A Picture by Hishikawa Moronobu: Woman with a Set of Poem Cards

A Picture by Hishikawa Moronobu: Woman with a Set of Poem Cards, in the Cleveland Museum of Art, reproduces an image designed by the [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) founder showing a young woman holding a stack of karuta poem cards. Karuta—the matching game built around the Hyakunin isshu poetry anthology—was one of the most widely played household pastimes of Edo, particularly during the New Year holidays. Moronobu's composition isolates the woman against a largely empty ground. She stands slightly off-center, her body turned three-quarters toward the viewer; she holds the cards in one hand at hip height and lifts the other to gesture, as though about to read out the opening line of a poem and challenge a partner to match it. The kimono is drawn in heavy, confident outlines with sparingly applied pattern—the trademark Hishikawa Moronobu approach in which the silhouette and posture carry the design rather than dense surface ornament. The Cleveland Museum of Art records the sheet with an early nineteenth-century date, reflecting that the impression preserved there is a later reissue of the original design. The longevity of the image is itself significant. More than a century after Moronobu's death, Edo publishers and collectors still wanted access to compositions by the recognized founder of ukiyo-e, and shops continued to reprint or trace his designs. As a document of early Edo ukiyo-e and of Hishikawa Moronobu's ongoing influence on later print culture, the Cleveland sheet is a useful piece of evidence for the staying power of his visual language.