Edo period (1615–1868), about 1788
Chobunsai Eishi Japanese, 1756 –1829
Japan
The stooped figure of an elderly Ono no Komachi stands in the distance behind two fashionable young women and a child. In this scene, one of the women holds a piece of paper with a poem written on it, a reference to a specific episode in Komachi’s life. After receiving a poem from the emperor, she replied by returning the same poem with only one character changed. Komachi’s response was comparable to that of a parrot, hence the name of the story, “Parrot Komachi."
Color woodblock print; oban