Segawa Kikunojo III as Oshizu, Wife of Tanabe Bunzo

This print of the actor Segawa Kikunojo III is one of the most celebrated portraits of the onnagata (male actor in a female role) by the late eighteenth-century artist Toshusai Sharaku. It portrays a character in the Genroku era play Hanaayame Bunroku Soga (The Iris Saga of the Bunroku Era), a drama that retells the true story of the vengeance of ten brothers for their father's assassination in 1701. The play was performed at the Miyako-za theater in the city of Edo in May 1794.

The portrait is in the bust-length, close-up format known as okubi-e. Sharaku utilized this format to highlight the expressive talents of the performer and to document the role. The mica ground is a distinctive feature of Sharaku's portraits; the signature and publisher's seal were stamped over the mica following the printing.

Sharaku was active only from May 1794 to January 1795. He produced 140 actor prints in that period, after which he disappeared. No other works with this artist's signature are known. The mystery of his identity is still unsolved. One theory has proposed that Sharaku himself was an actor, but for the Noh form of theater.