The photographic quality of the triple portrait is enhanced by plain black printing with a cross-hatch pattern which imitated wood engraving employed in the West for the mass production of photographs. The poem in the rectangular cartouche reads tsukiyuki o matomete mitashi hane no yama, translated in Kiyochika, Meiji Artist of Japan, Henry D. Smith II, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1988, as "oh to see the moon and snow together in the mountain of blossoms." The snow, moon and flower are echoed on the fan held by the three women