This classic and elegant theatrical woodblock print (yakusha-e) is the work of the renowned master Utagawa Toyokuni I, the founder of the most influential artistic dynasty of the 19th century. A previous tentative attribution assigning the work to his pupil Kunisada (Toyokuni III) is incorrect; the distinctive calligraphy of the signature and the drawing style of the face clearly identify it as an original design by Toyokuni I. The scene depicts the popular kabuki actor Bandō Mitsugorō (likely Bandō Mitsugorō III), seated on a wooden veranda against a backdrop of pine trees, protectively cradling a child wrapped in a patterned cloth. The print bears a circular kiwame censor seal (primarily used between 1790 and 1842) in the lower right, alongside the square seal of the prominent publisher Yamaguchiya Tōbei (Kinkōdō). This is a beautiful example of high-quality theatrical graphic art from the first quarter of the 19th century.
