Ichikawa Yaozo II as Sakuramaru

A kabuki actor is shown mid-stride in a crouching, dynamic pose, gripping the shaft of an ox-cart wheel with one hand while the other rests on the hilt of a sword at his waist. He wears a salmon-pink robe patterned with pale floral roundels over a plaid under-robe in tan, white, and coral, and his hair is styled in the shaved-crown topknot typical of kabuki role wigs, his face set in a tense, frowning expression. The figure stands barefoot on an olive-green ground against a plain warm-gray background, with the black-lacquered spokes and frame of the cart filling the upper left corner; the artist's signature and red seal appear at the lower left. This color woodblock print, titled *Ichikawa Yaozo II as Sakuramaru*, was made by Katsukawa Shunshō in 1776.