Men's Underkimono 'Otomi en Yosaburō'

Men's silk under-kimono with a back decoration of a bat, a comb, and a lantern inscribed with '羽左衛門' (Uzaemon) and a wooden box inscribed with '市村座' (Ichimura-za). The actor Ichimura Uzaemon XV (1874–1945) was known for his portrayal of the play about the love affair between Yosaburō and Otomi, the mistress of a gangster boss with a bat tattoo on his face. The comb refers to a scene where Otomi returns home from the bathhouse with a comb in her hair. The geometric patterns of checks and dots are the motifs on the gangster's kimono and the cloth Yosaburō uses to cover his face in the play. Actor Ichimura Uzaemon XV frequently performed this Kabuki play from around 1910 at the Ichimura-za theater in Tokyo until it burned down in 1932.