Ono no Komachi at Seki Temple, from the series The Fashionable Seven Komachi (Furyu nana Komachi)
Edo period (1615–1868), about 1788
Medium
Color woodblock print; oban
Dimensions
37.5 × 25 cm (14 3/4 × 9 7/8 in.)
Classification
woodblock print
Department
Arts of Asia
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
32591
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
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.
About the Artist
Chôbunsai Eishi · 1756–1829
Chôbunsai Eishi, born Hosoda Tokitomi in 1756 to a prosperous samurai family of the Fujiwara clan in Edo, inherited a substantial stipend of 500 koku of rice annually. His grandfather had served as the shogunate's Treasury Minister, and upon his father Hosoda Tokiyuki's death in 1772, Eishi became family head while holding a position in Shogun Tokugawa Ieharu's palace from 1781. Unusually for a uk...