The Actors Sawamura Sojuro II as the Priest Shunkan and Azuma Tozo II as Oyasu in Act Three of the Play Hime Komatsu Ne no Hi Asobi (Outing to Pick Pine Seedlings on the Rat-Day of the New Year), Performed at the Ichimura Theater from the Ninth Day of the Ninth Month, 1768

Documented through ukiyo-e.org from the Art Institute of Chicago, this Katsukawa Shunsho yakusha-e brings together Sawamura Sojuro II as the priest Shunkan and Azuma Tozo II as Oyasu in Act Three of Hime Komatsu Ne no Hi Asobi (Outing to Pick Pine Seedlings on the Rat-Day of the New Year), performed at the Ichimura Theater from the ninth day of the Ninth Month, 1768. The Shunkan story — a Heian-era priest exiled to a remote island for conspiracy against the Taira clan — was a recurring source of pathos in kabuki and bunraku, and Sojuro II was renowned for tachiyaku roles that demanded emotional restraint. Pairing him with Azuma Tozo II as the female character Oyasu lets Shunsho exploit a dramatic contrast familiar to Edo ukiyo-e viewers: the gaunt austerity of the exiled priest set against the bright pattern and softer line of an onnagata. As founder of the Katsukawa school, Shunsho gives both actors individuated facial features rather than the generic types that older Torii-style yakusha-e had imposed. The composition arranges the figures across the sheet against a clean ground, the two robes overlapping just enough to bind them. The September 1768 date places the print near the start of Shunsho's mature yakusha-e period, when the Katsukawa school was rapidly establishing the standard for portrait-based actor prints in the Edo market.