
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.

Komurasaki of the Miuraya and Shirai Gompachi (Miuraya Komurasaki, Shirai Gompachi)
Kitagawa Utamaro 喜多川 歌麿 Japanese, c.1753-1806

Hamamatsu, from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi)," also known as the Tokaido with Poem (Kyoka iri Tokaido)
Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川 広重 Japanese, 1797-1858

Mitsuke: Ferries Crossing the Tenryu River (Mitsuke, Tenryugawa funawatashi), from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi)," also known as the Tokaido with Poem (Kyoka iri Tokaido)
Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川 広重 Japanese, 1797-1858