Torii Kiyomitsu I
Japanese, 1735-1785
Ono no Komachi Washing the Copybook
INV-1993
Torii Kiyomitsu I
Japanese, 1735-1785Edo period (1615–1868), 1764
Ono no Komachi Washing the Copybook
Torii Kiyomitsu I Japanese, 1735-1785 →Japanese (culture or style)woodblock printprint
Date
Edo period (1615–1868), 1764
Medium
Color woodblock print; hosoban, mizu-e
Dimensions
30.8 × 14 cm (12 1/2 × 5 1/2 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Clarence Buckingham Collection
This print refers to the story in which poet Ono no Komachi washes a copy of an ancient text in order to disrupt a rival’s efforts to defame her. The work is a color print that does not use black ink for the outlines, also known as a water picture or a mizu-e. Mizu-e were particularly popular in Japan in the 1760s. This print was once in the private collection of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who sold it to Art Institute benefactor Kate Buckingham in 1915.
The poem in the banner reads:
No one sows them—
From what seed are they?
The floating grasses
Flourishing profusely
Amid the rippling waves.
(Translated by Felice Fischer)
Also notable
Works in the same vein
Komurasaki of the Miuraya and Shirai Gompachi (Miuraya Komurasaki, Shirai Gompachi)
Kitagawa Utamaro 喜多川 歌麿 Japanese, c.1753-1806
Hamamatsu, from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi)," also known as the Tokaido with Poem (Kyoka iri Tokaido)
Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川 広重 Japanese, 1797-1858
Mitsuke: Ferries Crossing the Tenryu River (Mitsuke, Tenryugawa funawatashi), from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi)," also known as the Tokaido with Poem (Kyoka iri Tokaido)
Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川 広重 Japanese, 1797-1858
