Poem by Abe no Nakamaro, from an untitled series of One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets

Poem by Abe no Nakamaro, from an untitled series of One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets, is a 1762 chuban print by Suzuki Harunobu held in the Art Institute of Chicago. The Hyakunin Isshu - One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets - was the celebrated thirteenth-century anthology compiled by Fujiwara no Teika, in which each of one hundred classical poets is represented by a single waka. By the Edo period, the collection had become a fixture of literate culture, taught to children, played as a card game (uta-garuta), and inexhaustibly cited and parodied in popular literature and ukiyo-e. The poem associated with the seventh-century courtier Abe no Nakamaro - a homesick verse said to have been composed in China as Nakamaro watched the rising moon and thought of his native land - was one of the most poignant in the anthology. Suzuki Harunobu's print, in characteristic mitate fashion, does not illustrate the historical Nakamaro literally but locates the poem's mood in a contemporary Edo scene, with figures rendered in Harunobu's signature elongated chuban bijin-ga proportions. The implied moon, the suggestion of distance or longing, and the calm spacing of the composition all point to the original waka while keeping the visible world resolutely modern. As with the rest of Harunobu's 1762 production, the print precedes his role in the nishiki-e revolution of 1765, but the disciplined keyblock and controlled palette already model the polychromatic style to come. Within Edo ukiyo-e, Hyakunin Isshu parodies were a recurring genre, and Harunobu's version is among its most refined.