Katamigusa Yotsuya kaidan (Ghost Story of the Yotsuya Road) at the Ichimura Theater

Full Title: "The Actors Ichikawa Kuzō III as Naosuke Gonbei Kataoka Gadō III as Tamiya Iemon, Onoe Kikugorō V as Yagashira Yomoshichi and Onoe Kikugorō V as Oiwa and Kobotoke Kōhei in the tale The Tōkaidō Yotsuya Kaidan (Tōkaidō Yotsuya ghost story)."

This theater print demonstrates the spectacular qualities of playwright Tsuruya Nanboku’s popular ghost plays. In act III of the play Katamigusa Yotsuya kaidan (also known as Tōkaidō Yotsuya kaidan), Oiwa’s corpse is shown nailed to one side of a wooden door. On the other side is the corpse of Kohei, a man with whom she was falsely accused of having an affair. Both Oiwa and Kohei were played by Kikugorō V. When Oiwa’s husband, Iemon, notices the door drifting down a river, he hoists it out of the water. Oiwa’s ghost appears to seek vengeance and haunt Iemon, whose actions contributed to her suffering and death. Then, when Iemon flips the door over, Kohei’s ghost does the same. This effect was so popular that it inspired several “trick” prints, each using a flap to allow the viewer to flip back and forth between the two ghosts.