Actors Ichikawa Kodanji IV, Iwai Kumesaburō III, and Seki Sanjūrō III and playwrights Kawatake Mokuami and Segawa Jokō III

This pentaptych which misses the first sheet (far right) is titled Assembly to Practice the Three Towers. Behind the stage, the most famous kabuki actors of the day are rehearsing scripts. They were written by the three renown playwrights referred to in the title as Towers: Segawa Jokō III (1806-81), Kawatake Mokuami (1816-93), and Sakurada Jisuke III (1802-77). Collectors of prints like this could easily identify the actors by their faces but not so much the playwrights, hence red cartouches with their names were placed besides them.