What genre of ukiyo-e depicts kabuki actors?

The ukiyo-e genre that depicts kabuki actors is yakusha-e.

Yakusha-e means “actor pictures” and chiefly refers to portraits of kabuki performers, although related prints may show actors on stage, theatrical scenes, costumes, or famous roles. These images became a major part of ukiyo-e’s commercial culture because kabuki was one of Edo Japan’s most popular entertainments.

Torii Kiyonobu was among the early important makers of actor prints, publishing full-length portraits around 1700. Later artists such as Katsukawa Shunshō and Tōshūsai Sharaku made actors more individually recognizable. Sharaku’s expressive portraits, produced mainly in 1794–1795, are especially famous.

A common mix-up is treating every kabuki scene as strictly yakusha-e. In its narrowest sense, the term means portraits of individual actors; broader theatrical images are closely associated with the category. Bijin-ga, by contrast, depicts beautiful women, while fūkei-ga concerns landscapes.