The actor Ichimura Uzaemon XV as the gardener Kichigorô

Yamamura portrays Ichimura Uzaemon XV (1874–1945), a prominent tachiyaku (specialist in male roles) of the Taisho and early Showa periods, in the role of the gardener Kichigorô. Gardener roles in kabuki typically dispense with elaborate court costume in favour of plain working clothes, which gives the carver and printer scope to concentrate on the actor's face and posture. The composition likely emphasises Uzaemon's distinctive features and the rugged commoner type the role demands, with Yamamura's characteristic hand-applied [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) providing soft modeling on the cheek and jawline against a flat decorative ground. The print fits within Yamamura's effort to extend [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e) beyond conventional iconic poses into a more individuated mode of theatrical portraiture, treating kabuki actors as serious professional artists whose interior lives can be inferred from facial expression rather than from painted makeup alone. Editions of such prints were small, with collectors and theatre connoisseurs the intended audience.