Description

Hokusai designed this print series from the perspective of a confused nurse attempting to illustrate classical poetry, but missing the subtle allusions. This interpretation creates a comical disconnect between poem and image. The poem reads:

The wild hill pheasants
Drag their feet and drag their tails,
Splendid though they be,
Through this long, long weary night,
Like me, laying here alone.

Considered a god among poets, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (about 660–739) wrote of an emotionally tiring night. The nurse thought instead of the physically exhausting work of fishermen dragging a net upstream. Smoke billows across the scene, directing our attention to a figure, perhaps the nurse, in the distant house.