Actor Iwai Tojaku I as Shirai Gonpachi

Related to the play Mitsu ichō gozonji no Edo-zome 三銀杏御存地染, performed at the Nakamura Theater, 1833, fifth month. Utagawa Kunisada’s bust portraits from the 1820s and 1830s typically show actors against a plain background accompanied by poems composed by the portrayed actors. Here, the portrait is fan shaped, allowing the image to be cut out and affixed to an actual fan. This series is also an early example of product placement, as a packet of Bien Senjokō face powder appears at the bottom of each print. It seems that the prints were delivered together with the powder or that the producer of the powder paid for some of the production costs of the print.