A Woman's Poetry Party

From the Art Institute of Chicago record

Generally, the groups of women depicted in prints were courtesans and their attendants, possibly waiting for male guests. In this unusual print, well-dressed women of the upper classes arrive in the large open parlor of the palace of a daimyo (a provincial governor) near the sea at Suma. The three votive-style hangings in the tokonoma (alcove) in the right background indicate the poetry party. Shown are three ancient poets revered in the Edo period: eighth-century Kakinomoto no Hitomaro and Yamabe no Akihito; in the center is the sixth-century poetess Sotori.