Kayoi Komachi, from the series "Seven Elegant Episodes of the Poet Komachi" (Fūryū nanakomachi kayoi)
Chōbunsai Eishi Japanese
Not on view
The subject of "Kayoi Komachi," inscribed in the upper right corner of this print, refers to a tragic story from a classical Noh play. Ono no Komachi, a tenth-century poetess, promises to meet her ardent suitor Fukakusa Shōjō if he agrees to spend a hundred nights on the steps of a courtly oxcart. After ninety-nine nights, he dies. This print is a play on the popular story; the beauty, dressed in a contemporary robe and holding an umbrella, may be on her way to see a lover on a snowy day.
Born of a samurai family, the artist first studied under the Kano school, and the Tokugawa shogun Ieharu gave him the artistic name Eishi.
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