The Actor Arashi Sangoro II as Sakura-maru in the Play Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami, Performed at the Ichimura Theater in the First Month, 1772

A single kabuki actor kneels in a robe patterned with pale green floral crests on tan, gripping a long sword held upright in one hand while a paper document rests before him on the ground; a gnarled pine trunk with green-tufted branches and a rust-orange cut section frames the upper right. The palette is muted—tan, sage green, cream, and burnt orange against a plain grey ground—with the actor's face turned in a tense sidelong glance. A vertical cartouche of Japanese characters (the artist's signature) sits at upper right; this hosoban sheet is the right panel of a multisheet composition, color woodblock print by Katsukawa Shunshō, 1767.