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Gravemarker moon
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi · 478.25

PRINT NUMBER #25

Gravemarker moon

03/1886

Ono no Komachi (825-900), was a celebrated poet and member of the rokkasen. She was said to been beautiful as well as talented but of a somewhat conceited disposition. Her life was featured in a series of seven Noh plays. In the last chapter, Sotōba Komachi "Gravemarker Komachi," two priests encounter an aged Komachi sitting on a grave stone. She reveals herself to them:

Shame covers me when I speak my name;but if you will pray for me, I will try to tell you. This is my name; write it down in your prayer-list: I am the ruins of Komachi, daughter of Ono no Yoshizane, Governor of the land of Dewa.

This image is clearly inspired by the scene in the Noh play. We see an aged Komachi sitting peacefully on a gravemarker in the moonlight.

Print number
#25
Artist
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi
Series
One Hundred Aspects of the Moon

Display image and catalogue: Yoshitoshi.net