Ono no Komachi, from the series "Framed Pictures of Women for the Katsushika Circle (Katsushikaren gakumen fujin awase)"

From the Katsushikaren gakumen fujin awase, this shikishiban surimono depicts Ono no Komachi, the Heian poetess, presented within the series' characteristic trompe-l'oeil framing device. Held by the Art Institute of Chicago and dated to around 1822, the print places Komachi alongside the other legendary women of the Framed Pictures series, including Kogo no Tsubone, Usugumo, and Lady Tomoe, each rendered as if displayed in a wooden frame mounted on a wall. Komachi was an inevitable inclusion in any survey of legendary Japanese women, since her status as one of the Six Poetic Immortals and her many appearances in no theater and ukiyo-e made her synonymous with poetic genius and the tragic decline of beauty. Gakutei's treatment is restrained, with quiet line work and metallic accents emphasizing the framing device rather than the figure herself, allowing the conceit of the series to do its representational work.