The Actors Segawa Kikunojo III as Koito, Sawamura Sojuro III as the monk Sainenbo, and Ichikawa Monnosuke II as the monk Renseibo, in the shosa "Mata Saku Hana Museume Dojoji," performed at the Nakamura Theater in the fourth month, 1783

Held in the Art Institute of Chicago, this Torii Kiyonaga print documents the dance piece (shosa) Mata Saku Hana Musume Dojoji, performed at the Nakamura Theater in the fourth month of 1783, with Segawa Kikunojo III as Koito, Sawamura Sojuro III as the monk Sainenbo, and Ichikawa Monnosuke II as the monk Renseibo. The work belongs to the great Dojoji line of dance dramas based on the legend of a young woman whose obsessive love transforms her into a serpent and destroys the bell of Dojoji temple; the Musume Dojoji variants gave star female-role actors such as Kikunojo III the chance to perform the celebrated bell sequence. Kiyonaga, as fourth-generation head of the Torii school, here continues the workshop's century-old role of producing actor prints and theater advertising, treating the trio in his refined Edo bijin-ga manner—tall, elegantly proportioned bodies with restrained gesture and crisp contour. Kikunojo's onnagata figure, in particular, is rendered with the long sleeves and patterned robe associated with the Dojoji dance, while the two monk roles are differentiated by costume and posture rather than by exaggerated physiognomy. By naming actors, roles, theater, and month, the impression supports the documentary value that scholars rely on for reconstructing the Edo theatrical calendar of 1783. The print exemplifies Kiyonaga's ability to translate the Torii school's stage-poster tradition into the more naturalistic Tenmei-period image of the actor as fashionable figure.