The Actor Kataoka Nizaemon in Ceremonial Robes of Green and Pink, Drawing His Sword

The Actor Kataoka Nizaemon in Ceremonial Robes of Green and Pink, Drawing His Sword, is a [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e) woodblock print by Utagawa Toyokuni in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, catalogued with a date of 1769 that corresponds to Toyokuni's birth year and serves as an institutional placeholder rather than a documented production year. The composition depicts the kabuki actor Kataoka Nizaemon, a major figure of the Kataoka acting line of late Edo and early Meiji, in formal stage costume of green and pink, drawing his sword in a dramatic gesture of confrontation. As the founding master of the Utagawa school's commercial dominance, Toyokuni built his reputation on yakusha-e of exactly this kind, capturing the moment of a stage mie in which the actor's pose, costume, and crest converge to crystallize character for the audience. The contrast between the soft, dyed colors of the ceremonial robes and the threatening gesture of the sword draw reflects the dramatic vocabulary of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century kabuki. The Metropolitan Museum of Art preserves the design as part of its substantial Utagawa-school holdings and provides the full descriptive title through its catalogue. Within the broader history of Edo [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) the print exemplifies how Toyokuni's studio synthesized the legacy of the Torii school's theatrical posters with a newly individualized approach to actor likeness, helping to make the Utagawa school the dominant voice of late Edo kabuki imagery.