Actor Segawa Kikunojō I as a Shirabyoshi from the Kabuki play Momochidori Musume Dōjōji (Utsushi — after Katsukawa Shuntei, Hana no Edo Kabuki Nendaiki, 1811).

Kiyokata Kaburaki (1878–1972; born in Kanda, Tokyo) was the son of the writer Saigiku Jōno, a co-founder of the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun (now Mainichi Shimbun), Kiyokata took his mother’s family name. At thirteen he entered the studio of Mizuno Toshikata (a pupil of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi) to train as an illustrator; by around 1900 he was firmly established in that field before turning to painting. In modern Nihonga he is widely esteemed alongside Shōen Uemura; among his notable pupils was Shinsui Itō. Owing in part to his father’s involvement with kabuki libretti and criticism, and to Toshikata’s ties to the Utagawa lineage, Kiyokata treated kabuki subjects throughout his career—contributing illustrations to the magazine Kabuki and, later, repeatedly depicting celebrated dance pieces such as Kyōkanoko Musume Dōjōji, Sagi Musume, and Fuji Musume.

This woodblock print represents Momochidori Musume Dōjōji as performed in 1744 by Segawa Kikunojō I, a precursor to the 1753 Kyōkanoko Musume Dōjōji first danced by Nakamura Tomijūrō I. Created as an illustration for a scholarly book on Edo-period nagauta, it closely follows—deliberately as an utsushi—Katsukawa Shuntei’s image published in Hana Edo Kabuki Nendaiki (1811). In his later years Kiyokata identified Katsukawa Shunshō as a pinnacle of hand-painted bijinga; this work similarly signals his conscious engagement with the Katsukawa lineage.

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Image: © Kiyoo Nemoto, 2025 / JAA2400199.