Actors Segawa Kikunojō I and Ichimura Uzaemon VII

Held in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, this Edo-period woodblock print depicts two leading Kabuki actors of the mid-eighteenth century in a paired composition: Segawa Kikunojō I (1693-1749), the foremost female-role specialist (onnagata) of his generation, and Ichimura Uzaemon VII, the head of the Ichimura theatrical lineage and an actor of male roles. The pairing reflects the standard Edo Kabuki practice of contrasting male and female lead performers within a single dramatic production, and prints of this kind functioned as commemorative posters that allowed audiences to identify and remember the celebrated cast combinations of the season's productions. Yoshinobu's composition arranges the two actors in a balanced confrontation that documents both the elaborate costuming of the onnagata role and the more restrained presentation of the male lead, with the actors' specific role identities legible to contemporary viewers through subtle visual cues in costume, hairstyle, and gesture. Working in the hand-colored mode that characterized mid-eighteenth-century Edo printmaking before the full establishment of multi-block color printing, Yoshinobu demonstrates the kind of refined draftsmanship that earned him a steady presence in the actor-print market of the 1740s and 1750s. The MFA Boston example, drawn from one of the most significant Western collections of Japanese prints, contributes to the documentary record of Segawa Kikunojō I's late career and Yoshinobu's specialization in paired actor compositions.