The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, from One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets Explained by an Old Nurse

1835–36

Katsushika Hokusai

(Japanese, 1760–1849)
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
color woodblock print
25.8 x 37.8 cm (10 3/16 x 14 7/8 in.)
Bequest of Edward L. Whittemore 1930.190
Location: Not on view

Description

Katsushika 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 what would have been considered a comical disconnect between poem and image. The poem, by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (about 660–739), reads as follows:

Must I sleep alone
through the long autumn nights,
long like the dragging tail
of the mountain pheasant
separated from his dove?

—translation by Joshua Mostow

Hitomaro 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.
  • (Yamanaka & Co., New York, NY, sold to Edward L. Whittemore)
    ?–1930
    Edward L. Whittemore [1862–1930], Cleveland, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1930–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Howard Conley Hollis. "The Edward Loder Whittemore Collection of Japanese Prints." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 17, no. 4 (1930): 64-66. 64-66
    Morse, Peter, Hokusai Katsushika, and Clay MacCauley. Hokusai, One Hundred Poets. New York: G. Braziller, 1989. 30-31
  • Highlights of Japanese Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 7, 2025-June 14, 2026).
    Japanese Gallery 235 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 30, 2018-January 6, 2019).
    Japanese Prints from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 5-October 28, 1934).
  • {{cite web|title=Poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, from One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets Explained by an Old Nurse|url=false|author=Katsushika Hokusai|year=1835–36|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1930.190