Actors as Ushiwakamaru, Kisanta, Kiichi Hogen, and Minazuru-hime

Actors as Ushiwakamaru, Kisanta, Kiichi Hogen, and Minazuru-hime, dated 1842, is a kabuki actor print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi depicting a celebrated scene from the legendary boyhood of Minamoto no Yoshitsune. Ushiwakamaru is the childhood name of Yoshitsune, the doomed Genji hero whose feats fill The Tale of the Heike, while Kiichi Hogen is the keeper of the secret military treatise Yoshitsune seeks; Minazuru-hime is Kiichi's daughter, whose love for Ushiwakamaru becomes the vehicle by which the young hero gains access to the scroll. The narrative, dramatized repeatedly on the Edo stage, suits Kuniyoshi's combined fluency in warrior prints ([musha-e](/glossary/musha-e)) and actor prints ([yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e)), since the production carries the visual and dramatic weight of musha-e while requiring the conventions of yakusha-e to honor the specific performers. Kuniyoshi treats each figure with attention to the actor's known features and to the costuming that signals the role. As Edo [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) of the Tenpo era, the print falls within a period when Kuniyoshi was navigating the restrictions of the Tenpo Reforms by drawing on legendary and historical subjects. The color woodblock impression employs the layered [nishiki-e](/glossary/nishiki-e) palette and figural conventions of mid-century Utagawa-school design. This print is preserved in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, where it offers a record of both Kuniyoshi's draftsmanship and the lively kabuki culture of Edo.