Onoe Baiko as Masaoka

Masaoka is one of the great roles in the kabuki repertoire for a female-role specialist, appearing in the play Meiboku Sendai Hagi as the loyal wet nurse who conceals her own grief after the murder of her son in order to protect her young charge. The role demands the internalization of maternal sacrifice — suffering expressed through stillness rather than outward display — and Onoe Baiko, a distinguished onnagata of the late twentieth century, was celebrated for precisely this quality of contained emotion. Kokei depicts Baiko in this role with the formal precision his portraiture demands: the hairline, the set of the jaw, the position of the hands if visible all carry the weight of the character's emotional state. The print likely uses a neutral or dark ground to give gravity to the figure, and the costume — formal court dress appropriate to Masaoka's position as a retainer's wife — would be rendered with careful attention to pattern and textile weight.