Actor Nakamura Matsue as Okaru

Kneeling in three-quarter view, the kabuki actor wears an eboshi-style straw ornament fanning out above the forehead, a deep purple outer robe patterned with small crests over a red under-kimono printed with white peonies, the full skirt spread across the floor in overlapping folds. In the raised right hand a writing brush is poised over a partly unrolled paper scroll inscribed with vertical text, while an inkstone box sits open on the floor nearby; a striped kerchief-like collar shows at the neck and the face is turned alertly to the left. Behind the figure runs a low wooden platform edge, a blue-and-white patterned curtain along the top, and a red-and-white paper andon lantern with a circular opening at upper right, with a yellow cartouche above bearing the actor's name in vertical characters — consistent with the 1831 print of Nakamura Matsue as Okaru by Shunbaisai Hokuei.