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Komachi Washing Her Book of Poems
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Details
- Series
- Seven Komachi
- Associated place
- Date
- early 19th century
- Artist/maker
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Kikukawa Eizan (1787 - 1867) (designer)Ono no Komachi (c. AD 825 – c. 900) (author)
- Associated people
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Ono no Komachi (c. AD 825 – c. 900) (subject)
- Material and technique
- nishiki-e (multi-block) woodblock print, printed with water-based vegetable pigments
- Dimensions
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mount 55.6 x 40.4 cm (height x width)
print 36.9 x 25.7 cm (height x width)
- Material index
- Technique index
- Object type index
- No. of items
- 1
- Credit line
- Bequeathed by Oswald J. Couldrey, 1958.
- Accession no.
- EA1958.246
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Further reading
Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 24 August-30 November 2005, Beauties of the Four Seasons, Mitsuko Watanabe, ed. (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2005), no. 34 on p. 72, illus. p. 73
Glossary (4)
mitate, mitate-e, nishiki-e, vegetable pigments
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mitate
Mitate, or riddle, is a form of visual and literary parody on a classical theme. It required prior knowledge in order to decipher it.
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mitate-e
Mitate-e, or riddle, is a form of visual and literary parody on a classical theme. It required prior knowledge in order to decipher it.
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nishiki-e
Nishiki-e literally means 'brocade pictures' and refers to multi-coloured woodblock prints.
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vegetable pigments
Vegetable pigments were used to create coloured dyes for Japanese prints, paintings, and textiles. These pigments often faded over time due to the chemical reactions they underwent.
Location
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- currently in research collection
Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.
Publications online
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Beauties of the Four Seasons
This print is a mitate from a different series of Nana Komachi. In the book at the left top corner with cherry blossom, the same poem by Ono no Komachi is inscribed [see EAX.4436] but the mitate images are different. This derives from the image of Utamaro’s version of Sōshiarai-komachi (1801-3), which illustrates a scene of a mother and a daughter looking at a tenarai-sōshi (booklet of poems). In this print by Eizan a woman leans over the shoulder of another, offering a sōshi book as a substitute for the one she is reading.
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