Art Institute of Chicago

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

Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾 北斎

Date

Edo period (1615–1868), about 1810

Medium

Color woodblock print; oban

Culture

Japan

Department

Arts of Asia

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

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)

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