Kiyohara no Motosuke

Here is the fifth in this year's series, Kiyohara no Motosuke, a member of a real 'Hyaku-nin Isshu' family ... his father and daughter are both included in the collection.

The poem is one of the most unashamedly romantic verses in the entire set, and comes as somewhat of a surprise to us Westerners, whose general impression of Oriental poetry is that it is usually quite 'cool' and formal. Of course, we mostly hear about 'haiku' poetry, rather than this longer 'waka' form, and are more used to things like frogs hopping into ponds, or seasonal images of flowers or trees, etc.

The most interesting point of this print for me is the 'waterfall' effect of the poem, and the way that Shunsho has posed the character with his kimono outstretched along the same line. Although the combination of the calligraphy with a drawn image probably seems completely natural to Japanese people (and I suppose Chinese, too), it is far from common to find such juxtapositions in Western art. To us, pictures are pictures, and text is text, and they are not readily combined. I suppose part of this comes from the tools used - the oriental writing brush serves to create both images and words, but Westerners use different tools for the two jobs, thus separating even further the two concepts.

I worked on this print during the typhoon season, and one day while I was working, my pre-school daughter Himi was sitting watching me as I was carving 'round and 'round one of the circular patterns on the kimono. Of course, she asked me why I was making so many 'typhoons'. It's interesting that the stormy weather here in Hamura cleared up on the very day that I finished the last one!

I hope you enjoy this print. Coming up next month - Oeno Chisato

Translation - William Porter 1909