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Okumura Masanobu

Courting Komachi (Kayoi Komachi), from the series Famous Scenes from Japanese Puppet Plays (Yamato irotake)

Edo period (1615–1868), 1705/06
Woodblock print; oban
27.3 × 39.1 cm (10.7 × 15.4 in)

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In the collection of Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago · as of July 2026

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FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

Two actors in an imagined Kabuki drama enact a scene from a puppet play based on a legend about ninth-century poet Ono no Komachi. Komachi instructed a suitor to prove his love by visiting her on 100 successive days. On the final day, he did not appear because he was caught in a storm and died. Here the suitor’s ghost visits Komachi in the middle of the night. The Art Institute and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, are the only two museums with a full set of this series of prints by Okumura Masanobu.

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