Nakamura Fukusuke as Ohan

Ohan is the young heroine of "Katsuragawa Renri no Shigarami," a sewamono drama that ends in the double suicide of Ohan and the older sash-maker Choemon. The role is performed by an onnagata, the male actor specializing in female parts, and Shunsen's bust portrait would record a specific performance interpretation rather than a generic female type. The composition typically isolates the actor's painted oshiroi white face against a plain or mica-flecked ground, drawing attention to the angle of the head, the curve of the kimono collar, and the bound-up hairstyle proper to a young woman in domestic drama. The shin-hanga workshop of Watanabe Shozaburo cut separate blocks for the keyblock outlines and each color, with printers applying bokashi gradations on washi paper to model the costume. The print belongs within Shunsen's continuing programme of yakusha-e portraiture, treating the onnagata's craft of feminine impersonation as a serious subject in the long line of okubi-e portraits descending from Sharaku and Toyokuni.