id: 134293 accession number: 1956.755 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1956.755 updated: Kuronushi from the series The New Six Immortal Poets, c. 1795. Chōbunsai Eishi (Japanese, 1756–1829). Color woodblock print; sheet: 33.4 x 20.5 cm (13 1/8 x 8 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Fanny Tewksbury King Collection 1956.755 title: Kuronushi from the series The New Six Immortal Poets title in original language: 新六歌仙 黒主 series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1795 creation date earliest: 1790 creation date latest: 1799 current location: creditline: The Fanny Tewksbury King Collection copyright: --- culture: Japan, Edo period (1615-1868) technique: color woodblock print department: Japanese Art collection: Japanese Art type: Print find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Chōbunsai Eishi (Japanese, 1756–1829) - artist --- measurements: Sheet: 33.4 x 20.5 cm (13 1/8 x 8 1/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Signature: Eishi zu Seal: kiwame translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Ukiyo-e: The Floating World Revisited opening date: 1993-10-26T04:00:00 Ukiyo-e: The Floating World Revisited. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 2-April 3, 1994). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Japanese Prints and Ceramics from The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, and The Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College. College of Wooster, Wooster, OH (1981). --- PROVENANCE Fanny Tewksbury King [1867–1949], Cleveland, OH, sold by her estate to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: ?–1956 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1956– footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: This print shows a courtesan adjusting her hairdo before a mirror as her attendant looks on. In the cartouche next to her is a poem by Ōtomo no Kuronishi, a Heian period courtier celebrated as one of the Six Immortal Poets. His portrait and name appear in the disk-shaped title cartouche.

The poem reads: "Mirror Mountain / Has been raised high / To show us all / Our Lord will live a thousand years!" The poem appears in the Anthology of Ancient and Modern Verse (Kokinwakashū) with a note that it was sung at the investiture of the Emperor Daigo (885-930). Here, the courtesan could be perceived as a stand-in for the emperor, making this a rather risqué print. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1956.755/1956.755_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1956.755/1956.755_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1956.755/1956.755_full.tif