The actors Ichikawa Benzo I as Tsunewakamaru and Nakamura Nakazo I as the ghost of Noritsune

Little is known about the life of Bunchō, except that he was a prolific designer of actor and beauty prints during the late 1760s and early 1770s. Bunchō’s dynamic stage compositions often feature somewhat stocky male figures, as demonstrated here. On the left, Nakamura Nakazō I is identifiable by a crest of tridents centered by the character naka (仲). His fellow actor, Ichikawa Benzō I, wears a robe decorated with mimasu (the crest of nested measuring boxes associated with the Ichikawa line) around the character ben (弁). Nakazō, wearing dramatic stage makeup and long, trailing hair, is thought to be playing the ghost of Taira Noritsune, a warrior of the classic battle saga The Tale of the Heike. He appears to have the upper hand over the kneeling Benzō, who plays the young Minamoto warrior Yoshitsune, known in his youth as Tsunewakamaru. Nakazō’s once-purple jacket has faded to beige.