Background
Shôutsushi asagao banashi (Recreating the True Story of Morning Glory: 生写朝顔話) was one of a number of theatrical dramatizations of a very popular love story. A successful puppet play was written by Yamada no Kagashi (Chikamatsu Tokusô) and staged at the Takemoto Theater, Osaka in 1/1832 (later adapted by kabuki). One of the better known versions (in addition to an early illustrated book) was the play Shôutsushi asagao nikki (Recreating the true diary of morning glory: 生写朝顔日記) by Chikamatsu Tokusô (originally 1812). The tale features the love between Miyagi Asojirô and Akizuki Miyuki, daughter of a wealthy samurai, who first meet while enjoying an outing in pleasure boats on the Uji River. They are immediately smitten with one another and exchange vows, but afterwards a misunderstanding leads Miyuki to believe that her father will force her to marry someone else. Unknown to her, it is actually Asojirô using an alternate name. To keep her pledge to Asojirô, she runs away and assumes the name Asagao ("Morning Glory," a reminder of a poem Asojirô had written for her). After months pass, Miyuki loses her sight from endless grieving, barely supporting herself by playing the koto (stringed instrument, resembling a horizontal harp: 琴). Coincidentally, Asojirô discovers Miyuki at an inn, but he cannot remain, as he must quickly depart on business for his lord. He leaves medicine to treat her blindness, but it is only after her near suicide over separating once again from Asojirô that Miyuki takes the palliative and restores her sight.
Design
The series title, Giyûden (Tales of courage and righteousness: 義勇傳), is inscribed in the carotuche at the upper right. It is one of various similar titles that artists used on prints in the wake of the Tenpô kaikaku (Tenpô reforms: 天保改革) banning the publication of actor prints from 1842-1847. These print or series labels amounted to bit of transparent camouflage — no one, including government censors, was fooled into thinking that these images were anything but actor prints; still, the gesture helped satisfy the letter of the law. Note, too, that the actor's name is not given on the print, a small price to pay to sidestep reform penalties, as ukiyo-e patrons already knew the physiognomies of the actors and were intimately familiar with current stage productions.
This design is the left sheet of a triptych, with the other sheets portraying (R) Kataoka Ichizô I as Akizuki Yuminosuke and (M) Nakayama Nanshi as Miyuki.
References: HSH, no. 109 (left); IKBYS-III, no. 67 (left)