Otomo no Kuronushi, from the series "Fashionable Children as the Six Immortal Poets (Furyu kodakara rokkasen)"
- Date:
- c. 1814/17
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print; oban
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
This Art Institute of Chicago [oban](/glossary/oban), dated c. 1814/17, casts a child as Otomo no Kuronushi, the ninth-century waka poet known for a melancholy autumn poem and for a legendary scene in which he is depicted secretly painting his rival Komachi's poem onto an old book to discredit her — a moment that became the basis for the Noh play "Soshi-arai Komachi." Eizan's child Kuronushi would have carried these associations for an educated viewer, perhaps cued by a brush, scroll, or other prop. Within the six-sheet set the Kuronushi sheet sits opposite the Komachi sheet in a kind of paired tension, and the two would have been read together as the most plot-laden of the six. As an example of mitate-as-children the design is also one of the milder, more affectionate uses of the convention.
c. 1824/29
Color woodblock print; oban
c. 1814/17
Color woodblock print; center sheet of oban triptych (right sheet: 1963.613)
c. 1814/17
Color woodblock print; oban
early 19th century
Color woodblock print; oban
Otomo no Kuronushi, from the series "Fashionable Children as the Six Immortal Poets (Furyu kodakara rokkasen)" was created by Kikukawa Eizan (菊川英山) in c. 1814/17.
Otomo no Kuronushi, from the series "Fashionable Children as the Six Immortal Poets (Furyu kodakara rokkasen)" depicts children.
