A Young Man and Woman with a Shamisen; Monk Saigyō, from a series alluding to the Three Evening Poems (Sanseki waka)
Suzuki Harunobu Japanese
Not on view
The landscape beyond the railing of a veranda depicts the scene described in the accompanying poem. Two young people appear distracted and isolated from each other—the man holding what appears to be a love letter and the seated woman holding a samisen, a three-stringed instrument associated with the pleasure quarters.
Inscribed in the cartouche at the upper corner is a famous waka (thirty-one-syllable court poem) by the medieval monk-poet Saigyō (1118–1190) that reads:
Kokoro naki
mi ni mo aware wa
shirarekeri
shigi tatsu sawa no
aki no yūgure
Even those who hide feelings
will sense the melancholy—
of a snipe taking flight
over a marsh
on an autumn evening.
—Trans. John T. Carpenter
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