Hamamuraya (The actor Segawa Kikunojo III as Yamato Manzai, actually Shirabyoshi Hisakata of Miyako Kujo)

A celebrated specialist in female roles (onnagata), the Kabuki actor Segawa Kikunojo III is identified in the title cartouche by his guild name, Hamamuraya. His distinctive crest, shaped as a bundle of silk, visible on his right shoulder, would have been instantly recognizable to fans in Edo (modern Tokyo). As is often the case in Kabuki, Kikunojo plays a contemporary figure who harbors a double identity. Here he appears as the performer Yamato Manzai, in reality a cross-dressing female entertainer (shirabyoshi) named Hisakata. His gesture—one arm raised, the other swept forward—conveys a sense of dancelike motion. For the role, Kikunojo wears a nobleman’s costume with a lacquered hat (eboshi) tied under the chin, and a man’s folding fan. An outer garment with tachibana (an inedible citrus) and oak leaf roundels on a yellow ground partially conceals a woman’s long-sleeved robe patterned with bold chrysanthemum blossoms.