Wataya (The actor Osagawa Tsuneyo II as Churo Onoe)

The statuesque figure depicted here is the Kabuki actor Osagawa Tsuneyo II, who specialized in female roles. Standing beneath a blossoming cherry tree, his character, a woman named Churo Onoe, holds up an orange pouch. Such items were normally worn under one’s clothing and were used to hold a Buddhist amulet. The meaning of the gesture is unclear, but it likely represents a climactic moment in the performance. An oblong slip of paper used for inscribing poetry dangles from a branch, providing the series title, followed by the actor’s guild, Wataya. Originally this print was the left-hand sheet of a triptych with portraits of three famous actors of the time.