Performance Title: Soga Sukenari
Soga Sukenari was a samurai of the early Kamakura period, known as Soga Juro; he was the elder of the two brothers in the legend of the "Revenge of the Soga Brothers." In 1193, during a hunting expedition at Mount Fuji led by Minamoto no Yoritomo, he and his younger brother Goro Tokimune avenged their father's death by killing Kudo Suketsune, though they were killed shortly thereafter.
Kabuki Actor: Nakamura Sojuro

Toyohara Kunichika (1835–1900)
(1848) Became an apprentice to Toyokuni III.
Around 1855 (Ansei 2), he began signing his works as Toyohara Kunichika—a name combining those of his first teacher, Toyohara Shushin, and Toyokuni. He demonstrated his mastery by creating numerous large-format actor portraits, carved by Ota Shokichi. Known as "Kunichika of the Actor Portraits," he was later dubbed "the Sharaku of the Meiji era" by Kojima Usui.

This large-format portrait of Nakamura Sojuro by Toyohara Kunichika is one of his signature actor portrait series from the Meiji era.

*Ookubi-e* refers to a style of *ukiyo-e* print—primarily produced during the Edo period—that depicts a person's face or bust in close-up.

UKIYO E (Japanese print)

**The horizontal line visible in the image is the result of combining two scanned images; there is no actual line on the print itself.