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)
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
Credit Line
Clarence Buckingham Collection
Related Artworks
A Parody of Yuranosuke in the Pleasure Quarters (Mitate Yuranosuke yukyo)
Chôbunsai Eishi
The Courtesan Shizuka of the Shizutamaya
Chôbunsai Eishi
Wakana, Part 1 (Wakana, jo), from the series "A Fashionable Parody of the Tale of Genji (Furyu yatsushi Genji)"
Chôbunsai Eishi
The actor Bando Mitsugoro II as Ishii Genzo
Tōshūsai Sharaku