Ono no Komachi Washing the Copybook, from the series The Fashionable Seven Komachi (Furyu nana Komachi)

Description

This series of seven prints, four of which are on display in this gallery, show scenes from the life of the poet Ono no Komachi. Many of these events became the basis of Nō and Kabuki plays and were also popular subjects for visual arts. Each story illustrated in the series is identifiable from a few visual clues. Here three women doing laundry by the river stand in for Komachi; the scene alludes to an incident in which the poet washed a poetry book to wipe away altered text inserted by a rival.

Provenance

Shigehisa Mori (also S. H. Mori), Chicago; sold to Kate Sturges Buckingham (1858–1937), Chicago, Jan. 1915; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1925.

Ono no Komachi Washing the Copybook, from the series The Fashionable Seven Komachi (Furyu nana Komachi)

Chôbunsai Eishi

Edo period (1615–1868), about 1788

Accession Number

24105

Medium

Color woodblock print; oban

Dimensions

38.4 × 25.7 cm (15 1/8 × 10 1/8 in.)

Classification

woodblock print

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Clarence Buckingham Collection