Kitamura Rokurô I in the role of Otsuta

Kitamura Rokurô I (1871-1961) was an onnagata of shinpa, the new-school theater movement that emerged in the 1880s by blending kabuki onnagata conventions with modernized acting and contemporary subject matter. Otsuta is a female role within the shinpa repertoire, often drawn from late Meiji or Taisho fiction, where the costume registers Western influence — modernized hairstyles, rounded sleeves, occasional Western elements — rather than strictly Edo-period kimono forms. Ota's print would show Rokurô in the careful eye-paint and prepared wig of the onnagata tradition, with the actor's distinctive jaw and gaze still legible beneath the female mask. The work uses the same nishiki-e production methods as Ota's pure kabuki portraits, but the subject signals a broader documentary scope. Within his body of yakusha-e, this print extends his attention beyond the kabuki theaters proper to the related shinpa stage. The image preserves Rokurô's contribution to a theatrical form less often documented in woodblock than its kabuki parent.