The actors Iwai Hanshiro VI, Ichikawa Danjuro VIII as Kintoki, and Ichikawa Ebizo V as the woodcutter Nekko no Yokizo

Issued in 1833 and held at the Art Institute of Chicago (artwork 81506), this Utagawa Kunisada print assembles three stars of the Edo stage: Iwai Hanshirō VI, Ichikawa Danjūrō VIII as Kintoki, and Ichikawa Ebizō V (the former Danjūrō VII, who had relinquished the name to his son) as the woodcutter Nekko no Yokizō. Kintoki - the childhood name of Sakata no Kintoki, one of Minamoto no Yorimitsu's four warriors - was a staple aragoto role associated with the Ichikawa line, and the print marks the elder Ebizō's continued presence on the Edo stage as he watched his son ascend in the Danjūrō name. Kunisada uses the multi-figure composition to register the layered family politics of the Ichikawa house, a topic Edo theater fans followed obsessively. The Art Institute's impression sits within the museum's substantial run of 1830s Kunisada yakusha-e. As Edo ukiyo-e, the work belongs to the dense documentary register that Kunisada maintained around the Ichikawa actors - a serialized visual journalism that mapped the careers, name-changes, and joint billings of Edo's most prestigious theatrical dynasty.