The Actors Bando Hikosaburo II as Watanabe no Tsuna and Matsumoto Tomijuro as Hakamadare no Yasusuke in the play "Furitsumu Hana Nidai Genji," performed at the Ichimura Theater in the eleventh month, 1765

This 1765 hosoban benizuri-e color woodblock print, held by the Art Institute of Chicago, portrays the actors Bando Hikosaburo II as Watanabe no Tsuna and Matsumoto Tomijuro as Hakamadare no Yasusuke in the kabuki play Furitsumu Hana Nidai Genji, performed at the Ichimura Theater in the eleventh month of 1765. The eleventh-month productions (kaomise) were the kabuki year's opening events, when newly contracted casts were introduced to audiences in lavish historical dramas. Watanabe no Tsuna, one of the legendary Four Heavenly Kings serving the warrior Minamoto no Yorimitsu, and Hakamadare no Yasusuke, a famous bandit, were both stock heroic figures from medieval setsuwa literature. The benizuri-e technique combined a black key block with pink (beni) and green pigments and represents the immediate predecessor to fully developed nishiki-e brocade prints; though full polychrome printing had become available by this date, benizuri-e remained in use for actor prints into the mid-1760s. The hosoban (narrow) format was standard for kabuki actor portraits. Shigemasa's actor prints from this period draw on the Torii school template - the dominant style for theatrical prints - while introducing his characteristic refinement of line. The Art Institute of Chicago's impression preserves the original color palette and is an important record of Edo kabuki's mid-1760s cast.