Scene of a Kabuki Performance (triptych)

This 1876 color woodblock [triptych](/glossary/triptych) in the ōban format is a representative example of Morikawa Chikashige's core production during the early years of his career: a three-sheet horizontal kabuki tableau staging a full theatrical scene with multiple named actors arrayed across the three connected sheets. The triptych dates from the middle of the 1870s, the decade in which Chikashige established himself as a productive [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e) designer in the Tokyo print market alongside his teacher Toyohara Kunichika. The composition stages a moment from a kabuki production, with the principal actors in the costume and posture of identified roles, brilliant aniline-dye colors saturating the costumes and stage drapery, and the elaborate architectural and decorative backgrounds typical of mid-Meiji kabuki print design. The signature 守川周重 (Morikawa Chikashige) is legible on the print. Triptychs of this kind were the central commercial vehicle for the early Meiji actor-print trade, sold as souvenirs of specific productions at the Shintomi-za, Ichimura-za, and other Tokyo kabuki houses, and Chikashige produced well over one hundred such triptychs across the years of his active career. The print is recorded on [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e).org and is a representative example of his 1876 output.