Courting Komachi (Kayoi Komachi), from the series Seven Fashionable Figures of Ono no Komachi (Furyu nana Komachi yatushi sugata-e)

In this print, a contemporary courtesan and her attendant walk at night, presumably to visit a client. The latter holds a lantern that shines a beam of light across the design, changing the color of all that passes through it. The sheen on the lit portion of the courtesan’s sash was created with animal glue, an adhesive made of rendered animal tissue. This scene is meant to recall an episode in which famed poet Ono no Komachi asked one of her suitors to visit her on 100 successive days in order to prove his love.