Ichikawa Monnosuke as Miuraya Shiratama

Shiratama, whose name means white jewel, was a high-ranking courtesan (oiran) of the Miuraya house, a role that calls for the elaborate visual vocabulary of the licensed quarters: lacquered kanzashi hairpins, layered furisode kimono, and the erect bearing that distinguished oiran portraiture in both Edo ukiyo-e and its modern descendants. Ichikawa Monnosuke, here cast in this onnagata role, is rendered by Kokei in the yakusha-e tradition that the artist revived, where the actor's face is treated with graphic sharpness — every line of kumadori or delicate makeup rendered through precise block carving. The composition likely uses a soft ground or gradated neutral bokashi field behind the figure, a technique Kokei favored to isolate his subjects without the busy settings common in Edo-period prints. The discipline of translating the onnagata's cultivated femininity into flat woodblock planes, without shading or perspective, is central to Kokei's achievement in this genre.