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Description
A woman leans lightly forward to play a koto. While she appears to be inside, backed by a folding screen and seated near a paper lantern that glows softly, the inset shows blossoming cherry trees around Shinobazu Pond at Ueno, with its shrine to the Buddhist deity Benzaiten. Snakes are associated with this goddess of music, eloquence, longevity and beauty, and with sexual passion. Images of Benzaiten often include a large white snake. The signature on this secondary image seems to indicate that the artist En'un is a woman.
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