Kabuki Actor as the Ronin, Ataka Gengo Tadao

Kabuki Actor as the Ronin, Ataka Gengo Tadao by Utagawa Kunisada is a yakusha-e print depicting a kabuki actor in the role of one of the forty-seven rōnin, the masterless samurai whose 1703 revenge raid on Kira Yoshinaka became the basis for the play cycle Kanadehon Chūshingura. Ataka (more commonly written Akagaki) Gengo Tadao was among the loyal retainers of Lord Asano of Akō, and his role on the Edo stage was a vehicle for stoic, brushed-back masculinity. Kunisada, working in the central tradition of Edo ukiyo-e, made the actor portrait his lifelong specialty: a single half- or three-quarter-length figure framed against a flat ground, identified by costume crest and a name cartouche, sold to fans who collected new prints with every fresh production. By the time he was producing Chūshingura subjects in his mature period, Kunisada had absorbed the legacy of his teacher Toyokuni I and was himself signing as Toyokuni (a name typically referenced today as Toyokuni III). The figure here is shown in the dark robe associated with the rōnin's vendetta night, lending a stark contrast that suited Kunisada's design instincts. The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria preserves this impression (ukiyo-e.org image aggv/18176). The print is valuable as a record of how the most famous Edo loyalty narrative was repeatedly restaged for theater audiences and continually refreshed in print form across the nineteenth century.