Ono no Komachi at Seki Temple, from the series The Fashionable Seven Komachi (Furyu nana Komachi)

Discussion

FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

Legend has it that the poet Ono no Komachi became a nun in her old age and lived in seclusion near Seki Temple, northeast of Kyoto. The once-famous beauty, ashamed of her aged appearance, repeatedly refused social invitations. In a poem associated with this period, Komachi expresses her desire to drift away like a reed on a stream because of her loneliness. In a scene that alludes to the poem, two women stop to speak to a man as he passes them on a riverbank.

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