The Poetess Ono no Komachi, from the series "Six Immortal Poets (Rokkasen)"

From the Art Institute of Chicago record

Famous poets of Japan’s classical age have been grouped into sets for centuries, likely as a way to teach their writings. The poet Ono no Komachi was the only woman among the Six Immortal Poets, commemorated in a print series by Katsushika Hokusai. She was born in the ninth century, and very little is known about her. Accounts of her vary: Some revered her as a talented poet and an incomparable beauty, while others portrayed her as an impoverished and unattractive old woman. Here she is dressed in ninth-century court robes as she looks over her shoulder from behind a standing screen. In the poem, Komachi subtly deplores the unreliability of a man’s love, comparing the change in a flower’s color to the changes in one’s heart: What fades But is not seen in color Is in the blossom In the heart of that person In my world. (Translation by Roy E. Teele)