Actor Sawamura Tanosuke II as a Shirabyoshi (female dancer) and Actor Matsumoto Kōshirō V as a monk from the Kabuki play Sawamurasakikanoko Musume Dōjōji (Ichimura-za Theatre)

Kikukawa Eizan (1787–1867; born in Edo) was an ukiyo-e artist of the late Edo period who established the Kikukawa school, active contemporaneously with the Utagawa and Hokusai schools. He first studied under his father, who had been trained in the Kanō tradition, and later under Suzuki Nanrei of the Edo Maruyama school. Eizan was also associated with Utagawa Toyokuni and was influenced by both Katsushika Hokusai and Kitagawa Utamaro. By the age of around seventeen, he is thought to have become independent. His early works closely followed Utamaro’s style, reflecting the gap left by Utamaro’s sudden death, but he gradually developed a distinctive manner characterized by graceful, delicate depictions of women. His pupil Keisai Eisen later praised him as “a founder of the revival of bijinga (pictures of beauties), alongside Toyokuni and Shunsen.”

This print depicts Sawamura Tanosuke II (1788–1817) in the role of a shirabyōshi, with Matsumoto Kōshirō as a temple acolyte, from the play Sawamurasakikanoko Musume Dōjōji (c. 1810). The performance is regarded as belonging to the early period of Tanosuke II’s career, when, although he had not yet fully established his artistic maturity, his beauty commanded great admiration, particularly in the role of Musume Dōjōji, which brought him immense popularity. While most of Eizan’s works are bijinga, this actor print is a rare example in his oeuvre, demonstrating how his refined portrayal of soft, graceful femininity resonated with Tanosuke’s stage presence.