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Suzuki Harunobu Viewing the Moon from a boat at Mimeguri - Poem by Abe no Nakamaro Price A$100 (unframed) Status Second hand Condition Excellent Size 210mm x 286mm Availability For Sale

Apparently from personal preference, Harunobu designed a great many prints showing popular customs of his time related to famous poems of ancient times. This print falls into that class, and the classical poem shown in the upper part of the print is by Abe no Nakama ro (701-770), a Japanese envoy to the Chinese court in the eighth century.

Nakamaro had been sent to China to study Chinese literature and to discover the secret of the Chinese calendar. He is said to have been detained by contrary winds and to have died in exile.

According to a more dramatic legend, the Chinese emperor suspected Nakamaro as a spy. One night he banqueted him on the palace roof, and while Nakamaro slept, overcome with wine the, emperor ordered the stairs removed, leaving the unfortunate Japanese envoy to die of starvation. Awaking in the moonlight and biting his thumb, Nakamaro wrote this poem with blood upon his sleeve:

Amanohara Furisake mireba Kasuga naru Mikasa no yama ni Ideshi tsuki kamo "Behold, the moon now rises high and clear

The selfsame moon that people see at Kasuga,

My home, appearing from behind old Mt. Mikasa."

Nakamaro's homesickness for Japan seems never to have been requited. Although he escaped from the palace roof, he was shipwrecked on his way home and went to Annam instead. Eventually he returned to China, where he died in the service of the Chinese emperor.

In this "up-to-date" version of Nakamaro's poem, Harunobu shows a pleasure boat with courtesans on the Sumida river near the Mimeguri shrine (in Edo). The courtesan standing by the boat housing has turned her head to look at the rising full moon (upper right corner of the print). The contrast between the stately, tragic theme of the original and the light, witty theme of the ukiyo-e counterpart could hardly be greater. However, the artist handled the juxtaposition of themes with great skill and dexterity, and the viewer is left without any sense of outrage.

The coloring of the print adds a great deal to its effectiveness-the "key" colors being the blue of the river, the purple of the kimono, and the light orange pigment used for the boat.

Sadao Kikuchi, (English adaptation by Osamu Ueda and C. H. Mitchell)