Just a Moment (Shibaraku)

Just a Moment (Shibaraku), printed in 1977 in an edition of five, presents the most famous moment in all of aragoto kabuki — when the hero, dressed in the most extravagant costume in the entire kabuki wardrobe (enormous crimson-and-gold robes, immense shoulders, the wildly raked kumadori makeup), pauses the action of the play with a thunderous shout and an imperious gesture. "Shibaraku!" — Wait! — was the audience's cue to stamp and cheer, and the hero's frozen pose in that moment of arrested action was the most reproduced image in all of popular Japanese theatrical culture.