Ashmolean Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Each print in this series illustrates a poem from a famous 13th-century poetry anthology with a scene from Japanese history or legend. Begun during the repressive Tenpō Reforms of the mid-1830s, the series includes many surreptitious portraits of popular actors. This print shows the dancer Giō, favourite of the tyrant Taira no Kiyomori. One day Kiyomori replaced her with another dancer, Hotoke. Devastated, Giō became a nun. Years later, Hotoke visited Giō’s humble house deep in the countryside to ask her forgiveness. Here, Giō recalls the sadness both women have endured, an emotion expressed in the poem above.