The “sanbasō” pleasure-quarters dance is a Kabuki parody of a classical Noh dance of the same name in which three actors, one of them an old man, dance in order to pray for auspicious harvests. In the Kabuki version, the part of the old man is played by the courtesan Chitose Dayū, who begins the dance by faithfully mimicking an old man, but transforms during her performance and finishes the dance as a courtesan. In this print, the actor Nakamura Utaemon VI plays the role of the courtesan Chitose Dayū. His clothing and headdress are those of a high-class courtesan but his posture, expression, and hand gestures all evoke a curmudgeonly old man. Kōkei often includes family crests of the actors in his prints—here, the crest with intersecting scrolls is of the actor Nakamura Utaemon VI.