
In this print, two women and a young boy have gone to Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto to view the cherry blossoms. The boy ties a slip of paper with a poem on it onto one of the trees. This image refers to a myth from Ono no Komachi’s life, in which a young woman visiting Kiyomizu Temple overhears a monk’s prayers for Komachi and leads him to the elderly poet’s house. The print’s pale coloring—confined to green, pink, yellow, and shades of gray—gives the scene a soft, lyrical quality.

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