The actor Seki Sanjuro II as Stuttering Matahei (Domo no Matahei)

This 1826 color woodblock print by Utagawa Kunisada depicts the actor Seki Sanjuro II in the role of Stuttering Matahei (Domo no Matahei), the famous protagonist of the kabuki play "Keisei Hangonko" (which contains the celebrated Domo no Matahei scene). The print is the left sheet of an oban diptych (its right companion is also in the Art Institute of Chicago collection) and is held in the Art Institute of Chicago. Domo no Matahei is one of the great character roles of the kabuki repertoire: Matahei is a stuttering painter who, despite his speech disability, expresses himself with such force through his art that his painted self-portrait miraculously emerges from a stone basin, leading to his recognition and ascension. The role demands extraordinary acting skill, since the stuttering must be conveyed sympathetically rather than comically, and the climactic miracle requires precise stage business. Seki Sanjuro II was a respected tachiyaku of the Bunsei period. As a diptych left-sheet, this print would have been designed in coordination with the right sheet (likely showing another character in the scene, perhaps Matahei's wife Otoku or his master Tosa Mitsuoki). Kunisada's design captures Matahei in the heightened emotional intensity of the role, with the actor's facial likeness, period costume, and the stone basin or painter's tools possibly visible as iconographic markers. The Art Institute of Chicago's possession of both diptych sheets allows the work to be studied as the publisher intended.