Shin Nagao - Onoe Matsusuke IV in the role of the hunter Chosuke

This print belongs to a grouping designated Shin Nagao and depicts Onoe Matsusuke IV in the role of the hunter Chosuke, a character whose rough costume and outdoor occupation invite robust characterisation. Hunter roles in kabuki, drawn from rural settings and folk legend, allow for darker palettes and weathered skin tones that contrast with the brighter artifice of court or pleasure-quarter scenes. Yamamura's treatment likely uses heavier line work in the keyblock and applied sumi to define a lean physiognomy, with bokashi gradations supplying atmospheric tone in the background. The Shin Nagao designation suggests the print belongs to a coherent set of theatrical portraits Yamamura organised around either a particular play or a specific run of performances at one of the Tokyo theatres, a practice that connects shin-hanga yakusha-e to the older Edo tradition of issuing prints to coincide with kabuki productions and identifying actors with the roles in which they had recently been seen.