Yayoi in the dance-mime Kagami Jishi

This 1951 oban woodblock print depicts the character Yayoi in the dance-mime performance Kagami Jishi (The Mirror Lion). Kagami Jishi is one of kabuki's most spectacular dance pieces, in which the character Yayoi, a young attendant at the shogun's court, begins dancing with a hand puppet of a lion. The lion spirit gradually possesses her, and the gentle maiden transforms into a wild, shaking figure before the lion spirit itself appears in the second act with a magnificent white mane. The role demands extraordinary physical stamina and the ability to shift between delicacy and ferocity within a single performance. Ota Masamitsu likely captures Yayoi in the early, graceful phase of the dance, before the possession takes hold, or at the transitional moment when the lion spirit begins to emerge. The 1951 date records a specific postwar performance of this perennial favorite.