The Actor Nakamura Sukegoro II as Kaminari Shokuro in the Joruri "Gonin Otoko" (Five Chivalrous Commoners), Played as One Act in the Ayatsuri Kabuki Ogi (Mastery of the Fan in Kabuki), Performed at the Nakamura Theater from the Twentieth Day of the Seventh Month, 1768

This Katsukawa Shunsho print at the Art Institute of Chicago records Nakamura Sukegoro II in the role of Kaminari Shokuro from the joruri (narrative song) episode Gonin Otoko (Five Chivalrous Commoners), played as a one-act in the larger kabuki production Ayatsuri Kabuki Ogi (Mastery of the Fan in Kabuki) at the Nakamura theater beginning on the twentieth day of the seventh month, 1768. The level of specificity in the inscription, identifying the role, the source narrative, the umbrella production, the theater, and the exact opening date, illustrates the documentary ambitions of Edo ukiyo-e yakusha-e at its most rigorous: these prints were intended not only as portraits but as historical records of specific performances. The Gonin Otoko (Five Chivalrous Commoners) tradition presented five otokodate, each in distinctive costume and pose, in a sequence of bravura entrances that became a perennial favorite of Edo audiences. Shunsho's design preserves the visual identity of Sukegoro II's contribution to this stage spectacle, capturing the distinctive features and bearing the actor brought to the role of Kaminari Shokuro. As founder of the Katsukawa school, Shunsho had by 1768 firmly established his innovation: the rendering of actor portraits as recognizable individual likenesses rather than generic types. This commitment to specificity made Katsukawa school prints uniquely valuable to contemporary collectors and remains the principal reason they retain such importance for modern theater historians. The Art Institute impression preserves the firm linework and carefully managed printing that distinguished the master's mature production.