Ichikawa Danjūrō V in the Scene "Five Chivalrous Commoners" from the Play A Soga Drama on the First Festival Day
Katsukawa Shunshō 勝川春章 Japanese
Not on view
Famous actors, dressed as chivalrous commoners, stand before the entrance to the Chōjiya and O-miya houses in the Yoshiwara pleasure district. Danjūrō V is second from the right.
Chivalrous commoners, who were fearless street toughs, protected ordinary people from lawless hatamoto samurai. Shunshō presented them in identical green kimonos with the emblem of each particular role along the hem and with the actor's family crest below the shoulder. The design motifs on Danjūrō V's costume are the character sen under crossed hammers and the family crest of three nested squares (mimasu).
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