The Performer operates the utsushi-e magic lantern show, bringing tales like Kachi Kachi Yama to life through projected images. These individuals worked within Edo-period yose theaters, venues offering diverse entertainments akin to vaudeville halls. Hidden behind the screen to preserve the magical illusion, they manipulated painted glass slides. Multiple performers often collaborated, each handling separate lanterns to project different characters or elements simultaneously onto the scene.

Animation involved darting slides across the light source, creating flip-book-like motion. Performers physically moved through the performance space with their lanterns, pivoting and projecting characters from varied angles to simulate dynamic action. This multi-lantern technique, known as "brocade shadow plays" in western Japan, enabled complex character interactions like those between the tanuki and rabbit. Stock theatrical figures such as Fukusuke narrated between sequences, bridging story segments. Performances sometimes featured at shrine festivals, incorporating seasonal motifs like cherry blossoms into the visual narrative. The mechanics were replicated in omocha-e play-prints, where users cut out and manually swept slides across a stage illustration to reenact scenes.