The actor Onoe Kigkugoro V in the play The Death of Shinohara Kunimoto in Battle
The actor Onoe Kikugoro V, one of the three leading kabuki actors of the Meiji period (1868-1912), is shown performing the role of Shinohara Kunimoto who was killed in the Satsuma rebellion of 1877.
The actors are dressed in 19th-century European-style military uniforms. The incident is portrayed in a stylised theatrical manner, showing the fatal wounding of the main character in the central panel.
Kunimoto, brandishing a sword, is falling from his horse. The drama is heightened by the rearing horse and the dismayed companion in a typical kabuki pose. The close-up view and the horizontal bullet-traces create a dramatic cinema-graphic quality of motion.
