Background:
The play Ume no hatsuharu gojûsantsugi highlighted unusual happenings along the Tôkaidô Road. The featured actor, Onoe Kikugorô III, was an Edo star who periodically performed in Kamigata. For this production he put on display of his exceptional skills as a kaneru yakusha ("all-around actor") by performing seven roles.
Design:
Here we see Kikugorô in a choreographed fight scene (tachimawari), subduing one adversary by pressing his knee to the back of the attacker's neck while tossing another hapless enemy off the roof (his leg can be seen in the lower left corner). Kikugorô raises his long sword (katana) high above his head.
Prints by Toyohide are difficult to find. This scarce design is cited in Kuroda and in IKBYS-III (see references below); it is otherwise unrecorded. In addition, actor prints (yakusha-e) from Kamigata featuring landscape views of Mt. Fuji in the distance, as here, are not often encountered.
References: KAM, p. 264(400); IKBYS-III, no. 213
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