Yamatoya Iwai Hanshiro IV as Kikusui in the play "Matsuwa Misao Onna Kusunoki," from the series "Portraits of Actors on Stage (Yakusha butai no sugata-e)"

Utagawa Toyokuni I's "Yamatoya: Iwai Hanshirō IV as Kikusui in the play Matsuwa Misao Onna Kusunoki," part of his celebrated series "Portraits of Actors on Stage (Yakusha Butai no Sugata-e)," pairs a major Edo onnagata with a substantial dramatic role. The Art Institute of Chicago holds the print, in which Iwai Hanshirō IV — guild name Yamatoya — performs Kikusui in a play whose title alludes to the legendary loyalty of the Kusunoki samurai family. The Yakusha Butai no Sugata-e series helped establish a new template for kabuki actor prints: each design identified the actor by guild name (yagō), the role within the play, and the play itself, treating the print as both portrait and theatrical record. Utagawa Toyokuni, founding figure of the Utagawa school's later dominance of [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e) in Edo [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e), here uses his characteristic combination of legible likeness and stylized costume to anchor the print in the moment of performance. The robe's patterning, the slight forward inclination of the body, and the cartouches together construct an image that worked simultaneously as souvenir for theatergoers and as introduction for those who had not yet attended. The Art Institute of Chicago's online catalogue documents the work without speculation, allowing the print itself to convey the depth of its theatrical embedding. For collectors of Edo ukiyo-e and Utagawa school yakusha-e, the Yamatoya Iwai Hanshirō IV sheet is an essential reference for Toyokuni's most influential series.