Kayoi Komachi, from the series "Seven Elegant Episodes of the Poet Komachi" (Fūryū nanakomachi kayoi)

Kayoi Komachi, from the series "Seven Elegant Episodes of the Poet Komachi" (Fūryū nanakomachi kayoi)

Chōbunsai Eishi

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The subject of "Kayoi Komachi," inscribed in the upper right corner of this print, refers to a tragic story from a classical Noh play. Ono no Komachi, a tenth-century poetess, promises to meet her ardent suitor Fukakusa Shōjō if he agrees to spend a hundred nights on the steps of a courtly oxcart. After ninety-nine nights, he dies. This print is a play on the popular story; the beauty, dressed in a contemporary robe and holding an umbrella, may be on her way to see a lover on a snowy day. Born of a samurai family, the artist first studied under the Kano school, and the Tokugawa shogun Ieharu gave him the artistic name Eishi.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Kayoi Komachi, from the series "Seven Elegant Episodes of the Poet Komachi" (Fūryū nanakomachi kayoi)Kayoi Komachi, from the series "Seven Elegant Episodes of the Poet Komachi" (Fūryū nanakomachi kayoi)Kayoi Komachi, from the series "Seven Elegant Episodes of the Poet Komachi" (Fūryū nanakomachi kayoi)Kayoi Komachi, from the series "Seven Elegant Episodes of the Poet Komachi" (Fūryū nanakomachi kayoi)Kayoi Komachi, from the series "Seven Elegant Episodes of the Poet Komachi" (Fūryū nanakomachi kayoi)

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.