This woodblock print by Torii Kiyonaga depicts a scene from the kabuki play Tsumoru Koi Yuki no Seki no To, performed at the Kiri Theater in the eleventh month of 1784. The composition shows three principal actors: Ichikawa Monnosuke II as Munesada, Segawa Kikunojo III as the courtesan Sumizome, and Nakamura Nakazo I as Sekibei, a barrier guard whose secret identity is central to the play's plot. The impression is held by the Art Institute of Chicago. Tsumoru Koi Yuki no Seki no To, a tokiwazu-accompanied dance drama set against a snowy mountain pass, was among the most demanding multi-role works in the kabuki repertory, and the casting of three leading actors gave Kiyonaga, as head of the Torii school, the opportunity to design a complex triple-portrait actor print. Each figure is rendered with attention to specific likeness and the costume conventions appropriate to the role, with Kikunojo III's onnagata regalia balancing the masculine bearing of Monnosuke II and Nakazo I. Kiyonaga's compositional control allows the three figures to occupy the sheet without crowding, their postures coordinated to suggest the narrative tension at the center of the drama. The Art Institute of Chicago documents this impression among its actor-print holdings by Kiyonaga, where it represents the workshop's ongoing tradition of [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e) even as Kiyonaga was transforming Edo [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga) in the same years. The print testifies to the breadth of his practice and to the technical demands of triple-actor compositions within Torii school graphic discipline.
c. 1782
Color woodblock print; chuban
c. 1787
Color woodblock print; center and right sheets of oban triptych
c. 1786
Color woodblock print; koban
c. 1787
Color woodblock print; oban triptych
The Actors Ichikawa Monnosuke II as Munesada, Segawa Kikunojo III as the courtesan Sumizome, and Nakamura Nakazo I as Sekibei, in the play "Tsumoru Koi Yuki no Seki no To," performed at the Kiri Theater in the eleventh month, 1784 was created by Torii Kiyonaga (鳥居清長) in 1784.
The Actors Ichikawa Monnosuke II as Munesada, Segawa Kikunojo III as the courtesan Sumizome, and Nakamura Nakazo I as Sekibei, in the play "Tsumoru Koi Yuki no Seki no To," performed at the Kiri Theater in the eleventh month, 1784 depicts sumo.
