1795
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Hinazura of Chōjiya from the series Beauties as the Seven Komachi is a 1795 by Utagawa Toyokuni I, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a woman in a bright red kimono leaning toward a small caged bird. This print is part of a series that turns famous poems into pictures. The bird stands for a play where a poet changes just one syllable in a royal poem—tiny shift, big meaning. If you like this quiet moment, look up *Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)*.
Seven plays based on legends from the life of 9th-century poet Ono no Komachi served as the source for this print series. Hinazura looks at a caged bird, symbolizing the play The Parrot , in which Komachi responds to a poem sent to her by the Emperor Yozei with a poem with just one syllable changed.
The courtesan seated on the floor holds a tobacco pipe and pouch.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Toyokuni was a born showman who made sure the energy of Edo’s kabuki stage never faded on paper.
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