The Actors Arashi Hinaji I (right), and Ichikawa Komazo II (left), as Princess Sakura (Sakura Hime) (?) and Shimizu Tonoinosuke (?), in the Play Soga Moyo Aigo no Wakamatsu (?), Performed at the Nakamura Theater (?) in the Third Month, 1769 (?)

This Katsukawa Shunsho print, dated to around 1764 and tentatively associated with the play Soga Moyo Aigo no Wakamatsu performed at the Nakamura Theater, pairs Arashi Hinaji I as Princess Sakura with Ichikawa Komazo II as Shimizu Tonoinosuke. The composition presents the two actors in an interlocking arrangement, the female character on the right modeled with the soft contours and elaborately knotted obi that distinguish onnagata roles, while the male warrior on the left strikes a more rigid silhouette in patterned formal dress. The Soga theme, drawn from the medieval revenge tale of the Soga brothers, supplied generations of Edo kabuki playwrights with reliable material and remained a staple of New Year programming. Shunsho's depiction shows how the Katsukawa school extended its innovations beyond solo actor portraiture into more complex two-figure scenes, preserving individualized likenesses while orchestrating dramatic interaction. The Edo ukiyo-e printmaking tradition relied on works of this kind to extend the life of a kabuki performance beyond its short theatrical run, and prints like this functioned both as fan memorabilia and as marketing for the actors' troupes. The Art Institute of Chicago retains this impression, where careful registration of the limited color palette typical of the 1760s remains visible. The work documents the cross-fertilization of literary tradition and contemporary stage practice that defined the yakusha-e genre under Shunsho's leadership of the Katsukawa school.