Hinazura of Chōjiya from the series Beauties as the Seven Komachi (c. 1793–97): Art, History and Details

Hinazura of Chōjiya from the series Beauties as the Seven Komachi (c. 1793–97) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Utagawa Toyokuni (Japanese, 1769–1825).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Seven plays based on legends from the life of 9th-century poet Ono no Komachi served as the source for this print series. Hinazura looks at a caged bird, symbolizing the play The Parrot, in which Komachi responds to a poem sent to her by the Emperor Yozei with a poem with just one syllable changed.

Object facts

• Title: Hinazura of Chōjiya from the series Beauties as the Seven Komachi
• Date: c. 1793–97
• Creator attribution: Utagawa Toyokuni (Japanese, 1769–1825)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Print
• Technique: Color woodblock print; ink and color on paper
• Dimensions: Sheet: 37.9 x 25.4 cm (14 15/16 x 10 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1985.355

A detail from the museum

The courtesan seated on the floor holds a tobacco pipe and pouch.

Collection credit

The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith

Further reading listed by the museum

• “Checklist of the Kelvin Smith Bequest.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 7 (September 1988): 292–295.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.