The Actor Kasaya Matakuro II as the Boatman Rokuzo in an Unidentified Play, Performed at the Morita Theater in the Fifth Month, 1770

This color woodblock print by Katsukawa Shunsho records a kabuki performance at the Morita Theater in the fifth month of 1770, depicting the actor Kasaya Matakuro II in the role of the boatman Rokuzo. The specific play has not been securely identified, but the role belongs to the long tradition of working-class characters who provided kabuki audiences with a counterpoint to the aristocratic and warrior figures of the main plot. Shunsho stages Matakuro II in an attentive, observed pose, his rolled-up sleeves and informal stance suggesting the role's physical labour. The print exemplifies the new style of yakusha-e introduced by the Katsukawa school, in which the actor's individualised features and bearing replace the generic, mask-like faces typical of earlier actor printing. The plain ground concentrates attention on costume and stance, allowing the design to function both as portraiture and as documentation of a specific staging. As one of the founders of the Katsukawa school, Shunsho was during these years redefining the genre of yakusha-e at the centre of Edo ukiyo-e. The print is preserved in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, where it forms part of a documented record of Edo kabuki performances of 1770 and contributes to the institution's scholarship on Shunsho's approach to lower-status character roles.