Kumadori Side view

Kumadori refers to the stylized makeup of kabuki theater, in which colored lines are drawn over a white base to externalize the temperament of a role: red (beni) for righteous heroes, blue or indigo (ai) for villains and supernatural antagonists, brown for non-human or animal characters. The slug element saru (monkey) indicates a simian role, most likely drawn from plays involving the trained monkey Utsubozaru or a monkey-spirit role, for which the kumadori pattern is built around the distinctive ring of color around the mouth and eyes. Shown in profile, the print isolates the makeup as a graphic subject in itself, a treatment associated with twentieth-century printmakers who took kabuki imagery out of narrative context and presented it as portraiture or design study. The mokuhanga technique permits the flat, saturated reds and blacks that approximate stage makeup, with the white of the [washi](/glossary/washi) serving as the oshiroi base. The print pairs with a frontal view of the same role.