This woodblock represent a kabuki actor samurai and his young apprentice .

The poem on the top can be understand as :

年の初め乃 (beggining oif the year  )/toshi no hajime no

言の葉ろ(leave of words )/kot no ha ni

花を栄える(prosperious flowers)/hana o sakaeru

千金化春 (fortune for this new year  )/senkin no haru.

Yoshikatsu Utagawa 歌川 芳勝 , date of birth and death are unkown  ,he was a student of  Kuniyoshi Utagawa. His real family name is  Ishiwatari and his nickname is Shosuke or Yusuke.. He was before a Soja sauce seller for the shogunat , but he lost his job and start to work with kuniyoshi sensei i. His period of works was between koka 弘化 and  Ansei 安政 (1845-1859).