The Actors Nakamura Utaemon I as the Old Hag Karashi Baba, Wife of Sanshodayu, and Yoshizawa Sakinosuke III as Shirotae, Wife of Sano Genzaemon, in a Scene from Part Two of the Play Kawaranu Hanasakae Hachi no Ki (The Ever-Blooming Potted Tree), Performed at the Nakamura Theater from the First Day of the Eleventh Month, 1769

Documented through ukiyo-e.org from the Art Institute of Chicago, this Katsukawa Shunsho yakusha-e pairs Nakamura Utaemon I as the Old Hag Karashi Baba, wife of Sansho-dayu, with Yoshizawa Sakinosuke III as Shirotae, wife of Sano Genzaemon, in a scene from Part Two of Kawaranu Hanasakae Hachi no Ki (The Ever-Blooming Potted Tree), performed at the Nakamura Theater from the first day of the Eleventh Month, 1769. The play draws on the noh classic Hachi no Ki and its tale of a poor samurai sacrificing his prized dwarf trees to host an incognito visitor. Shunsho's print foregrounds two women on opposite sides of the moral world of the play: Karashi Baba, the cruel hag tied to the Sansho-dayu legend of child trafficking, and Shirotae, the loyal samurai wife. The two-figure composition lets Shunsho exploit contrast — old age versus elegant maturity, harsh costume versus refined kimono — within the disciplined Katsukawa school formula of foregrounding actors against neutral grounds. As a kaomise production, the play was the theater's flagship offering for the new theatrical year, and prints like this one helped Edo ukiyo-e fans identify who would be playing which roles. Shunsho's individuating draftsmanship makes both actors recognizable beyond their costumes, a hallmark of the Katsukawa school approach that distinguished his work from earlier, more typological actor prints.