The Actor Sawamura Sojuro III (right), in His Dressing Room in Conversation with the Actor Segawa Kikunojo III (left)

This Katsukawa Shunsho print, dating to around 1775, takes viewers behind the curtain of an Edo kabuki theater into the gakuya, or dressing room, where the actors Sawamura Sojuro III and Segawa Kikunojo III pause in conversation. Backstage compositions like this one were a particular interest of Shunsho's Katsukawa school, which sought to extend the yakusha-e genre beyond stage moments to encompass the lived working life of performers. The encounter pictured here would have been intimately familiar to Edo's kabuki cognoscenti: Sojuro III, a leading tachiyaku in male roles, and Kikunojo III, the celebrated onnagata, frequently appeared together on the major theaters' bills. Shunsho records the pair with the actor-likeness clarity that distinguished his portraits, building each figure's identity from precise facial structure, gesture, and the patterning of off-stage robes rather than on-stage costume. The Art Institute of Chicago sheet captures the casual atmosphere of the wardrobe area, complete with the props, mirrors, and stage gear that defined this hidden territory. Backstage scenes carried a particular thrill for Edo viewers because they offered access to a space normally barred to the audience, and they enriched the documentary function that Shunsho's yakusha-e increasingly performed. The hosoban format, here possibly joined into a multi-sheet composition, allowed the two figures to be set in physical relationship across panels. Within the broader trajectory of Edo ukiyo-e, Shunsho's gakuya scenes anticipate the later interest in actor portraiture by Sharaku and the Utagawa school, while remaining stylistically distinct in their measured restraint and emphasis on actor identity over theatrical exaggeration.