Kuronushi from the series The New Six Immortal Poets
Details
- Author / creator
- Chōbunsai Eishi (Japanese, 1756–1829)
- Object type
- Date or period
- c. 1795
- Dimensions summary
- Sheet: 33.4 × 20.5 cm
- Place of origin
- Japan
- Acquisition method
- Purchase
- Credit line
- Purchased with the National Heritage Memorial Fund, 1956
- Paper / support
- Japanese paper
- State and impression
- Lifetime impression
- Image rights
- Public domain (CC0)
About this object
This print shows a courtesan adjusting her hairdo before a mirror as her attendant looks on. In the cartouche next to her is a poem by Ōtomo no Kuronishi, a Heian period courtier celebrated as one of the Six Immortal Poets. His portrait and name appear in the disk-shaped title cartouche.
The poem reads: "Mirror Mountain / Has been raised high / To show us all / Our Lord will live a thousand years!" The poem appears in the Anthology of Ancient and Modern Verse (Kokinwakashū) with a note that it was sung at the investiture of the Emperor Daigo (885-930). Here, the courtesan could be perceived as a stand-in for the emperor, making this a rather risqué print.
Materials and technique
Color woodblock print
Signature and marks
Signature: Eishi zu.; Seal: kiwame. Publisher: Nisimuraya Yohachi (Eiju han, emblem); (“The isncirption at the top of the print is a verse by the poet Otomo no Kuronushi with a pun on a place name meaning Mirror Mountain: "Kagamiyama iza tachiyorite mite yukan toshi henuru mi wa oi ya shinuru to."”)
