The Actor Kataoka Nizaemon VII as the Old Beggar Woman Kurozuka Babā at Adachigahara

The actor Kataoka Nizaemon got his start on the Kabuki stage in Kamigata (Kyoto and Osaka), but moved to Edo 1794. The following year, at the kaomise of the eleventh month at Miyako Theater in Edo, he performed this role in the play “Yoshitsune and a Second Flurry of Snow” (Kaeribana yuki no Yoshitsune, or Kaeribana yuki mo Yoshitsune 帰花雪義経).

The role on this print has also been tentatively identified as Yuri Hachirō 由利八郎, but contemporary records note that Nizaemon played a different role in Act II, and as indicated here most likely represents the infamous onibaba (demon hag) of Kurozuka, whose gravemound can still be visited today in Adachihara, the supernatural subject of Noh and Kabuki plays through the centuries. This hosoban print is the center sheet of a triptych (see see “Ukiyo-e taikei,” vol. 3, “Shunshō,” nos. 190–192, p. 100, Shūeisha, 1976). This trio of roles was also depicted around the same time in a rare triptych by Kitagawa Utamarao, who did very few actor prints (see Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, acc. nos. 21.6350, 11.22119, 21.6351).