The Actors Ichimura Uzaemon VIII as Oguri Hangan and Segawa Kikunojo I as Terute no Mae in the play "Mangetsu Oguri Yakata," performed at the Ichimura Theater in the eighth month, 1747

The Actors Ichimura Uzaemon VIII as Oguri Hangan and Segawa Kikunojo I as Terute no Mae in the play Mangetsu Oguri Yakata, performed at the Ichimura Theater in the eighth month, 1747, documents an autumn Ichimuraza production drawing on the celebrated Oguri Hangan narrative tradition, with the theater's actor-manager taking the title role opposite the leading onnagata of the era. Ichimura Uzaemon VIII, who inherited the Ichimuraza proprietorship alongside the actor name and whose career integrated the dual zamoto functions of management and performance, takes the role of Oguri Hangan, the medieval warrior whose narrative of poisoning, miraculous resurrection, and reunion with his lover Terute had migrated from sermon-tale and ningyo joruri sources into Edo kabuki. Segawa Kikunojo I, the leading onnagata of his generation and the actor who dominated Edo female-role performance through the 1730s and 1740s, appears as Terute no Mae, the devoted lover whose pilgrimage to restore her transformed beloved supplies the narrative's emotional drive. Torii Kiyonobu I, founder of the Torii school of [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e) and the artist whose Torii workshop produced the tsuji banzuke street posters for the Ichimuraza alongside its single-sheet actor portraits, draws the two 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](/glossary/hosoban) or wide-bordered tate-e format frames the paired figures, with patterned costume motifs supplying the principal visual interest against the lightly inked ground. The Mangetsu or full-moon framing of the eighth-month production anchors the play to the autumnal seasonal register that Edo theatergoers expected. The Art Institute of Chicago preserves this impression (source_url https://www.artic.edu/artworks/19260) as a record of the Oguri-Terute dual portrait at the height of 1740s Edo kabuki.