The Actor Ichimura Uzaemon IX as Aza-maru in the Play Yui Kanoko Date-zome Soga, Performed at the Ichimura Theater in the First Month, 1774

This Katsukawa Shunsho yakusha-e, dated to around 1769, depicts Ichimura Uzaemon IX as Aza-maru in the play Yui Kanoko Date-zome Soga performed at the Ichimura Theater in the New Year period of 1774. The play belongs to the perennial Soga genre, drawn from the medieval revenge tale of the Soga brothers and traditionally featured in Edo's New Year programming, with playwrights generating endless variations on the brothers' search for their father's killer. The kanoko motif in the title refers to the dappled tie-dyed patterning fashionable in courtesan and onnagata costume, and the date-zome reference signals the romantic intrigue that typically threaded through Soga-themed plays. Uzaemon IX served as both proprietor of the Ichimura Theater and a leading actor on its stage, and Shunsho captures him in a striking standing pose with the individualized facial features that defined Katsukawa school yakusha-e. The Edo ukiyo-e market valued such single-figure portraits as theater souvenirs and as marketing for upcoming productions, and Shunsho's Katsukawa workshop dominated this commerce from the late 1760s through the 1780s. His pupils Shunko, Shunei, and the young Hokusai trained within this thriving studio. The Art Institute of Chicago preserves this impression among a substantial collection of Katsukawa school prints. The work contributes to scholarly reconstruction of Ichimura Theater repertoire and offers evidence of Shunsho's maturing handling of color and pattern in the late 1760s.