The Actors Arashi Sangoro II as Minamoto no Yoritomo (right), Segawa Kikunojo II as Yuki Onna (center), and Ichimura Uzaemon IX as Kajiwara Genta no Kagetoki, in the Play Myoto-giku Izu no Kisewata, Performed at the Ichimura Theater in the Eleventh Month, 1770

Katsukawa Shunsho records a striking trio of actors from the 1770 Ichimura Theater production of Myoto-giku Izu no Kisewata: Arashi Sangoro II as Minamoto no Yoritomo, Segawa Kikunojo II as Yuki Onna, and Ichimura Uzaemon IX as Kajiwara Genta no Kagetoki. Held by the Art Institute of Chicago, the print exemplifies the multi-actor yakusha-e format that the Katsukawa school developed to convey the social dynamics of Kabuki performance. Yoritomo's regal authority, Yuki Onna's ethereal otherworldliness, and Kagetoki's tense warrior posture are arrayed across the sheet so that costume, hairstyle, and stance distinguish each figure's status and emotional register. Segawa Kikunojo II was one of the most admired onnagata of the era, and Shunsho gives his Yuki Onna a luminous central presence that mediates between the two male leads. The play drew on legendary material from the Kamakura era, and the print's iconography would have been instantly legible to Edo audiences who attended performances at the Ichimura. Within the long history of Edo ukiyo-e, this kind of group yakusha-e represents a major innovation of the Katsukawa school: Shunsho treats the page as a stage, balancing likeness portraiture, narrative reference, and decorative design. The sheet survives as both an art object and a documentary trace of how stars of the early 1770s shaped a single night of theater into shared cultural memory.