Ono no Komachi from the series The Six Poets Represented by Modern Children (Tosei kodomo rokkasen)

From the 1800 series "The Six Poets Represented by Modern Children" (Tosei kodomo rokkasen) and held by the Harvard Art Museums, this Kitagawa Utamaro print recasts the legendary Heian poetess Ono no Komachi as a contemporary child. The Rokkasen, the Six Poetic Immortals named in the Kokin wakashu's tenth-century preface, were a canonical group whose images had been pictured for centuries in painting, lacquer, and earlier ukiyo-e. The yatsushi-e tradition of refiguring classical literary subjects as contemporary figures was a cornerstone of Edo bijin-ga humor, and casting children as poetic immortals was a particularly winning twist that flattered both the inheriting young pupils of the kyoka world and the educated viewers who would catch the reference. Ono no Komachi was the most legendary woman in the group, famed for beauty, poetic skill, and the cycle of stories that imagined her old age and death. Utamaro's image of Komachi as child renews this venerable iconography for the early Kyowa era. The print contributes to Harvard's strong representation of Utamaro's late series and demonstrates his continuing inventiveness in the years immediately preceding his arrest and final illness. Within ukiyo-e it is a fine example of how childhood, classical literature, and modern fashion converged in late Edo woodblock prints.