Ono no Komachi Washing the Copybook (Soshiarai Komachi) (Edo period (1615–1868), 1735/40): Artwork and History

Ono no Komachi Washing the Copybook (Soshiarai Komachi) (Edo period (1615–1868), 1735/40) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Torii Kiyomasu II Japanese, active early 18th century.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

In this first print from a series showing seven scenes from the life of Ono no Komachi, the poet washes a book to remove text recently added by a rival poet, Ōtomo no Kuronushi, likely depicted as the angry figure on the right. This image was printed in black ink and then hand colored. The artist, Torii Kiyomasu II, came from the famous Torii line of printmakers, who specialized in depictions of actors, birds, historical subjects, and flowers. They made up one of the principal schools of artists around when the birth of the Japanese popular print took place, during the Edo period.

Object facts

• Title: Ono no Komachi Washing the Copybook (Soshiarai Komachi)
• Date: Edo period (1615–1868), 1735/40
• Artist attribution: Torii Kiyomasu II Japanese, active early 18th century
• Place of origin: Japan
• Medium: Hand-colored woodblock print; hosoban
• Dimensions: 29.6 × 16 cm (11 11/16 × 6 5/16 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Arts of Asia
• Reference number: 1932.1350

Collection credit

Clarence Buckingham Collection

View the original

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The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.