The Actors Sanogawa Ichimatsu (right), Ichikawa Ebizo I (center) and Onoe Kikugoro I (left)

An uncut [hosoban](/glossary/hosoban) [triptych](/glossary/triptych) in benizuri-e by Torii Kiyohiro of around 1753, showing three actors of mid-eighteenth-century Edo kabuki - Sanogawa Ichimatsu on the right, Ichikawa Ebizo I in the centre, and Onoe Kikugoro I on the left - on three narrow vertical sheets printed together on a single piece of paper rather than separated into discrete prints. The uncut triptych was a flexible solution for designers who wanted to compose a wider horizontal field while preserving the single-sheet economics of distribution: three hosoban-sized figures could be developed across the larger sheet, with the visual rhythm of the composition running continuously across the gutters rather than being broken into three independent prints. Sanogawa Ichimatsu I supplied the term ichimatsu-moyo, the checkerboard pattern that became iconic in Japanese textile design after he wore checkered hakama on stage. Ichikawa Ebizo I was an early bearer of the Ebizo name that was used by senior actors in the Ichikawa lineage. Onoe Kikugoro I founded the Onoe family lineage that would dominate Edo kabuki into the nineteenth century. The composite portrait thus assembles three of the dynastic founders of mid-eighteenth-century Edo theatre on a single sheet. Held at the Art Institute of Chicago.