Finished drawing for an early act

This preparatory drawing from around 1935 offers a rare glimpse into Komura Settai's working process, showing the finished design for an early act of a theatrical narrative before it was transferred to woodblocks. The drawing reveals Settai's precise draftsmanship and his ability to resolve complex compositional decisions at the design stage, establishing the placement of figures, the weight of outlines, and the distribution of positive and negative space. As a finished drawing rather than a rough sketch, it represents the final step before the carver would paste the image face-down onto a cherry wood block and cut away the design. Settai's training in nihonga painting and book illustration gave him the technical command visible in every deliberate stroke.