Onoe Tatsunosuke I as Ono Sadakuro in Act 5, from "Six Acts from Kanadehon Chushjingura".

Act V of Kanadehon Chushingura centers on Ono Sadakuro, a masterless samurai turned highway robber who murders the elderly Yoichibei for a purse of gold during a rainstorm before being shot by chance from a hunter's matchlock. Kokei's portrait isolates Tatsunosuke's face against a flat field, the actor's expression registering the role's combination of nihilistic calm and predatory alertness. The print uses the okubi-e (large-head) format adapted from Edo-period [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e), with delicate keyblock impressions on ganpi paper. Subtle [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations across the kimono and the ground tone are achieved through repeated hand-rubbed [baren](/glossary/baren) application. Produced during Kokei's residency at the Kabuki-za, this work belongs to a series documenting principal roles of the late twentieth-century stage and consciously inherits the half-length portrait tradition of Sharaku and Shun'ei.