The Actor Nakajima Mihoemon II as Shujaku Tenno in the Play Masakado Kammuri no Hatsuyuki, Performed at the Nakamura Theater in the Eleventh Month, 1777

Held by the Art Institute of Chicago and documented through ukiyo-e.org, this Katsukawa Shunsho yakusha-e depicts Nakajima Mihoemon II as Emperor Shujaku (Shujaku Tenno) in Masakado Kammuri no Hatsuyuki (Masakado's Crown: First Snow), performed at the Nakamura Theater in the Eleventh Month of 1777. As a kaomise production, the play introduced the theater's troupe for the new theatrical year. Nakajima Mihoemon II specialized in dignified high-rank roles — emperors, retired sovereigns, and aristocratic patriarchs — and the imperial figure of Shujaku Tenno suited that line of business well. Shunsho, the leading actor-portraitist of Edo ukiyo-e and founder of the Katsukawa school, gives the print a stately frontality appropriate to an emperor: the figure stands or is seated in formal court costume, the great sleeves of an aristocratic robe (sokutai or its kabuki simulacrum) falling in heavy folds. A high black eboshi cap, formal kimono patterns, and the elongated proportions of court dress underscore the imperial part. Against this, Shunsho preserves the individuating likeness of the actor — Mihoemon II's distinctive features remain visible beneath the regalia. The unfilled ground concentrates attention on the costumed body, in keeping with the Katsukawa school's habit. The print stands as a witness to the way Edo ukiyo-e absorbed even the most ceremonious kabuki material into its commercial portrait economy.