The actors Iwai Hanshiro IV as Shinanoya Ohan and Bando Hikosaburo III as Obiya Choemon

Ohan, a girl in her late teens, meets and falls in love with Obiya Chōemon, a married man nearing fifty. Wracked by guilt, which worsens once Ohan becomes pregnant, the couple pledges to commit double suicide. The subject comes from the second half of the play Nihonmatsu michinoku sodachi, staged at the Kawarazaki heater in the eighth month of 1794. The costumes of the two actors confirm this identification: Chōemon’s plain striped kosode—here hiked up with his sash—and Ohan’s diamond-patterned furisode robe match those in an illustration for the play from a contemporary playbill. Two renowned actors of the day, Bandō Hikosaburō III and the celebrated onnagata Iwai Hanshirō IV play the roles of Chōemon and Ohan. Sharaku’s print depicts the couple’s michiyuki, or travel scene, in this case a final journey to the Katsura River. At the end of the play, Chōemon carries his lover on his back into the water to drown, in the sort of tragic death scene beloved by Edo audiences.