Actor Nakamura Utaemon IV as the Boatman Matsuemon, actually Higuchi Jiro Kanemitsu (Sendo Matsuemon, jissha Higuchi Jiro Kanemitsu)

Designed by Utagawa Kunisada in 1849, by which time he had already taken the Toyokuni III name, this Art Institute of Chicago portrait shows Nakamura Utaemon IV in one of the disguise roles fundamental to late Edo kabuki: the boatman Matsuemon, actually the warrior Higuchi Jiro Kanemitsu in concealment. The Heike-cycle plot in which Higuchi takes refuge among ordinary boatmen made the role a perennial test for senior actors, and Utaemon IV's interpretation, with its swing from broad commoner manner to samurai resolution, was among his most admired. Kunisada captures the actor mid-transformation, dressed in the working boatman's plain garments but holding himself with a posture that signals the warrior beneath. The print belongs to the high yakusha-e tradition of Edo ukiyo-e, in which an exact nigao face and a precisely cut role-name cartouche together documented a performance for fans who might never have seen it on stage. As Toyokuni III, Kunisada was the dominant designer of such records, and the Art Institute's documentation preserves the publisher data essential for situating the impression within the busy 1849 theatrical season. The careful printed gradation in the background, sometimes used to evoke water or evening light, supplies just enough atmosphere to set the figure within a believable theatrical world without diluting attention on the face.