Eupatorium flowers / Fujibakama

This print is number 30 in the series “54 Passions in the Present.”
A group of three beautiful women, or bijin, dressed in colorful kimonos and covered by white robes, and a more discreetly dressed maidservant, are walking toward the entrance of a mansion. The book at the top contains a poem from The Tale of Genji in which Prince Genji's eldest son, Yūguri, tries unsuccessfully to win the heart of the beautiful Tamakazura, to whom he presents autumnal eupatory flowers (fujibakama in Japanese). At that moment, with great boldness, he grabbed her sleeve and recited:

From the same field,
the eupatorium flowers
filled with dew,
so that you may have pity
and understand what I feel.

The poem also has an annotation, signed by Sentei Manga, in which he points out that: The grace lies in the name Fujibakama, that is, the name of the flower, since in the old script it was written with the same letter as the surname Fujiwara, the family to which the lady belonged.

David Almazán. Exhibition "Prints of Prince Genji", Red Itiner 2023