The Actor Ichikawa Monnosuke II as the Courtesan Kewaizaka no Shosho in the Play Sono Kyodai Fuji no Sugatami, Performed at the Morita Theater in the First Month, 1776

In this Katsukawa Shunsho yakusha-e at the Art Institute of Chicago, Ichikawa Monnosuke II takes the female role of Kewaizaka no Shosho, a courtesan, in the play Sono Kyodai Fuji no Sugatami at the Morita Theater in the first month of 1776. First-month productions held particular prestige in Edo kabuki as the official opening of the calendar year's repertoire, and the casting of male actors in onnagata roles, while less common than dedicated female-role specialists, occasionally signaled a notable production. Monnosuke II was a young rising star whose career Shunsho documented across many sheets in the 1770s, and the print captures the youthful set of the actor's features beneath the courtesan's elaborate coiffure. Shunsho's compositional approach, framing the figure against a near-empty ground, concentrates attention on the layered robes, hairpins, and identifying crest. As an example of mature Katsukawa school practice in Edo ukiyo-e, the print demonstrates how meticulously the studio recorded role assignments at each of the three licensed theaters. The captioning with theater, month, and year transforms a souvenir image into a precise documentary artifact, and modern scholarship continues to mine these inscriptions to reconstruct Edo's kabuki performance history with greater accuracy.