shita-uri シタ売

Small prints of actors, or genre scenes with actors produced around the mid-19th century which bear seals reading shita-uri. During the 1840s, when the ban against actor prints was particularly stringent, prints could not be displayed, but were sold under the counter at bookstores. For that reason, a seal bearing the words shita-uri or sold under [the counter] was affixed to draw attention to them.