Unidentified actor in the role of Okuma

This theatrical portrait shows an actor whose identity has been lost from the documentary record in the female role of Okuma, a character whose specific play association is also uncertain. The composition would conform to Yamamura's standard [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e) format: a tightly cropped figure isolated against a decorative or unmodulated ground, with the face rendered in detailed line work from the keyblock and the kimono treated as a field for color and pattern. Yamamura typically built textile depth through multiple impressions of carefully aligned color blocks alongside hand-applied [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations, which add atmospheric weight to costume folds and modeling around the cheek and jaw. The print sits within the period from approximately 1920 to 1924 when Yamamura produced his concentrated body of actor portraits, working with publishers including Watanabe Shozaburo. The combination of flat decorative ground and inwardly directed expression places it within the [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) reinvention of the yakusha-e genre established earlier by Sharaku and Toshusai.