Ono no Komachi at Seki Temple, from the series The Seven Fashionable Komachi (Furyu nana Komachi)
Isoda Koryusai (Japanese, 1735–1790)
Edo period (1615–1868), about 1771
- Medium
- Color woodblock print; chuban
- Classification
- Dimensions
- 26 × 19.1 cm (10 1/4 × 7 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
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Two young women walking on a dock cover their faces demurely as they encounter a man in a boat. One wears a robe with a cherry-blossom design, a flower strongly associated with Ono no Komachi, a famous ninth-century poet. The scene illustrates a poem by Komachi, inscribed in the cloud above: I that am lonely, Like a reed root-cut Should a stream entice me, Would go, I think. (Translation by Arthur Waley) This poem was written by Komachi when she received an invitation to leave her self-imposed seclusion. Ashamed by her aged appearance, Komachi refused
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
