Ishikawa Toyonobu
Japanese, 1711-1785
Praying for Rain Komachi (Amagoi Komachi)
INV-2329
Ishikawa Toyonobu
Japanese, 1711-1785Edo period (1615–1868), about 1755
Praying for Rain Komachi (Amagoi Komachi)
Ishikawa Toyonobu Japanese, 1711-1785 →Japanese (culture or style)woodblock printprint
Date
Edo period (1615–1868), about 1755
Medium
Color woodblock print (benizuri-e); hashira-e
Dimensions
27.2 × 10.6 cm (10 3/4 × 4 3/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Clarence Buckingham Collection
Here poet Ono no Komachi has just recited a poem about rain, causing the heavens to open up. This is an example of a hashira-e (pillar print), which would have been displayed on one of the pillars of a traditional Japanese home. Ishikawa Toyonobu excelled in creating designs for this type of print at a time when the size and format had just become standardized. Additionally, this image is a benizuri-e, a print that has only two or three colors, including beni, a pinkish red. Works with this coloring were prominent before multicolored prints were developed in the 1760s. The poem written above the image reads:
Raindrops on the cover,
A protection against the frost for the narcissus blossom.
(Translation by Kenji Toda)
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
