The heroine Umekawa in the play "Meido no Hikyaku"

This second print of Umekawa from Chikamatsu's Meido no Hikyaku indicates that Tsunetomi returned to the heroine more than once, a pattern consistent with how Osaka artists treated familiar theatrical figures. The play, which dramatizes the courier Chubei's theft and his flight to the snowbound village of Ninokuchi-mura with the courtesan Umekawa, provided source material for image-makers because of its emotional climaxes and the visual contrast between the pleasure-quarter setting and the rural escape. Tsunetomi's two treatments likely depict different moments or compositional approaches: one might isolate the figure as a half-length study, while another could place her within an interior or landscape that signals the play's narrative arc. The print would have employed standard mokuhanga techniques on [washi](/glossary/washi)—keyblock impression for the linework, multiple color blocks pulled with a [baren](/glossary/baren), and [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradation for atmospheric passages. The recurrence of Umekawa across Tsunetomi's prints reflects the centrality of Osaka's theatrical culture to his artistic identity, distinct from the courtesan imagery of earlier [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e).