Ono no Komachi, from the series Fūryū rokkasen (The Fashionable Six Poetic Immortals)
Suzuki Harunobu, Ono no Komachi, from the series Fūryū rokkasen (The Fashionable Six Poetic Immortals), ca. 1768, color woodblock print with light embossing on paper; chūban nishiki-e, The Mary Andrews Ladd Collection, public domain, 32.75
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- Title
Ono no Komachi, from the series Fūryū rokkasen (The Fashionable Six Poetic Immortals)
- Related Titles
original language: 小野小町
series (original language): 風流六哥仙
series (translated): The Fashionable Six Poetic Immortals
series (transliterated): Fūryū rokkasen
transliterated: Ono no Komachi
- Artist
- Date
ca. 1768
- Period
Japan: Edo period (1615-1868)
- Medium
color woodblock print with light embossing on paper; chūban nishiki-e
- Catalogue Raisonné
Chiba 2002, 174; Ukiyoe shūka v. 9, pl. 122
- Dimensions (H x W x D)
image: 11 7/16 in x 8 7/16 in; sheet: 11 7/16 in x 8 1/2 in
- Inscriptions & Markings
inscription: 風流六哥仙 // 小野小町 // 色見へて / うつらふものハ / 世の中の / 人のこゝろの / 花にそありける, printed in black within cloud-shaped register, upper middle Transliteration (Translation): Fūryū rokkasen // Ono no Komachi // Iro miede / utsurou mono wa / yo no naka no / hito no kokoro no / hana ni zo arikeru (The Fashionable Six Poetic Immortals: Ono no Komachi: Not changing color yet fading all the same: such is the flower of the heart of one in this world of love.) Language: Japanese Description: Poem by Ono no Komachi (fl. ca. 850), Kokinshū no. 797. English translation by Lewis Cook; see Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology, ed. Haruo Shirane (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008), 109-109 for discussion of possible readings of this poem.
signature: 春信画, printed in black, center right Transliteration (Translation): Harunobu ga (picture [by] Harunobu) Language: Japanese
- Collection Area
Asian Art; Graphic Arts
- Category
Prints
Japanese Traditional Prints
- Object Type
relief print
- Culture
Japanese
- Credit Line
The Mary Andrews Ladd Collection
- Accession Number
32.75
- Copyright
public domain
- Terms
A famous love poem by the ninth-century female poet Ono no Komachi hovers in the cloud-shaped register at the top of this print:
iro miede!T!Not changing color utsurou mono wa!T!yet fading all the same: yo no naka no!T!such is the flower of hito no kokoro no!T!the heart of one in hana ni zo arikeru!T!this world of love
Harunobu offers a tongue-in-cheek interpretation of this lament about the fickleness of love. The women's garments, the well-appointed interior, and piles of bedding on a chest identify the setting as a prosperous brothel—perhaps the Wakamatsuya (House of Young Pines). The open letter may be a note of farewell from a client.
- Exhibitions
2011 The Artist's Touch, The Craftsman's Hand: Three Centuries of Japanese Prints from the Portland Art Museum Portland Art Museum
2018 Suzuki Harunobu and the Culture of Color Portland Art Museum
