Priest Kisen: a Courtesan Holding a Pair of Painted Shells, from the series Parodies of Six Immortal Poets in Modern Dress

This series presented six images of contemporary courtesans paired with allusions to the Six Immortal Poets (Rokkasen 六歌仙), a group of widely admired 9th-century Japanese poets. In the Edo period many people knew these poets was through a card game, uta-garuta 歌ガルタ, which was played by matching the first part of a famous poem with its conclusion. Here the poet is Kisen Hōshi 喜撰法師, who is represented in the upper left corner in his card-game form.

The allusions become denser below. The courtesan holds a shell from the shell-matching game (kai awase 貝合わせ), which is painted with a scene from the 11th-century novel The Tale of Genji. The poem in the card above refers to the site of Uji; the painted scene is from a part of the novel that takes place in Uji.