorative yakusha-e. Goro, the younger and more impetuous of the brothers, was traditionally cast in the aragoto manner with bold facial makeup and broad gestures of pent fury. Shunsho's drawing of Danzo IV adopts this convention while preserving the actor's individual physiognomy, the Katsukawa school's defining contribution to Edo ukiyo-e. The composition exploits the hosoban's vertical proportions to give Goro's stance a coiled potential, weight on the back leg and shoulders set as if just before the explosive mie that would punctuate his entrances. Sheets like this one circulated immediately after the new year's opening performances, and many survive in albums or scattered impressions across major museum collections. As a piece of yakusha-e, the print exemplifies the studio's effort to give each year's Soga production a distinct printed identity.