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Ono no Komachi Washing the Copybook (Soshiarai Komachi)
Torii Kiyomasu II (Japanese, active early 18th century)
Edo period (1615–1868), 1735/40
- Medium
- Hand-colored woodblock print; hosoban
- Classification
- Dimensions
- 29.6 × 16 cm (11 11/16 × 6 5/16 in.)
- Culture
- Japan
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Asia
- Credit line
- Clarence Buckingham Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
In this first print from a series showing seven scenes from the life of Ono no Komachi, the poet washes a book to remove text recently added by a rival poet, Ōtomo no Kuronushi, likely depicted as the angry figure on the right.
This image was printed in black ink and then hand colored. The artist, Torii Kiyomasu II, came from the famous Torii line of printmakers, who specialized in depictions of actors, birds, historical subjects, and flowers. They made up one of the principal schools of artists around when the birth of the Japanese popular print took place, during the Edo period.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
