The Actor Yamashita Kinsaku II as a Thunder Goddess in the Play Onna Narukami, Performed at the Morita Theater in the First Month, 1770

Katsukawa Shunsho's yakusha-e of Yamashita Kinsaku II as a thunder goddess preserves a vivid moment from the Morita Theater's first-month program of 1770, when the actor took on the female adaptation of the famous Narukami role in 'Onna Narukami.' The original Narukami, an aragoto staple associated with the Ichikawa Danjuro lineage, recounts the seduction and downfall of a vengeful monk; the gender-reversed female version gave Yamashita Kinsaku II, a leading onnagata, the chance to inhabit a charged supernatural role normally reserved for male leads. Shunsho responds with a portrait that emphasizes physiognomic likeness while delivering the visual electricity of the storm spirit: bold patterning across the costume, a controlled but charged pose, and a measured palette typical of Edo ukiyo-e of the early 1770s. The print belongs to the foundational decade of the Katsukawa school, when Shunsho and his collaborators were reshaping yakusha-e from generic emblem to documentary likeness, anchored to specific theaters, months, and roles. The work also captures the prestige of the Morita Theater within the Edo licensed-theater system, where the first-month kaomise-style program was the most heavily promoted event of the calendar. Held in the Art Institute of Chicago's collection, the impression remains a primary visual document for both the career of Yamashita Kinsaku II and for the iconography of female adaptations of aragoto roles in the Edo kabuki repertoire that Shunsho and the Katsukawa school did so much to record.