Ono no Komachi at Seki Temple, from the series The Fashionable Seven Komachi (Furyu nana Komachi)

Art Institute of Chicago

Ono no Komachi at Seki Temple, from the series The Fashionable Seven Komachi (Furyu nana Komachi)

Chobunsai Eishi

Date
Edo period (1615–1868), about 1788
Medium
Color woodblock print; oban
Culture
Japan
Department
Arts of Asia
Institution
Art Institute of Chicago

Legend has it that the poet Ono no Komachi became a nun in her old age and lived in seclusion near Seki Temple, northeast of Kyoto. The once-famous beauty, ashamed of her aged appearance, repeatedly refused social invitations. In a poem associated with this period, Komachi expresses her desire to drift away like a reed on a stream because of her loneliness. In a scene that alludes to the poem, two women stop to speak to a man as he passes them on a riverbank.

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Object type
AAT300041273

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