Thursday, June 4, 2009


If anyone gets a chance to head over the the Art Institute prior to their departure to Japan, they might be pleasantly surprised with the current prints up in Gallery 107. They are all based on famous women poets, mainly Ono no Komachi and Murasaki Shikibu.
Or, if you don't get a chance, you can check out the whole gallery online.

Ono no Komachi's Poetry spoke often of loneliness and broke hearts. She was very beautiful and was courted by many men. She grew old and lost her beauty causing her to go into exile to keep anyone from seeing her craggy old form. Komachi is often portrayed in Noh and Kabuki.

Murasaki Shikibu is famous for her poetry, diary, and The Tales of Genji, that she wrote. Many of the woodcuts as images of her in repose prior to writing Genji.

This image is a woodcut of two women in a parody of Ono no Komachi. The kimono they are wearing is reminiscent of those that Komachi wore.

1 comment:

  1. thanks for posting this! I will try to make it over myself.

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