Silhouette Image of a Kabuki Actor

This ōban color woodblock print by Utagawa Kuniteru II, held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (accession DP149259), depicts a kabuki actor in the form of a silhouette image — a visual conceit that uses the actor's profile shadow to identify the role rather than the conventional full-color frontal portrait. The technique of the silhouette portrait (kage-e, 'shadow picture') was a recurring genre within Edo-period [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) that allowed the designer to play on the connoisseurship of theater audiences who would recognize the actor and role from the contour alone, without the diagnostic facial features and costume that defined the standard [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e) tradition.