Actor Bando Shuka I as Jujibei's Wife Ohaya (Jujibei nyobo Ohaya)

Utagawa Kunisada designed this 1843 portrait of the onnagata actor Bando Shuka I as Jujibei's wife Ohaya, Jujibei nyobo Ohaya, a role from the female-warrior and devoted-wife repertoire that Shuka I made his specialty. The print is part of the Art Institute of Chicago's Kunisada holdings and exemplifies the early 1840s phase of the artist's yakusha-e, just before he adopted the name Toyokuni III in 1844. Shuka I was among the leading onnagata of his generation, and Kunisada captures the actor's delicately squared jaw and characteristic mouth with the same nigao likeness he gave male roles, complicating the simple division between bijinga and actor portraiture. The costume here is elaborately patterned, with overlapping textiles that allow the printers' team to demonstrate the registration precision and color sequencing that Edo ukiyo-e workshops had developed to a high art. Ohaya is a role of tested loyalty, and Kunisada lets that emotional charge register through pose rather than expression, with the figure leaning slightly forward as if interrupted mid-gesture. The Tempo reforms of 1842 to 1843 reshaped what kabuki prints could explicitly name, and the title format here, citing the role rather than the actor's name alone, reflects the new conventions. The Art Institute's catalogue documents the print's date and source clearly, anchoring it within Kunisada's most productive decade.