The Actors Sawamura Sojuro II as the Chinese Sage Huangshi Gong (on horseback), and Ichikawa Danzo III as the Chinese Warrior Zhang Liang (mounted on a dragon), in the Finale of the Play Otokoyama Yunzei Kurabe (At Mt. Otoko, a Trial of Strength in Drawing the Bow), Performed at the Ichimura Theater from the First Day of the Eleventh Month, 1768

Documented through ukiyo-e.org from the Art Institute of Chicago, this Katsukawa Shunsho yakusha-e is a finale tableau showing Sawamura Sojuro II as the Chinese sage Huangshi Gong (Kosekiko, on horseback) and Ichikawa Danzo III as the Chinese warrior Zhang Liang (Cho Ryo, mounted on a dragon) in the closing scene of Otokoyama Yunzei Kurabe (At Mt. Otoko, a Trial of Strength in Drawing the Bow), performed at the Ichimura Theater from the first day of the Eleventh Month, 1768. The story of Huangshi Gong testing Zhang Liang — a classic episode from Chinese history that became a beloved Japanese folk parable about humility and persistence — gave Edo kabuki a chance to mount extravagant Chinese-style scenes with horses, dragons, and exotic costume. Shunsho, founder of the Katsukawa school and the leading practitioner of yakusha-e in Edo ukiyo-e, exploits the finale's flamboyance: a horse, a dragon, and two stars in foreign dress let him build a composition that crosses the limits of his usual single-figure portrait formula. Yet his commitment to individuated likeness remains: Sojuro II and Danzo III are recognizable beneath their Chinese-style robes. As a kaomise opening, the production carried unusual prestige, and the Katsukawa school's commemorative print preserves the magnificence of one of its most ambitious closing tableaux for an Edo print-buying public that valued such operatic moments above almost any other kabuki convention.