The actors Segawa Kikunojo III as the courtesan Takamura and Ichikawa Yaozo II as Shii no Shosho

Ichikawa Yaozō II plays Shii no Shōshō opposite Segawa Kikunojō III as the courtesan Takamura in this scene from the play Sugata no hana yuki no Kuronushi. Performed at the Ichimura Theater in the eleventh month of 1776, the play was loosely based on one of seven famous episodes from the life of legendary poet and beauty Ono Komachi. Earlier Noh adaptations of the episode, known as Kayoi Komachi, describe a monk’s encounter with the ghosts of Komachi and a suitor, Captain Fukakusa (also known as Shii Shōshō), who purportedly died after spending a hundred nights trying to win her affection. Using the double identities common in Kabuki, the 1776 performance turned the tale into a love triangle between a courtesan named Takamura (in reality Komachi), Shii Shōshō (Captain Fukakusa), and an umbrella vendor named Rokurobei (in reality Ōtomo Kuronushi, also a classical poet), played by Ichimura Uzaemon IX.