Actor Matsumoto Kōshirō IV as Kakogawa Honzō

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Actor Matsumoto Kōshirō IV as Kakogawa Honzō

Artist: Utagawa Toyokuni; Publisher: Izumiya Ichibei

1795, 5th lunar month

Related to the play "Kanadehon Chūshingura" 仮名手本忠臣蔵, performed at the Miyako Theater in the fifth lunar month of 1795. The popular actor Matsumoto Køshirø IV played the role of Kakogawa Honzø in a Chñshingura performance in 1795. Wearing loose hair and bold round sash, typical of monks in Kabuki plays, he is dressed as an itinerant holly man, which suggests this print illustrates a scene from act 9. Honzø's actions jeopardize his daughter's engagement to her true love. Disguised as a monk, he attends the meeting between his wife and the mother of his daughter's fiancé. In the struggle that ensues, Honzø makes the ultimate sacrifice for his daughter's happiness by allowing her fiancé to overcome him and inflict a fatal wound. Toyokuni skillfully depicted the distressed father, with knitted eyebrows and clenched jaw.

Minnesota Digital Library

https://collections.artsmia.org/art/8250