This is a nishiki-e (brocade print), so called because its rich palette of colours is likened to nishiki or silk brocades. It is most likely the depiction of a production performed at the Morita-za Theatre in November 1810. The bold graphic stylisation and abstraction of form in prints such as this exerted a great influence on European artists. The South Kensington Museum (now the V&A) acquired a major collection of Japanese prints in 1886, making a large body of these images available to artists and a wider public for the first time.