This print is from an untitled series of depictions of women in everyday life, accompanied by prose ballads and a poem. Each print has a circular cartouche illustrating an unseen activity described in the ballad - in this case, a fish seller's basket. Here a geisha is shown filling her pipe whilst leaning in a relaxed manner against a brazier.

The ballad reads:
"I opened the window by the leafy cherry tree, and waited for the cuckoo to sing once more. But what I heard instead, was, 'Bonito, bonito!' 'Hey', I thought, 'how great!' and I flew out of the door. I'm pretty fickle, aren't I?"¹

View the same print in the collection of The Spencer Museum of Art here.

¹ For further reading and the translations, see Roger Keyes, Surimono: Privately Published Japanese Prints in the Spencer Museum of Art, (New York, 1984), no. 40, p. 102, cat. 153.