The actors Bando Shuka I as a Tea Picker (Chatsumi), Ichimura Uzaemon XII as a Monkey Trainer (Sarumawashi), and Onoe Kikugoro II as Umegae (inset)

This 1842 actor print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi presents Bando Shuka I as a Tea Picker (Chatsumi), Ichimura Uzaemon XII as a Monkey Trainer (Sarumawashi), and Onoe Kikugoro II as Umegae in an inset format. The composition gathers three discrete characters into a single sheet, displaying the variety of roles available to leading actors of the Edo kabuki stage. The tea picker is a seasonal occupational figure tied to early summer, the monkey trainer a popular street entertainer whose performances served as good-luck offerings, and Umegae a famous female character associated with the medieval narrative of Kajiwara Genta Kagesue from the play Hiragana Seisuiki. Onnagata specialist Bando Shuka I and the actor Onoe Kikugoro II handle the female roles, while Ichimura Uzaemon XII takes the rougher monkey-trainer part. Kuniyoshi, although celebrated above all for warrior prints (musha-e), worked extensively on actor prints (yakusha-e), and this multi-figure design displays his ease with composite formats. The 1842 date places the print within the Tenpo Reforms period, when official restrictions on naming actors prompted designers to rely on character types, indirect references, and ambiguous compositions. As Edo ukiyo-e, the print employs nishiki-e color woodblock techniques to differentiate the three vignettes through costume, prop, and ground pattern. This impression is preserved in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.