The Actor Matsumoto Koshiro IV as Matsuo-maru in the Play Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami, Performed at the Nakamura Theater in the Ninth Month, 1773

This Katsukawa Shunsho yakusha-e, dated to around 1768, depicts Matsumoto Koshiro IV as Matsuo-maru in the play Sugawara denju tenarai kagami at the Nakamura Theater. The play, one of the three great masterpieces of the Edo period bunraku and kabuki repertoire, dramatizes the political downfall of the ninth-century courtier and scholar Sugawara no Michizane through the divergent fortunes of three triplet brothers, Umeo-maru, Sakura-maru, and Matsuo-maru, who serve different masters caught up in the imperial intrigue. Matsuo-maru, the brother loyal to Michizane's enemy, ultimately sacrifices his own son in atonement, in one of the most emotionally devastating scenes in all of kabuki. Koshiro IV was renowned for his portrayal of major tachiyaku roles, and Shunsho captures him in Matsuo-maru's distinctive costume, with the actor's individualized facial features registering the role's tragic gravity. As founder of the Katsukawa school, Shunsho transformed Edo ukiyo-e kabuki portraiture by introducing recognizable likenesses that replaced the generic faces of the earlier Torii school. His pupils Shunko, Shunei, and the young Hokusai trained within his workshop, which dominated yakusha-e production for nearly four decades. The print documents one of kabuki's most celebrated character roles and contributes to the substantial corpus of Shunsho prints that record the major productions of mid-Edo theatrical history.