The actor Matsumoto Kinsho I as Igami no Gonta at Gontazaka, between Hodogaya and Totsuka, from the series "Tokaido"

Designed by Utagawa Kunisada under the Toyokuni III name in 1852, this Art Institute of Chicago sheet from a Tokaido series shows Matsumoto Kinsho I as Igami no Gonta, the conniving lowlife of the play Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura, set against the location Gontazaka between Hodogaya and Totsuka on the great Edo highway. The conceit is a punning mitate: Gontazaka, the place between two Tokaido post-stations, shares a syllable with Gonta, the role. By 1852 such Tokaido-actor pairings were a Kunisada specialty, joining his dominant yakusha-e practice with the landscape vogue Hiroshige had built into a market category. Kunisada gives Kinsho I the rough features and tilted hat appropriate to Igami no Gonta, while the small inset or background landscape vignette anchors the visual pun. As mature Toyokuni III work the print exhibits the late-Edo color density typical of the period, including the rich indigo and madder reds that had become standard in licensed ukiyo-e production. The Art Institute's catalogue preserves the series title and the post-station pairing, essential information for understanding how Kunisada built a Tokaido series around theatrical rather than purely topographical content. Within the wider Edo ukiyo-e ecosystem the sheet exemplifies the genre-hybrid prints that defined Kunisada's later career.