Ichikawa Danjuro VII in the role of an Elderly Woodcutter

circa 1828

The small scale and delicate printing of this image indicate that it was a private commission, or surimono print. It was created for a poetry club to celebrate the new year; the loosely written inscription on the left is a poem about spring. This was the center image in a trio of prints depicting players in a dance-drama about Kintarō, the boy superhero of Japanese legends. Here, Ichikawa Danjūrō VII, the most prominent Kabuki star of his generation, dons a white wig and wields a giant axe to play an elderly woodcutter, one of the few humans who helped raise young Kintarō as he grew up in the wilderness.