Author: Utagawa Kunisada (歌川国貞) here signed as Utagawa Toyokuni (歌川豊国).
Subject: Ichikawa Danjūrō VIII (八代目市川団十郎) as Izuya Yosaburō (伊豆屋与三郎) and Nakamura Aizō I (初代中村相蔵) as
Hanashika Aie (咄家相笑).
Play: Yoha nasake ukina no Yokogushi (与話情浮名横櫛).
Genre: yakusha-e (役者絵), Edo-e (江戸絵), shini-e (死絵).
Size: large (ōban, 大判).
Publisher: Wakasaya Yoichi (若狭屋与市).
Period: c. 1847 ~ 1860.
Trimmed: yes
Backed: no
Code: UKSI01014
Condition: general condition are good. There isn't any remarkable stain. Color is slightly faded; few wrinkles.
No evident sign of damage but there is a tiny fixing on the right lower angle (just next to the character foot).
In this print taken from a scene of a kabuki drama named Yoha nasake ukina no Yokogushi the kabuki actor Ichikawa Danjūrō VIII on the left and Nakamura Aizō I (or Nakamura Fukusuke I) on the right are reading a letter together. The Yoha nasake ukina no Yokogushi is a popular drama where a man and a woman which where lovers in their youth, got apart and respectively believed to be dead meet again as adult. The man has fallen into disgrace while the woman has been living a refined life since. They seem to get close again, as they where in the past, but there seems to be no future for their destinies to be together, being incapable of leave each other but hindered by an averse fate at the same time.