Keisai Eisen 渓斎英泉

Sitting underneath cherry blossoms that match her soft pink robe, a young woman strums her shamisen. This three-stringed instrument was ubiquitous in the pleasure quarters, often combined with drums to entertain at parties and performances. For many of the samurai elite, courtesans accomplished in the art of music

and poetry were considered highly appealing.

This print, the right part of a triptych, would have been combined with depictions of two other women playing the zither and the fiddle.