Ono no Komachi Praying for Rain
Isoda Koryusai (Japanese, 1735–1790)
Edo period (1615–1868), about 1771
- Medium
- Color woodblock print; hashira-e
- Classification
- Dimensions
- 69.3 × 11.5 cm (27 1/4 × 4 1/2 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
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
In one legend about Ono no Komachi, the ninth-century poet summons rain by reciting an ode, thereby ending a long drought. In this print, an 18th-century woman in modified court dress accomplishes the same feat by reading the poem in her hand, possibly a love letter.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
