The Actor Ichimura Uzaemon IX as Fuwa Banzaemon in the Play Keisei Nagoya Obi, Performed at the Ichimura Theater in the Eighth Month, 1771

Katsukawa Shunsho produced this print around 1766, depicting Ichimura Uzaemon IX as the swaggering Fuwa Banzaemon in the play Keisei Nagoya Obi at the Ichimura Theater. Fuwa Banzaemon was one of the iconic dandies, or otokodate, of Edo kabuki, whose legendary feud with the rival Nagoya Sanza supplied dramatists with material for countless plays. The character is typically depicted in a striking robe patterned with bolts of lightning, an emblem that, paired with Sanza's clouds-and-rain motif, made the two rivals instantly identifiable on stage. Shunsho captures Uzaemon IX, the proprietor and chief actor of the Ichimura Theater, in a swaggering tachimi pose, his hand resting on his sword and his face individualized in the manner that defined Katsukawa school yakusha-e. The Edo ukiyo-e market valued such single-figure portraits both as souvenirs for theatergoers and as advertisements for upcoming productions, and Shunsho's signature studio became the dominant supplier of these images during the 1760s and 1770s. His training of pupils including Shunko, Shunei, and Hokusai propagated his methods well beyond his own working life. This impression is held by the Art Institute of Chicago, where it joins a deep collection of Katsukawa school prints. The work preserves an evocative example of Shunsho's depiction of the bravado otokodate type and demonstrates how the Katsukawa school's individualized approach to actor portraiture animated Edo's most beloved theatrical character types.