An unsigned painting in the Kyoto-based Maruyama-Shijo school style, showing a geisha performing a Shishimai (Lion dance). In mid-movement holding two peony flowers, the woman swings her bright red mane attached to a hat made with two fans topped with a large peony (this part of the costume evokes a lion's jaws and mane). She is dressed in a sleeveless green gauze overcoat, underneath which she wears a kimono with a pattern similar to the swirling tufts of fur on a lion's body. This is tied together with a red and gold obi belt.

The lion dance and its costumes originate from the noh play of the Shakkyô (The Stone Bridge), which follows the priest-monk, Jakusho, on a pilgrimage to Mount Seiryo in China, whose summit is believed to hold a stone bridge leading to the paradise of Bodhisattva Monju (the Buddhist deity of spiritual wisdom). This divine figure is often depicted riding a mythological creature called a shishi, similar to a lion. These lion creatures acted as guardians of the stone bridge leading to Monju's pure land paradise realm. During the play's climax, either one or two lions dance with peony flowers while dramatically tossing their manes.

Such lion dances were performed around the New Year as a ceremonial piece to dispel evil and ensure good harvests. In the pleasure quarter, Geisha performed a version called Shūchakujishi (The Lion Possessed), which is likely what this painting depicts.

Interestingly the Museum of Fine Art Boston, holds a scroll painting of the same subject with a similar composition and dress, which was painted by an early 19th century artist called Soryû, suggesting that both paintings had a common visual source from which they were copied.