The Actor Segawa Kikunojo III as Miura no Katagai Disuigsed as the Nun Narukami, in the Play Ume-goyomi Akebono Soga, Performed at the Ichimura Theater in the Second Month, 1780

This Katsukawa Shunsho print preserves Segawa Kikunojo III in one of the layered female roles for which he was the leading specialist of his generation: Miura no Katagai disguised as the nun Narukami, in Ume-goyomi Akebono Soga, performed at the Ichimura Theater in the second month of 1780. Kikunojo III was an onnagata, a male actor of female parts, and his appearances were among the most heavily collected subjects in Edo ukiyo-e yakusha-e of the An'ei and Tenmei eras. Shunsho's contribution to the Katsukawa school was precisely the kind of careful psychological observation this role demanded, where a courtly woman is concealed beneath the robes and shaved head of a Buddhist nun. The hosoban format isolates the figure, allowing the modest grey of the religious habit and the controlled fall of the sleeves to do most of the expressive work. The cartouche identifies actor, role and production, anchoring the image to a precise moment in Edo theatre history. This impression is preserved in the Clarence Buckingham Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago. Together with related prints from the same Soga programme, it documents the integration of the perennial Soga vendetta theme with topical plot devices that kabuki dramaturgy of the 1780s habitually layered over the standard New Year and second-month programmes, and shows how Shunsho's images functioned as a parallel record to the printed kabuki playbills.