The Actor Yamashita Kinsaku II as Osaku (?) in the Play Onna Aruji Hatsuyuki no Sekai, Performed at the Morita Theater in the Eleventh Month, 1773

Documented through ukiyo-e.org from the Art Institute of Chicago, this Katsukawa Shunsho yakusha-e shows the onnagata Yamashita Kinsaku II as Osaku (likely identification) in the play Onna Aruji Hatsuyuki no Sekai (The Female Lord and the World of First Snow), performed at the Morita Theater in the Eleventh Month, 1773 — another kaomise production. Kinsaku II was one of Edo's most respected female-role specialists, and Shunsho's portrait commemorates his appearance in the troupe's seasonal lineup. The figure stands alone against a blank ground, dressed in the elaborate layered robes that the kaomise season encouraged costume designers and actors to deploy at full splendor. As founder of the Katsukawa school, Shunsho had built the Edo ukiyo-e standard of giving onnagata as much individuating attention as their male counterparts; Kinsaku II's face is recognizable, his bearing distinct from that of other female-role players. Pattern work across the kimono — auspicious motifs, seasonal references to snow and first plum — is printed with the discipline characteristic of leading Edo ukiyo-e workshops in the 1770s. The shifting use of question marks in the cataloguing of role and play title reflects scholarly caution about a print whose inscriptions or surrounding documentation leave some uncertainty, but the actor's identity and the kaomise context are secure. Within the Katsukawa school's broader output, this is a representative kaomise onnagata yakusha-e of the early 1770s.