The Actor Yoshizawa Iroha I as Princess Yosooi (Yosooi Hime) in the Play Kikujido Shuen no Iwaya, Performed at the Morita Theater in the Eleventh Month, 1775

Katsukawa Shunsho's yakusha-e portrays Yoshizawa Iroha I as Princess Yosooi (Yosooi Hime) in 'Kikujido Shuen no Iwaya,' a production staged at the Morita Theater in the eleventh month of 1775. The Kikujido legend, in which a young attendant of an ancient Chinese emperor gains immortality by drinking dew from chrysanthemum petals, was a favorite subject in East Asian visual culture and gave Edo kabuki a Daoist-tinged frame in which courtly female roles like Princess Yosooi could be elaborated. Yoshizawa Iroha I, an onnagata, here takes on the elegant princess role and is captured by Shunsho with the kind of poised verticality, sumptuous robes, and carefully placed accessories that distinguished the school's treatment of onnagata. The eleventh-month season at the Morita Theater was the kaomise (face-showing) program in which the theater introduced its actors for the coming year, and Katsukawa school yakusha-e from this slot are among the most prized records of the Edo theatrical calendar. As an Edo ukiyo-e design from the height of Shunsho's career, the print exemplifies the Katsukawa school's matured approach to female-role portraiture, which combined precise actor likeness with the heightened costume display that defined onnagata performance. The impression is held by the Art Institute of Chicago, where it contributes to the ongoing study of the school's role in shaping Edo's visual record of kabuki across both male and female roles.