The night is full and a hundred flowers are fragrant in the western palace/ she orders the screen to be rolled up, regretting the passing of spring/ with the ‘yunhe’ across her lap she gazes at the moon/ the colours of the trees are hazy in the indistinct moonlight – Wang Changling, from the series One hundred aspects of the moon

This print is the literal visualisation of two couplets by the eighth-century Chinese poet Wang Zhangling. A noblewoman interrupted her play of the string instrument when she noticed the lovely spring night outside. The ‘yunhe’ mentioned in the title poem indicates the type of wood used to make the Chinese lute ('pipa'). Yoshitoshi, however, interpreted this as the 'qin', a seven-string zither.