Picturing an unidentified shinpa play, the actor on the right swinging the battledore and playing the role of Fukutoku Yumesuke (the wealthy merchant Yumesuke) is Yamaguchi Sadao (1861-1907 山口定雄), one of the first generation of shinpa actors who was trained as a kabuki onnagata.  The actor in the center is identified as Shirakawa Koichi 白川広一 playing the role of nyōbō Ofuku (Ofuku, the wife.)   Portland Art Museum Research Associate Lynn Katsumoto comments that there is some word play going on here as "Fukutoku" also means fortune or happiness making "this duo a particularly felicitous couple.  No doubt, the play plays with their happy naming and twists things up humorously."

Shinpageki 新派劇

The National Theatre of Japan database classifies the play depicted in this print as Shinpageki.

Source: Kabuki 21 website http://www.kabuki21.com/glossaire_7.php

Literally "the new school". Shinpa was a genre of theatre, which appeared in Japan during the Meiji era. It depicted the manners and customs of contemporary Japan. It was characterized by a more naturalistic style than Kabuki and the coexistence of onnagata and actresses. Shinpa dramas were usually very sentimental with a tragic end. Shinpa quickly became extremely popular and was a serious rival for Kabuki during the second half of the Meiji era. This genre got finally caught between tradition and modernity, losing its appeal for both the Kabuki audience and the modern "Western" theatre audience. There are still Shinpa actors and performances in Japan, mainly in Tōkyō at the Shimbashi Embujō. Shinpa has still nowadays its aficionados, who love its nostalgic flavor. Some Kabuki actors sometimes perform in Shinpa productions.

About the Actors

The name of the actor swinging the battledore (face detail on left) is Yamaguchi Sadao (1861-1907 山口定雄).  There is a reference to this actor in Japanese Music and Drama in the Meiji Era, by Komiya Toyokata, O Bunsha, 1956, as follows: Yamaguchi Sadao, who appeared in Ichimura-za in Tokyo in July 1892, was a young player of woman's roles in the Kabuki and a pupil of Kataoka Gado with the Kabuki stage name Kataoka Gajaku.  Another reference states he was "...one of the first generation of shinpa actors..."¹

The name of the actor in the onnagata role, center panel, reads in Japanese 白川広一 (Shirakawa Koichi?).  No reference can be found to this actor.