[1][2] Based on a short story by Shōfu Muramatsu, it follows an onnagata (male actor specialising in playing female roles) struggling for artistic mastery in late 19th century Japan.

Kikunosuke Onoe, commonly known as Kiku, is the adopted son of a famous Tokyo kabuki actor and is training to succeed his father in an illustrious career.

His family is outraged, and Kiku is forced to leave Tokyo, taking a train to Nagoya to hone his craft away from his father, much to the latter's fury.

Proud that Kiku is finally happy, Otoku urges him to join the river parade, as the audience is waiting to see and praise him.

[3] It was also the initial film of what was later regarded as a trilogy about theater during the Meiji period (the others being the lost A Woman of Osaka [Naniwa onna, 1940] and The Life of an Actor [Geidō Ichidai Otoko, 1941]).

[5] Muramatsu's short story was based on kabuki actor Kikunosuke Onoe II (尾上 菊之助(2代目), 1868–1897).

[6] Many critics regard the film as Mizoguchi's major pre-war achievement,[7] if not his best work,[8][9][10] lauding its cinematography,[9] marked by the use of long takes[10] and frequent dolly shots,[11] and emphasising its theme of female concern.

[12] In his 1985 review for the Chicago Reader, Jonathan Rosenbaum pointed out Mizoguchi's "refusal to use close-ups" and argued that "the theme of female sacrifice that informs most of his major works is given a singular resonance and complexity here.