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This untitled woodblock print belongs to a group of works by Kawanabe Kyosai in which the artist's background in both academic Kano-school composition and popular Ukiyo-e subject matter is synthesised into a single sheet. Kyosai's unnumbered prints from his middle period — roughly the 1870s through 1880s — frequently engage with animal subjects, Buddhist iconography, or theatrical imagery drawn from kabuki. The oban-format sheet would carry the artist's distinctive seal, and the keyblock lines would echo the quality of freehand brushwork, a hallmark of how his designs were transferred to the woodblock by skilled artisans working closely with his studio.