15 Utagawa Kunisada 1786 – 1865 Okazaki: Nakamura Utaemon IV as Masaemon

from the series Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō Road (Tōkaidō gojūsan tsugi no uchi)
publisher: Iseya Kanekichi

This portrait depicts the celebrated kabuki actor Nakamura Utaemon IV (1798–1852) as Masaemon, set against the Yahagi River Bridge near the Okazaki station — one of the fifty-three waypoints along the famous Tōkaidō road linking Edo and Kyoto. Kunisada masterfully combines dramatic stage expression with a lyrical landscape: the actor dominates the foreground, while Mount Fuji rises faintly in the misty distance. The 1852 Tōkaidō series marks a pinnacle of Kunisada’s late career, achieving a refined balance between kabuki portraiture and poetic landscape imagery.