The Actor Sanogawa Ichimatsu Holding a Lantern and an Umbrella

The kabuki actor Sanogawa Ichimatsu (1722–62) was the most popular player of his era for wakashū 若衆 roles. The term refers to a young man from roughly his early teens to the coming of age ceremony (genpuku 元服) that marked his adulthood. Although sometimes difficult to distinguish from images of young women, wakashū wore a distinctive hairstyle, with a shaved patch on the tops of their heads. Sometimes objects of erotic desire for women or older men, wakashū acted as a kind of “third gender” in Edo-period society.

In this wide pillar print the actor performs a slow “journey scene” (michiyuki) in an unknown play, holding a paper lantern and umbrella that suggest travel on a rainy night. The circular crest with the character 同 was Ichimatsu’s professional crest, but the checker-board pattern on his sash also helps to identify the actor. The pattern was used when Ichimatsu performed the role of Koshō Kumenosuke for the play Nanohana Akebono Soga in 1741, and became so popular and famous that even today it is known as the “Ichimatsu pattern.”