The Actors Ichikawa Ebizo II as Mushanosuke, Segawa Kikunojo I as Ochiyo, and Matsushima Kichisaburo as Ochiyo's spirit in the play "Higashiyama Gojitsu Yaoya Hanbei," performed at the Nakamura Theater in the eighth month, 1744

The Actors Ichikawa Ebizo II as Mushanosuke, Segawa Kikunojo I as Ochiyo, and Matsushima Kichisaburo as Ochiyo's spirit in the play Higashiyama Gojitsu Yaoya Hanbei, performed at the Nakamura Theater in the eighth month, 1744, documents a Nakamuraza summer production drawing on the Yaoya Hanbei shinjumono narrative tradition, with three actors taking the central roles within a supernatural dramatization that included the appearance of a spirit double for the female lead. Ichikawa Ebizo II, who had succeeded the Ichikawa Danjuro II name and would in time become Ichikawa Danjuro III, took the role of Mushanosuke; Segawa Kikunojo I, the leading onnagata of his generation, appeared as Ochiyo, with Matsushima Kichisaburo doubling the role through the spirit-figure convention that Edo kabuki used for moments of supernatural revelation. The Higashiyama Gojitsu Yaoya Hanbei adapts the shinju narrative of the greengrocer Hanbei and his lover Ochiyo, whose double-suicide pact entered the Edo dramatic repertoire from ningyo joruri sources and underwent numerous kabuki variants. Torii Kiyonobu I, founder of the Torii school of yakusha-e, draws the three standing figures in the disciplined bold contour he had codified for sumizuri-e production, with the line distinguishing male and female roles through subtle adjustments of contour and stance against the lightly inked ground. The hosoban or wide-bordered tate-e format frames the figures with patterned costume motifs supplying the principal visual interest. As founder of the Torii yakusha-e tradition, Kiyonobu produced such commemorative multi-figure portraits in direct service to the kabuki houses, the print serving as both performance souvenir and ongoing publicity for the actors and the production. The Art Institute of Chicago preserves this impression (source_url https://www.artic.edu/artworks/19278) as a record of the 1744 Nakamuraza summer production in the founding Torii hand.