Actors Ichikawa Sadanji as Togashisuke, Yamazaki Tomoe Niemon as Sekimori Rengen, Danjuro Ichikawa as Musashibo Benkei, Tamagoro Ichikawa as Kamei Rokuro, Ichikawa Momozaru as Ise Saburo, Kachigawa Matayoshi as Hachira Kataoka, Hanshiro Iwai as Minamoto no Yoshitsunea

In 19th-century Europe the organic chemical industry made possible the synthesis of water-soluble aniline dyes. At first used to dye cloth, the affordable yet intense colors soon found their way into the studios of Japanese printmakers, where they were applied to all genres of print. The new Western colors became synonymous with celebratory depictions of the new social and political landscape in Meiji-period Japan. This album epitomizes the association of bright colors with the pageantry and building projects of the new regime.

Resource: Chelsea Foxwell and Anne Leonard, Awash in Color: French and Japanese Prints, exh. cat. (Chicago: Smart Museum of Art, 2012), p. 30.