Poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, from One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets Explained by an Old Nurse

Poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, from One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets Explained by an Old Nurse is a Katsushika Hokusai print of around 1835 within his Hyakunin isshu uba ga etoki series, which retells the Ogura anthology through ukiyo-e scenes addressed to a popular audience. Hitomaro's lonely image of the mountain pheasant's long drooping tail and a night spent alone is translated into a craggy coastal landscape where fishermen draw nets, dry fish on racks, and gather around makeshift huts beneath rocky cliffs. The inscribed cartouche preserves the classical verse, while the picture itself treats it as a meditation on labor, weather, and isolation in a remote setting. Hokusai uses the same Edo ukiyo-e vocabulary that defines his Thirty-six Views, a low horizon, layered grounds, and a restrained palette of blue and ochre, to bring a Heian-period poem into a recognizably contemporary Japanese world. This impression in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection complements other sheets from the series held by major American museums and gives a clear view of how Hokusai built a sustained dialogue between classical waka and the visual culture of late-Edo print publishing.