Actor Ichikawa Danjūrō IX as Hanako, a Shirabyoshi (female dancer) from the Kabuki play Kyōkanoko Musume Dōjōji (Kabuki-za Theatre)

Toyohara Kunichika (1835–1900; born in Kyōbashi, Edo) first studied with Toyohara Chikanobu and later entered the studio of Utagawa Toyokuni III (Kunisada) (1786-1865). Even as the Meiji period brought rapid social change and an influx of Western culture, he continued to work within the late-Edo idiom of actor prints. Over the course of the nineteenth century, actor portrait formats had shifted from full-length figures to half-length images and, ultimately, to ōkubi-e (large-head portraits). Whereas Kunisada and earlier Utagawa masters often designed triptychs in which each sheet presented an independent figure, Kunichika adopted a different approach: he created horizontal triptychs that combine three sheets into a single, monumental bust portrait of one actor, heightening stage presence on paper.

This work depicts Ichikawa Danjūrō IX in Kyōkanoko Musume Dōjōji, performed at the Kabuki-za in 1890. Danjūrō IX—renowned for his popularity, skill, and accomplishments—was honored with the epithet “gekisei” (“saint of the theater”) and is still remembered in kabuki history simply as “the Ninth.” Kunichika’s large-scale bust format here conveys a force commensurate with the actor’s stature.