The Actor Otani Oniji
In addition to pleasure houses, the entertainment districts featured theaters for puppetry (bunraku) and live action (kabuki), both of which require music. In this eighteenth-century woodblock print, a kabuki actor is shown in his role as a warrior, wielding a koto almost as a shield. Such prints often were used as advertisements or souvenirs.
Detail, The Actor Otani Oniji as Omori Hikoshichi. By Torii Kiyomasu II (1706?�1763?). Japan, Edo period, 1743. Woodblock print; ink and hand-applied color on paper. The Anne van Biema Collection, S2004.3.12.