Acrobats Sakuratsuna Komaju and Sakuratsuna Kokichi from Osaka perform at Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa

At the end of the second lunar month of 1857, Sakuratsuna Komaju and his disciple Sakuratsuna Kokichi, from Osaka, presented a series of 10 different acrobatic performances at Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa. The print depicts two of these acrobatic feats, and there are other prints by Kunisada II representing the remaining performances. Lying on the ground, Komaju balances a kind of bamboo ladder on the sole of his foot. The two characters for "Sakuratsuna" are inscribed in red on the fan he holds in his right hand, while three cherry blossoms ("sakura") appear on the upper part of his purple robe, elements also present in the various red lanterns on the left side of the composition. From the mid-18th century onwards, Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa became one of the most famous venues for circus performances, where skilled acrobats and clowns presented various entertainments known as "misemono-gei" ("arts that show things"), performances with a low entrance fee, or sometimes free, and which primarily catered to popular taste.