The actor Fujikawa Tomokichi II as Okaru, wife of Kanpei

This [oban](/glossary/oban) color woodblock print ([nishiki-e](/glossary/nishiki-e)), held by the Art Institute of Chicago (reference 32964, Frederick W. Gookin Collection), depicts the kabuki actor Fujikawa Tomokichi II in the role of Okaru, wife of Kanpei, one of the most celebrated female characters in the perennially popular play Kanadehon Chushingura — the dramatized account of the Forty-Seven Ronin and their long-meditated revenge for the death of their lord. The Okaru role is one of the great onnagata vehicles in the kabuki repertoire: Okaru is the loyal and tragic wife of Hayano Kanpei, a low-ranking member of the disgraced retinue who eventually rejoins the vendetta at the cost of his life. Fujikawa Tomokichi II (active in the first half of the nineteenth century) was a well-known onnagata of the Edo stage, and Kuniyasu's print belongs to the steady stream of [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e) produced in support of Chushingura productions throughout the Edo period. The sheet, at 34.2 by 22 cm, is in the standard oban format used for single-actor portraits and entered the Art Institute through the Frederick W. Gookin Collection. It is a representative example of Kuniyasu's actor-portrait practice and of the close commercial relationship between Edo print designers and the kabuki theatres of the Bunka-Bunsei decades.