The Actor Ichikawa Ebizō (formerly Danjūrō V) as Kemushi Babā of Anō Village

Here one of the great Kabuki actors of the day, Ebizō, is shown in distinctive profile in the character of a loathsome hag, known as the Kemushi Babā, literally, the old caterpillar lady. She dwells in Anō village, where the mountain boy Momotarō grew up. The Ichikawa actor played this role as well as that of Araki Saemon in the play Mukashi mukashi tejiro no saru むかし／＼掌白猿 at the Ichimuraza Theatre in the eighth month of 1792. This print forms the right half of a diptych that features on the left Ichikawa Monnosuke II as Momotarō (see Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, acc. no. 54.493).

At the opening of the theatre season in the previous year, at the same theatre, the most momentous shūmei (actor name announcement) of the era occurred when the actors Ichikawa Danjūrō V and Ichikawa Ebizō IV “traded” stage names to become respectively Ichikawa Ebizō and Ichikawa Danjūrō VI. According to records, it was decided that Danjūrō V’s son Ebizō (with Ebi written 海老, meaning “shrimp,” but literally, “old man of the sea”) would become Danjūrō VI in the eleventh month of 1791 (Kansei 3). The father, at age 51, would then be called Ebizō 鰕蔵, but with “Ebi” written with the character 鰕 (referring generally to zakoebi 天鰕, “heavenly shrimp”). It is said that Danjūrō V wanted to use a different way to write the famous name because he humbly declared “A grandfather will never be the equal of the father of the shrimp (祖父や父親の海老には及びません).