The Snow Woman (Yuki Onna) in the play Yuki Onna Gomai Hagoita, from the book Dai Chikamatsu Zenshū

Created in 1922 during the Taisho period, this print illustrates the Yuki Onna (Snow Woman) from the play "Yuki Onna Gomai Hagoita," published in the comprehensive collection of Chikamatsu Monzaemon's dramatic works. The Yuki Onna is a supernatural figure from Japanese folklore: a beautiful, pale woman who appears during snowstorms and is associated with death by freezing. Shoen's rendering uses ink, color, and gold on paper to give the spectral figure an otherworldly luminosity, with the gold heightening the sense of supernatural radiance against the cold white of the snow. Chikamatsu, often called Japan's Shakespeare, wrote the dramatic adaptation that brought this folk figure to the puppet and kabuki stage. Shoen's illustration captures the character's dual nature as both beautiful and deadly, her serene expression concealing the lethal cold she embodies.