The Actor Nakamura Nakazo I as Izu no Jiro Disguised as Kemmaku no Sabu in the Play Edo-zakura Sono Omokage, Performed at the Nakamura Theater in the Fifth Month, 1769

Held by the Art Institute of Chicago, this Katsukawa Shunsho print presents the actor Nakamura Nakazo I in another of his celebrated disguise roles: Izu no Jiro masquerading as Kemmaku no Sabu in the play Edo-zakura Sono Omokage, performed at the Nakamura Theater in the fifth month of 1769. The pairing of warrior and townsman identities offered Edo Kabuki rich opportunities for both physical comedy and moral seriousness, and Nakazo's performance moved fluidly between registers. Shunsho's design captures the actor in a pose drawn from a specific stage moment, with costume details that signal the Sabu persona while subtle aspects of bearing remind viewers of the underlying samurai. The Katsukawa school's nigao-e likeness portraiture is essential to this kind of double image, since the recognizable face anchors the disguise rather than dissolving into it. Edo-zakura Sono Omokage was one of the seasonal productions that traded on cherry-blossom imagery and on the visual conventions of the springtime city, and the print's place in the broader Edo ukiyo-e tradition reflects how Kabuki and the floating world were perpetually feeding one another iconographic material. Within Shunsho's body of work, the sheet contributes to a sustained chronicle of Nakazo's career, building up a portrait of the actor over many roles, theaters, and seasons that collectively define his cultural significance.