Poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, from One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets Explained by an Old Nurse (1835–36): Art, History and Details

Poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, from One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets Explained by an Old Nurse (1835–36) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Katsushika Hokusai (Japanese, 1760–1849).

The work and its context

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

Katsushika Hokusai designed this print series from the perspective of a confused nurse attempting to illustrate classical poetry but missing the subtle allusions. This interpretation creates what would have been considered a comical disconnect between poem and image. The poem, by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (about 660–739), reads as follows: Must I sleep alone through the long autumn nights, long like the dragging tail of the mountain pheasant separated from his dove? —translation by Joshua Mostow Hitomaro wrote of an emotionally tiring night. The nurse thought instead of the physically exhausting work of fishermen dragging a net upstream. Smoke billows across the scene, directing our attention to a figure, perhaps the nurse, in the distant house.

Object facts

• Title: Poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, from One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets Explained by an Old Nurse
• Date: 1835–36
• Creator attribution: Katsushika Hokusai (Japanese, 1760–1849)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Print
• Technique: color woodblock print
• Dimensions: 25.8 x 37.8 cm (10 3/16 x 14 7/8 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1930.190

Collection credit

Bequest of Edward L. Whittemore

Further reading listed by the museum

• Howard Conley Hollis. "The Edward Loder Whittemore Collection of Japanese Prints." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 17, no. 4 (1930): 64-66.
• Morse, Peter, Hokusai Katsushika, and Clay MacCauley. Hokusai, One Hundred Poets. New York: G. Braziller, 1989.

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.