# Ono no Komachi at Seki Temple, from the series The Fashionable Seven Komachi (Furyu nana Komachi)

- By: Chôbunsai Eishi (Japanese, 1756-1829)
- Date: Edo period (1615–1868), about 1788
- Medium: Color woodblock print; oban
- Classification: Print
- Dimensions: 37.5 × 25 cm (14 3/4 × 9 7/8 in.)
- Culture: Japan
- Credit line: Frederick W. Gookin Collection
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/32591)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/b7b19b2c-113f-6329-1e23-b76bc846ca49/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Legend has it that the poet Ono no Komachi became a nun in her old age and lived in seclusion near Seki Temple, northeast of Kyoto. The once-famous beauty, ashamed of her aged appearance, repeatedly refused social invitations. In a poem associated with this period, Komachi expresses her desire to drift away like a reed on a stream because of her loneliness. In a scene that alludes to the poem, two women stop to speak to a man as he passes them on a riverbank.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0