The Actor Sanogawa Ichimatsu I as Kumenosuke and Takinaka Hidematsu I as Oume, from "Sharing an Umbrella: A Triptych (Aigasa sanpukutsui)"

The Actor Sanogawa Ichimatsu I as Kumenosuke and Takinaka Hidematsu I as Oume, from Sharing an Umbrella: A Triptych (Aigasa sanpukutsui), dated to the early 1740s, presents one sheet of a three-print compositional set drawn around the romantic aigasa or shared-umbrella convention that Edo popular culture cultivated as a signature emblem of lovers' intimacy. Sanogawa Ichimatsu I, the celebrated wakashugata whose name would attach to the famous checkered ichimatsu textile pattern, rose to prominence in the late 1730s and early 1740s as one of the most fashionable young-man-role actors of the Edo stage; Takinaka Hidematsu I worked as an onnagata in the same cohort, his career intersecting with Ichimatsu's across numerous shared productions. The role pairing of Kumenosuke and Oume belongs to the romantic-couple repertoire that gave both actors their characteristic vehicle. The sanpukutsui or triptych format allowed the Torii workshop to extend the dual-portrait composition across three sheets, the related figures distributed in a manner that retained legibility either as separate prints or as a unified set. Torii Kiyonobu I, founder of the Torii school of yakusha-e, draws the standing figures in the disciplined bold contour he had codified for sumizuri-e production, with the line distinguishing the male and female roles through subtle adjustments of contour and stance. The hosoban or wide-bordered tate-e format concentrates attention on the long ornamental verticals of the figures, with patterned costume motifs supplying the principal visual interest against the lightly inked ground. As founder of the Torii yakusha-e tradition, Kiyonobu produced such commemorative portraits in direct service to the kabuki houses. The Art Institute of Chicago preserves this impression (source_url https://www.artic.edu/artworks/22844) as a record of the Ichimatsu-Hidematsu romantic dual portrait in the founding Torii hand.