The Actors Ichikawa Danjūrō II as Soga no Gorō and Nakamura Takesaburō as the Courtesan Kewaizaka no Shōshō in the play Bandō ichi kotobuki Soga at the Nakamura theater

In this image of relaxed intimacy, a couple is seated on a veranda overlooking an elegant garden. The woman uses tweezers to pluck some of the man’s stray hairs. The two figures would have been immediately recognizable to kabuki theater fans based on the actor’s crests on their costumes. The three nesting squares comprise the crest of the Ichikawa family of actors, here Ichikawa Danjūrō II (1688–1757). The circle with three swirls is the crest of the actor Nakamura Takesaburō (?–1724). The play Bandō ichi kotobuki Soga (The Soga Brothers: The Most Auspicious in Eastern Japan) was performed at the Nakamuraza theater during the first month of 1715.

The revenge tale of the two Soga brothers, based on a 12th-century event, became one of the most popular heroic epics in Japan, appearing in many versions. In the story, the elder Soga Jūrō and younger Soga Gorō are orphaned as infants when their father, a warrior, is killed by a retainer of the ruling shōgun. The brothers devote their lives to vengeance.