The actor Ichikawa Danjuro VII as I no Hayata

This is the left sheet of a shikishiban triptych surimono of about 1820 by Utagawa Kunisada, showing the actor Ichikawa Danjuro VII in the role of I no Hayata, the retainer of Minamoto no Yorimasa who in legend delivered the killing blow to the nue, the chimerical monster slain in the imperial palace. The print is in the Art Institute of Chicago, paired with the companion sheets of Bando Mitsugoro III as Yorimasa (right) and Segawa Kikunojo V as Ayame no Mae (center). Ichikawa Danjuro VII (1791-1859) was the dominant tachiyaku (leading male) actor of his generation and head of the Ichikawa lineage, the most powerful and influential of all kabuki acting families. He was the patron of Kunisada's career as much as Kunisada was his publicist, and the two collaborated on countless prints across roughly four decades. Here Danjuro VII assumes the warrior retainer's role with characteristic intensity, holding the weapon that finishes the nue. Surimono prints of this kind, privately commissioned for poetry circles, used luxurious effects including metallic pigments and embossing that elevated even small-format sheets to objects of refined connoisseurship. Kunisada's design economy in such pieces, achieved in the small shikishiban format and within the limits of a single figure per sheet, contrasts with the more expansive theatrical triptychs he was producing for commercial publishers. The Art Institute of Chicago's example preserves the print as part of an intact set.