Actor Nakamura Shi bajaku in one of his Seven Quick (costume) Changes

Actor Nakamura Shibajaku in one of his Seven Quick (costume) Changes is an undated woodblock print by Utagawa Kunisada documenting one of the most theatrically demanding feats of the late Edo kabuki stage. The hayagawari, or quick costume change, was a virtuoso device in which a single actor played multiple roles within one play and transformed between them in seconds, often by means of trick stagecraft. A 'seven changes' sequence (nanake) was the showpiece of such routines, and the print belongs squarely to yakusha-e, where the demand for fan-collected images of leading actors drove the commercial Edo ukiyo-e print market. Nakamura Shibajaku is one of the inherited stage names of the Nakamura line, and Kunisada — the dominant designer of actor portraits in his generation — would have known the actor's face and movement intimately. The composition isolates the figure against a flat or sparsely treated ground, with full attention on costume, posture and mie expression. Costume is the principal vehicle of identity in the hayagawari, so Kunisada renders the pattern of robe, sash and underrobe with the dense overprinting characteristic of his mature manner. The line is firm and decisive, the palette dominated by mineral reds, ochres and indigos against the white paper. The impression is preserved through ukiyo-e.org's aggregation of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria's holdings, and while the precise play and date have not been recorded with the digital image, the subject locates the sheet within the late Edo period when seven-changes performances were a regular feature of the Edo theatres.