Actor Iwai Shijaku as Osuma no Kata

This 1832 V&A print shows Iwai Shijaku I in the role of Osuma no Kata, a noble lady character from a 1832 Osaka kabuki production. The honorific "no Kata" indicates a high-ranking wife or consort, often of the samurai class, and the role would have required the elaborate court or daimyo-household costume appropriate to such a character. Hokuei renders Shijaku in the upswept hair and ornamented headdress of the role, with the patterned over-robe and the modest yet dignified posture that conveyed the social rank of the character. The portrait demonstrates Hokuei's facility with the various sub-types within the onnagata category, from the courtesan and teahouse roles to the merchant daughters to the high-ranking samurai women like Osuma no Kata. Each sub-type had distinct costume conventions, hair conventions, and gestural conventions that the artist needed to render accurately for the print to function as theatrical documentation.