Ono no Komachi Visiting Kiyomizu Temple, from the series The Fashionable Seven Komachi (Furyu nana Komachi)
Edo period (1615–1868), about 1788
Medium
Color woodblock print; oban
Dimensions
38.7 × 25.4 cm (15 1/4 × 10 in.)
Classification
Department
Arts of Asia
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
86939
Art Historical Context
In the vibrant world of Edo-period Japan, Chôbunsai Eishi (1756–1829), a master of ukiyo-e woodblock prints, captured fleeting beauty with elegant finesse. This *oban* print from around 1788, titled *Ono no Komachi Visiting Kiyomizu Temple*, belongs to his series *The Fashionable Seven Komachi (Furyu nana Komachi)*. Eishi reimagines Ono no Komachi—one of Japan's legendary waka poets and a symbol of ethereal beauty from the 9th-10th century—as a stylish contemporary courtesan. Here, she graces the iconic Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto, perched dramatically over a ravine, blending historic reverence w...
About the Artist
Chôbunsai Eishi · 1756–1829
Chôbunsai Eishi, born Hosoda Tokitomi in 1756 to a prosperous samurai family of the Fujiwara clan in Edo, inherited a substantial stipend of 500 koku of rice annually. His grandfather had served as the shogunate's Treasury Minister, and upon his father Hosoda Tokiyuki's death in 1772, Eishi became family head while holding a position in Shogun Tokugawa Ieharu's palace from 1781. Unusually for a uk...