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About the Artwork
Ukiyo-e artists and collaborating poets introduced imagery from classical literature to add layers of meaning to their work. Here, a courtesan pores over a letter from an admirer, and the poem next to her reads as follows: "Having been asked to stay over, / I stayed on—and for a good reason. / It’s way past midnight / and the lady is that (legendary implorer) Amagoi Komachi." Midnight was closing time in Yoshiwara, the licensed brothel district of Edo (now Tokyo). Amagoi, or “Praying for Rain,” Komachi refers to ninth-century poet Ono no Komachi—known for her compelling verse and great beauty—and one of her famous compositions.
Inscriptions
painting: Signed: Teisai. Sealed: Hokuba. calligraphy: Signed: Shokusanjin.
Provenance
?–1974: (David Newman, London, England, sold to Mr. and Mrs. Kelvin Smith) 1974–1985: The Kelvin Smith Collection, Cleveland, OH, given by Mrs. Kelvin [Eleanor Armstrong] Smith [1899–1998] to the Cleveland Museum of Art 1985–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Japanese Screens from the Museum and Cleveland Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 23-May 8, 1977). A Private World: Japanese and Chinese Art from the Kelvin Smith Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 14-November 13, 1988). Unfolding Beauty: Japanese Screens from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 15-September 16, 2001). Visions of Japan: Prints and Paintings from Cleveland Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 12, 2004-April 10, 2005). Japan’s Floating World 日本の浮世. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (April 8-October 9, 2022).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Teisai Hokuba (Japanese, 1771–1844)
- Date
- early 1800s
- Medium
- two-panel folding screen; ink and color on paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 156.8 x 165.4 cm (61 3/4 x 65 1/8 in.); Overall: 175.2 x 183.5 cm (69 x 72 1/4 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Japanese Art
- Credit line
- The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith
- Accession no.
- 1985.261
More by Teisai Hokuba in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00009896
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