Kogō no Tsubone was a high-ranking lady, musician, and Emperor Takakura’s favorite consort. Lord Takafusa had been her first lover, but after the emperor called for her she could not continue their relationship. Takafusa was deeply upset by his inability to contact her once she was the emperor’s consort. Kogō, overcome by guilt and fear, fled the imperial court. The emperor asked a young official to find her by listening for her playing the koto and singing. When she was found and returned to the capital, she gave birth to the emperor’s daughter but was eventually banned from the court by Lord Taira no Kiyomori and became a nun at age 23. In this print, Kogō gazes down at her koto that lays across her extravagantly designed robes.