The actor Ichikawa Hakuen as Akushichibyoe Kagekiyo in the play "Hatsumonbi Yosooi Soga," performed at the Kawarazaki Theater in the first month, 1802

This 1802 print by Utagawa Toyokuni records a New Year's kabuki production at the Kawarazaki Theater, in which the actor Ichikawa Hakuen took the role of Akushichibyoe Kagekiyo, the implacable Taira warrior whose name and image were familiar to every Edo audience. The play, "Hatsumonbi Yosooi Soga," belongs to the family of Soga vendetta dramas, but it adapts the broader Genpei mythology by incorporating the figure of Kagekiyo, the Taira retainer who in legend sought relentless revenge against the Minamoto and ultimately destroyed his own eyes rather than look upon his enemy. Toyokuni's yakusha-e captures the moment in which the role's psychological intensity is concentrated in the body of the performer.

Hakuen, a stage name carried by members of the Ichikawa Danjuro line, is rendered with the heavy line and slightly exaggerated features that signal the aragoto, or rough style, associated with the Ichikawa family. The print shows the actor in a forceful pose, his costume layered with the bold patterns and family crest expected of an Edo kabuki star. As the leading designer of actor prints in early-nineteenth-century Edo ukiyo-e, Toyokuni used his Utagawa-school training to keep the figure legible and dramatic even when reduced to a single sheet.

The Art Institute of Chicago holds the print as part of its documentation of Edo theatrical life. The detailed inscription identifying the play, month, and theater makes the sheet valuable to historians of kabuki who track specific casts and productions. As a souvenir for theatergoers, the print also belonged to a thriving commercial culture in which the boundary between stage and street was constantly traversed by image-making.