Shibaraku

Gongorô draws his huge sword and with one sweeping blow, lops off the heads of all the low-ranking samurai, signified by a comical bunch of cotton heads pulled off with a string (see lower left of image above). Having saved the innocents, he leans his sword against his shoulder and shouting the nonsense words, "yattoko tottcha untoko na!" performs a roppô as he exits on the hanamichi runway.

Note the blue-lined makeup (ai guma) of the villain Takehira. The actor in green crouching to the left in the image is actually a kôken, whose sole job is to make the actor playing Gongorô look good.

Source: Kara Kabuki no Miryouku (Tankousha, 1973) author: Toita Yasuji; photos: Yoshida Chiaki, #7