Suzuki Harunobu 鈴木 春信
Japanese, 1725 (?)-1770
Ono no Komachi Praying for Rain
INV-2106
Suzuki Harunobu 鈴木 春信
Japanese, 1725 (?)-1770Edo period (1615–1868), 1770
Ono no Komachi Praying for Rain
Suzuki Harunobu 鈴木 春信 Japanese, 1725 (?)-1770 →Japanese (culture or style)woodblock printprint
Date
Edo period (1615–1868), 1770
Medium
Color woodblock print; oban
Dimensions
35.6 × 26.7 cm (14 × 10 1/2 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Clarence Buckingham Collection
In this image, a woman who is meant to represent poet Ono no Komachi is about to set a toy ship in the water.
Behind her, an attendant holds up an umbrella to protect her from the rain. The poem above is a play on two names for Japan:
There is indeed reason to have bright sunlight here in
the Land of the Rising Sun,
Yet why is it also called “Under Heaven (Rain)?”
(Translation by Kenji Toda)
(The Japanese words for heaven and rain are homonyms.)
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
