Abe no Nakamaro, from the series A True Mirror of Chinese and Japanese Poems

1828·Color woodblock print; nagaban·51.3 × 22.3 cm (20 1/4 × 8 13/16 in.)

<p>This poet is also the seventh in the series One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets. The artist presents here the more mature Nakamaro seated on the terrace of a Chinese palace with a group of friends. He remained in China more than thirty years, never returning to his home near Nara. The poem implied here is the same as that in the other print, now directed to the moon itself. In spite of a successful career in China, he never became reconciled to his exile.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1828
Medium: Color woodblock print; nagaban
Dimensions: 51.3 × 22.3 cm (20 1/4 × 8 13/16 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Katsushika Hokusai

Artist

Katsushika Hokusai

Painting

Katsushika Hokusai was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, active as a painter and printmaker. His woodblock print series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji includes the iconic print The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Hokusai was instrumental in developing ukiyo-e from a style of portraiture largely focused on courtesans and actors into a much broader style of art that focused on landscapes, plants, and animals. His works had a significant influence on Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet during the wave of Japonisme that spread across Europe in the late 19th century.

Tokyo, Japan

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Poem by Gon-Chunagon Masafusa (Oe no Masafusa), from the series “One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets Explained by a Wet Nurse (Hyakunin isshu uba ga etoki)”

1921 · Color woodblock print

WW-1921-018489