Poem by Minamoto no Muneyuki from the series One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets Explained by the Nurse (1835–36): Art, History and Details

Poem by Minamoto no Muneyuki from the series One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets Explained by the 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 on this print reads as follows: In the mountain village, it is in winter that my loneliness increases most, when I think of how both have dried up, the grasses and people’s visits. —Translation by Joshua Mostow While nobleman Minamoto no Muneyuki (died 939) wrote of dying grasses, the nurse imagines instead a lively scene of hunters warming themselves around a fire.

Object facts

• Title: Poem by Minamoto no Muneyuki from the series One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets Explained by the Nurse
• Date: 1835–36
• Creator attribution: Katsushika Hokusai (Japanese, 1760–1849)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Print
• Technique: Color woodblock print
• Dimensions: 24.2 x 35.3 cm (9 1/2 x 13 7/8 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1985.327

A detail from the museum

This impression of Hokusai's print has a fold along its center, indicating that it may have once been placed in an album of the book format.

Collection credit

The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith

Further reading listed by the museum

• 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.