The actor Matsumoto Yonesaburo as Shinobu in the guise of the courtesan Kewaizaka no Shosho

This 1794 woodblock print by Toshusai Sharaku, in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, shows the onnagata Matsumoto Yonesaburo in a layered role typical of late eighteenth-century kabuki: the character Shinobu disguised as the courtesan Kewaizaka no Shosho. As an okubi-e bust portrait, the design isolates Yonesaburo's head and shoulders against a dark mica ground, the publisher Tsutaya Juzaburo's signature luxury format for Sharaku's debut series of actor prints.