Ono no Komachi Visiting Kiyomizu Temple, from the series The Fashionable Seven Komachi (Furyu nana Komachi)

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FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

In this print, two women and a young boy have gone to Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto to view the cherry blossoms. The boy ties a slip of paper with a poem on it onto one of the trees. This image refers to a myth from Ono no Komachi’s life, in which a young woman visiting Kiyomizu Temple overhears a monk’s prayers for Komachi and leads him to the elderly poet’s house. The print’s pale coloring—confined to green, pink, yellow, and shades of gray—gives the scene a soft, lyrical quality.

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