Gosōtei Hirosada 五粽亭広貞 - The Actors Mimasu Daigorō IV as Umako Daijin (right), Ichikawa Ebizō V as Umaya Daijin - 1849 - STICKER Vinyl Kiss-Cut Decal

This 1849 Ukiyo-e woodblock print by Gosōtei Hirosada captures two Kabuki actors mid-confrontation, rendered in the Kamigata style of actor prints.

Visual Elements & Composition

The print is organised as a triptych of three vertical panels, with rectangular cartouches framing the figures and their names. The palette is restrained: charcoal grey, pale grey and olive brown set the stage, while cream and gold yellow pick out the costumes. One actor wears a cream patterned robe with a hair ornament. Another has a large black wig and red-and-white face makeup. A third, in a brown robe and ornate hat, holds a lantern. A folding fan adds a diagonal counterpoint to the verticals, and a chevron motif runs through the patterning of the garments.

Meaning & Symbolism

The scene comes from the play Shitennō-ji garan kagami, which dramatises a 6th-century struggle over the succession of the Japanese emperor. Soga no Umako and Mononobe no Moriya, the historical rivals, are played here by Mimasu Daigorō IV and Ichikawa Ebizō V. The red-and-white makeup, the heavy wig and the lantern are the codes of Kabuki, telling the audience who is who and how the power balance stands. Hirosada's bold line work turns those codes into a single moment of tension between two men who both want the throne's future in their hands.

On This Kiss-Cut Sticker

A kiss-cut sticker is cut to its own outline, so the figures can be followed contour by contour rather than boxed into a rectangle. The actors' silhouettes, from the wig and hat to the fan's edge, read clearly as a cut shape. For collectors of Edo-period theatre prints, this piece carries the dramatic core of a 19th-century Kabuki triptych onto an object that can be placed wherever a favourite print would hang.