The Actor Segawa Kikunojō III as Wappa no Kikuō in a Woman’s “Asahina Armor Pulling” (Asahina no kusazuri-biki) Scene

Description

In Segawa Kikunojō III as Wappa no Kikuō, Katsukawa Shunshō expands the female role through an enormous pink robe marked with a circular crest. The actor bends into a broad-legged stance, while a long slender object rises toward the upper left. The minimal setting makes the costume’s spread and the body’s angle dominant, giving this panel an emphatic theatrical force.

Dated to the first month of 1780, the work is the left sheet of a diptych of ink-and-color woodblock prints. This panel represents one portion of a paired composition, so the full exchange extends beyond its boundaries. Shunshō preserves the role within that larger arrangement. The print’s interest lies in a particular actor becoming a character within a shared action, with the image’s partial format kept distinct from the complete scene.

Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Katsukawa Shunshō collection.