The Actor Ichikawa Ichizō III as Nozarashi Gosuke, likened to Shi Jin the Nine Dragoned (Kyūmonryū Shishin ni hisu), from the “Pine” triptych of the series A Modern Water Margin (Tōsei suikoden)

The Actor Ichikawa Ichizo III as Nozarashi Gosuke, likened to Shi Jin the Nine Dragoned (Kyumonryu Shishin ni hisu), from the Pine triptych of the series A Modern Water Margin (Tosei suikoden), was designed by Utagawa Kunisada in 1854 and is housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. By the early 1850s, Kunisada had taken the lineage name Toyokuni III, and his actor portraits had become the dominant brand of Edo ukiyo-e. This print exemplifies the mitate device beloved of Edo audiences: pairing a celebrated kabuki actor with a hero from a literary or historical source, here the Chinese vernacular novel Shuihu zhuan, known in Japan as Suikoden. Kunisada draws on the visual language of the warrior print to dress Ichikawa Ichizo III as Nozarashi Gosuke and, by overlay, as the tattooed Shi Jin, whose dragon tattoos earned him the epithet Kyumonryu, the Nine-Dragoned. The figure looms close to the picture plane, his musculature swelling under intricately patterned skin. The yakusha-e is structured as part of a Pine triptych, one of three sheets organized around the auspicious motif of pine, bamboo, and plum, a popular vehicle for publishing actor sets. Kunisada balances bold linework with the saturated reds and blacks of mid-Ansei era printing, while the actor's mon and the inset cartouche identify the actor and the role for fan-collectors. The Met's impression preserves the dense detail of late Edo polychrome printing at its technical peak.