Kuronushi from the series The New Six Immortal Poets
Eishic. 1795
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
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 <em>Anthology of Ancient and Modern Verse</em> <em>(Kokinwakashū)</em> 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.
- Title: Kuronushi from the series The New Six Immortal Poets
- Creator: Chōbunsai Eishi (Japanese, 1756–1829)
- Date Created: c. 1795
- Physical Dimensions: Sheet: 33.4 x 20.5 cm (13 1/8 x 8 1/16 in.)
- Provenance: Fanny Tewksbury King [1867–1949], Cleveland, OH, sold by her estate to the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Type: Print
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1956.755
- Medium: color woodblock print
- Original Title: 新六歌仙 黒主
- Inscriptions: Signature: Eishi zu Seal: kiwame
- Department: Japanese Art
- Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615-1868)
- Credit Line: The Fanny Tewksbury King Collection
- Collection: Japanese Art
- Accession Number: 1956.755
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