Sawamura Tosshō as Furuteya Hachirōbei

Tsuruya Nanboku IV first staged his new drama Revenge on Mount Kameyama (Kameyama no adauchi) in the Kawarazakiza Theatre in 1822, when Sawamura Tosshō still used the stage name Gennosuke II. It is therefore possible that this print does not show him in the role of Hachirōbei (also called Inbō no Hachirōbei) in the drama Revenge on Mount Kameyama, but another Hachirōbei, the lover of the beautiful Otsuma, in the play The Suicidal Lovers’ Affair and the Rusty Blade (Shinjū ukina no samezaya), which the Kawarakiza Theatre opened in the 4th month of 1841. The print bears the censor’s stamp kiwame (approved) and the publisher’s mark Sanoki. (See Helena Honcoopová, Kunisada, Praha 2005, p. 129)