Bijin in a boat with a Biwa

From 1897, this bijin-ga print places a beautiful woman (bijin) in a pleasure boat on the water, playing the biwa (lute) — a combination of feminine beauty, musical accomplishment, and the specific leisure culture of the river. The biwa, associated with cultured feminine accomplishment, gives the subject an aristocratic overtone, while the boat setting evokes the urban pleasure-boating culture of the Sumida River and other waterways that was a fixture of Meiji-era recreation. Shuntei renders the scene with the technical refinement appropriate to a subject combining multiple elements of classical Japanese aesthetic appreciation.