The Actor Nakamura Nakazo I as Ono Sadakuro in the Play Kanadehon Chushingura, Performed at the Ichimura Theater in the Sixth Month, 1783

Katsukawa Shunsho's portrait of Nakamura Nakazo I as Ono Sadakuro in Kanadehon Chushingura, performed at the Ichimura Theater in the sixth month of 1783, records one of the most famous characterizations of late eighteenth-century kabuki. Ono Sadakuro is the disinherited samurai son turned bandit who, in Act Five of the play, murders the elderly Yoichibei for the money the old man has procured by selling his daughter Okaru. Nakamura Nakazo I is credited with transforming the role from a comic minor villain into a chilling embodiment of nihilistic elegance, restyling Sadakuro in a black kimono, with rain-soaked white skin, and inventing a stage business that became canonical for the part. Shunsho's Edo ukiyo-e yakusha-e for the 1783 Ichimura production, in the Art Institute of Chicago's collection, captures Nakazo I in the role he had made his own. The Katsukawa school's actor-likeness approach is fully evident: Nakazo I is identifiable by his particular facial features and characteristic bearing, with the Sadakuro costume and props locating him in the play's specific Act Five world. The hosoban format directs attention to the single figure, while the printing preserves the visual qualities that made Nakazo's Sadakuro a stage sensation. As both a portrait of a star and a record of one of kabuki's defining characterizations, the print sits at the heart of what Shunsho's Edo ukiyo-e yakusha-e set out to accomplish: the preservation of individual performances by specific actors with the precision that would let future generations of viewers participate in the visual culture of their era.