Private collection

From an untitled set containing at least eight designs, with poems across the top written out in the hand of the individual actor. The prints in the series relate to a variety of plays. These two prints depict characters from one of numerous plays that conflated the plots of two well-established plays (Igagoe Norikake Gappa and Igagoe docho sugoroku) on the theme of the Iga revenge (Igagoe mono). Along with Soga plays and Chushingura, this was the third of the three great revenge stories of Kabuki drama. The plot derived from the true story of a swordsman who took revenge on behalf of his brother-in-law by killing the murderer Matagoro at a crossroads in Iga Ueno in 1634. This play involves the efforts of Karaki Masaemon and his brother-in-law Wada Shizuma to catch up with the villainous Matagoro, who has murdered Shizuma's father Yukie. Osode the tea-shop girl is betrothed to Matagoro, whom she has never seen, but falls in love with Shizuma, who passes himself off as Matagoro. She helps him reach the house of her father, Yamada Kobei. It is not certain whether these two prints form a pair to show the characters in the same scene.

All men in Japan at this time were required to shave the tops of their heads, so Matagoro's full head of hair indicates his outlaw status.