The Actors Onoe Matsusuke IV and Onoe Kikugoro V as Hakoya Minekichi and Hanai Oume: The Geisha Kohide

This triptych promoted "Hazy Moon Night and Scent of Plum," a kabuki drama based on actual events involving Hanai Oume, a famous former geisha and proprietress of the Tokyo teahouse Suigetsu. The prior year, Oume began a media sensation when she killed her purported lover, a man-servant named Hakoya Minekichi, along the bank of the Sumida River. Sentenced to life in prison, she appears to watch the actors perform the stormy murder scene from a photograph-like inset in the upper right corner and labeled “Geisha Kohide,” the professional name used by Hanai Oume when she was a celebrated entertainer. Because women were not permitted to perform on stage, the actor impersonating Oume was male. The costumes are contemporary, and the actor playing Hakoya Minekichi has a distinctive modern haircut called a “cropped head,” achieved by removing the topknot traditionally worn by Japanese men. The deluxe print includes burnished lacquer-printing in the black areas of Oume’s costume, as well as metallic pigment for the knife blade and glistening mica for the streaking rain.