Actor Playing Seigen Doshin in the play Hana butai banjaku soga

Designed by Utagawa Toyokuni in 1802, this Edo [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) print captures a kabuki performer in the role of the disgraced priest Seigen, a long-suffering character drawn from one of the most popular dramatic cycles of the period. The play title cited on the print, "Hana butai banjaku Soga," places the production within the broader Soga theatrical tradition, a perennial New Year staple in Edo theaters that wove the revenge legend of the Soga brothers together with newly invented subplots. Seigen-doshin is the obsessed monk whose forbidden attachment to the princess Sakurahime led him to a downfall that audiences relished for its mixture of pathos and supernatural overtones.