Arashi Kitsusaburō II (嵐橘三郎) as the hairdresser [<i>kamisuri</i>] Tasuke and Arashi Koroku IV (嵐小六) as Yari no Gonza (鑓の権三) or Gonza the Spearman in 'Rumors of a Scandal on the Fushimi Road' (<i>Fushimikaido Uwasa no Akatsuki</i> - 伏見街道噂暁月)
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Gigadō Ashiyuki (戯画堂芦ゆき) (artist )

Arashi Kitsusaburō II (嵐橘三郎) as the hairdresser [kamisuri] Tasuke and Arashi Koroku IV (嵐小六) as Yari no Gonza (鑓の権三) or Gonza the Spearman in 'Rumors of a Scandal on the Fushimi Road' (Fushimikaido Uwasa no Akatsuki - 伏見街道噂暁月)

Print

08/1824
10 in x 14.75 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese color woodblock print
Signed: Ashiyuki (芦ゆき)
Artist's seal: yu
Publisher: Tenmaya Kihei
(Marks 536 - seal 21-193)
Hankyu Culture Foundation
Royal Museums of Art and History, Belgium (via Cultural Japan)
Metropolitan Museum of Art This print commemorates a performance at the Naka Theater in the eight month of 1824. The names of the actors and their roles appear on the lantern in the upper left.

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The character of Yari no Gonza is from a work by Chikamatsu Monzaemon.

In 1986 a movie, Gonza the Spearman, was released. The plot summary by PastaQueen at IMDB.com says:
The tragic story of Gonza, a handsome ladies man, set in the Tokagawa Period, a time in which appearences are very important. Gonza competes with Bannojo for the honor to perform the tea ceremony to celebrate the birth of an heir to the lord of their clan. To see the sacred tea scrolls Gonza promises to marry the daughter of the family which possesses them, even though he is unofficially engaged to another. When studying the scrolls with Osai, the mother of the house, Bannajo sneaks into the house and steals their obis and runs through the town proclaiming the two as adulterers.
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In Donald Keene's introduction to "Gonza the Lancer" he says:
"First performed on September 26, 1717. Chikamatsu modeled this play on events which occurred about six weeks before the first performance. He changed the names of the characters and removed the scene of the final action from the Kōrai Bridge in Osaka to the Capital Bridge in Fushimi. He further called the chief character Gonza, the hero of a half-century-old ballad, perhaps in deference to the feelings of those connected with the tragedy . The play is otherwise contemporary, and the audience undoubtedly saw through the thin disguise.

The play has a subtitle, "The Double Hempen Kimonos," suggesting that the action takes place in summer, when hempen kimonos are worn, and hinting at Osai's double love life."
Osai is the major female role in this play.

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Illustrated:

1) Ikeda Bunko, Kamigata yakusha-e shūsei (Collected Kamigata Actor Prints), vol. 1, Osaka, 1998, no. 226.

2) in color in Osaka Prints by Dean J. Schwaab, Rizzoli, 1989, no. 70, p. 104. The author notes the use of the the hiragana yu as a seal.

3) in color in Schätze der Kamigata: Japanische Farbholzschnitte aus Osaka 1780-1880, MNHA (Musée national d'histoire et d'art Luxembourg), 2012, p. 208, #441. Note that this catalog refers to a 'hairdresser' as a kamisuri. The term for 'hair' is kami (髪). Suri in this case would mean 'to shave off'.
Tenmaya Kihei (天満屋喜兵衛) (publisher)
Arashi Koroku IV (四代目嵐小六: from 11/1817 to 11/1826) (actor)
Kyōto-Osaka prints (kamigata-e - 上方絵) (genre)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Arashi Kitsusaburō II 二代目嵐橘三郎 (9/1822 to 8/1828) (actor)
Chikamatsu Monzaemon (近松門左衛門) (author)