MAIKO playing hand-drum

This [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga) from Hasegawa Sadanobu III depicts a maiko—an apprentice geisha—playing a kotsuzumi, the small shoulder hand-drum used in noh, nagauta, and kabuki performance. Sadanobu III, working within Osaka's established tradition of figure prints, would have rendered the subject with attention to the maiko's formal kimono and elaborate kanzashi hair ornaments, both visual markers of her status as a performer in training. The kotsuzumi is held at the shoulder and struck with the bare right hand; its association with trained performance distinguishes this image from informal genre subjects. As an Osaka artist with ties to Kansai performance culture, Sadanobu III was positioned to depict such figures with specificity. [Bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradation in the background creates atmospheric depth against which the decorative textile patterns of the kimono register clearly, following conventions of Osaka bijin-ga printmaking that persisted from the Meiji into the Showa period.