Arashi Rikan II as Inuzuka Shino Moritaka and Nakamura Utaemon III as Inukai Kenpachi Michinobu Battling (from the series The Eight Heroes of the Satomi Clan)

This 1834 Osaka kamigata-e [diptych](/glossary/diptych) by Ryūsai Shigeharu, held by the Cleveland Museum of Art (accession 1975.69), depicts the actors Arashi Rikan II as Inuzuka Shino Moritaka and Nakamura Utaemon III as Inukai Kenpachi Michinobu in a celebrated rooftop battle scene from the kabuki adaptation of Nansō Satomi Hakkenden (The Eight Heroes of the Satomi Clan). Bakin's monumental novel — published serially between 1814 and 1842 — recast eight virtuous warriors of the medieval Satomi clan as eight reincarnated dog-knights whose collective destiny is to restore the clan's fortunes, and the kabuki adaptations of the 1830s drew on the most dramatic moments in the saga, including the rooftop confrontation between Inuzuka Shino and Inukai Kenpachi that ends with their recognition as fellow Hakkenshi. The pairing of Rikan II and Utaemon III — the two dominant Osaka tachiyaku of the early Tenpō period — gives the print its documentary value as a record of the 1834 Osaka production. The print measures the standard vertical ōban diptych format as a color woodblock print on paper, preserved at the Cleveland Museum of Art (accession 1975.69, with sub-numbered impressions 1975.69.a and 1975.69.b for the left and right sheets) as part of the museum's 1975 Osaka kamigata-e acquisition alongside its Hokushū holdings (1975.66, 1975.67, 1975.68).