Act VI (Dai rokudanme): Actors Bandō Hikosaburō as Hayano Kanpei and Sawamura Tanosuke as His Wife Okaru, from the series The Storehouse of Loyal Retainers, a Primer (Kanadehon chūshingura)

A color ōban woodblock print of 1862 in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, this Act VI (Dai rokudanme) print pictures Bandō Hikosaburō V as Hayano Kanpei and Sawamura Tanosuke as his wife Okaru in the celebrated sixth act of The Storehouse of Loyal Retainers (Kanadehon chūshingura). Act VI — the so-called "Kanpei harakiri" or "Yamazaki suicide" act — is one of the emotional centerpieces of the entire play: Kanpei, a young retainer who has failed in his duty during the original Act IV insult sequence, has retreated to a village to live with his wife Okaru's family. Through a tragic compounding of misunderstandings he is led to believe he has accidentally killed his father-in-law and is barred from rejoining the rōnin vendetta; he commits ritual suicide on stage, learning the truth only at the moment of his death. The role of Kanpei — combining the romantic young hero, the disgraced retainer, and the suicidal protagonist — was a celebrated specialty of Hikosaburō V, and the role of Okaru (his wife, who has been sold into the Gion pleasure quarter to support her family) was one of the great onnagata showpieces of the Edo stage. Kuniaki II's composition pictures the husband-and-wife pairing at one of the dramatically charged moments of the act, following Utagawa-school conventions for the two-figure actor print.