The Actor Kawarazaki Gonjūrō I as Ude no Kisaburō, likened to Wu Song the Ascetic (Gyōja Bushō ni hisu), from the “Pine” triptych of the series A Modern Water Margin (Tōsei suikoden)

The Actor Kawarazaki Gonjuro I as Ude no Kisaburo, likened to Wu Song the Ascetic (Gyoja Busho ni hisu), from the Pine triptych of the series A Modern Water Margin (Tosei suikoden), is a 1854 yakusha-e by Utagawa Kunisada now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The print is a companion sheet to the Met's image of Ichikawa Ichizo III as Nozarashi Gosuke, and together they belong to the Pine division of an actor-as-Suikoden-hero series that Kunisada produced under his late signature Toyokuni III. Kawarazaki Gonjuro I, who later took the storied name Ichikawa Danjuro IX, is shown as the kabuki figure Ude no Kisaburo and simultaneously as Wu Song, the wandering monk and tiger-slayer of the Shuihu zhuan, called Busho the Ascetic in Japanese sources. The mitate framework was a Kunisada specialty: it flattered both the actor's stage stature and the literacy of the audience, who could enjoy the visual punning between Edo theater stardom and Ming Chinese vernacular fiction. The compositional approach is muscular and frontal, with the figure pressed forward against a patterned ground and the costume rendered in deep ai blue, vermilion, and key black. Kunisada's mature Edo ukiyo-e style emphasizes character physiognomy and costume textile detail, both of which the Met's impression preserves with strong color and crisp registration, making this sheet a representative example of mid-1850s Utagawa-school actor printing.