The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 25, 2024
Kuronushi from the series The New Six Immortal Poets
c. 1795
(Japanese, 1756–1829)
Sheet: 33.4 x 20.5 cm (13 1/8 x 8 1/16 in.)
The Fanny Tewksbury King Collection 1956.755
Location: not on view
Description
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.
- ?–1956Fanny Tewksbury King [1867–1949], Cleveland, OH, sold by her estate to the Cleveland Museum of Art1956–The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Ukiyo-e: The Floating World Revisited. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 2-April 3, 1994).Japanese Prints and Ceramics from The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, and The Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College. College of Wooster, Wooster, OH (1981).
- {{cite web|title=Kuronushi from the series The New Six Immortal Poets|url=false|author=Chōbunsai Eishi|year=c. 1795|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1956.755