diptych print
- Museum number
- 1910,0418,0.190
- Title
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Object: Abe no Nakamaro 阿倍仲麻呂
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Series: Shiika shashin kyo 詩哥写真鏡 (True Mirror of Chinese and Japanese Poems)
- Description
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Colour woodblock print, diptych. Abe no Nakamaro contemplating the moon from roof of abode in China. From a series of ten prints based on well-known Chinese and Japanese poems.
- Production date
- 1833-1834 (c.)
- Dimensions
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Height: 50.80 centimetres
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Width: 22.50 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Clark 2017
Abe no Nakamaro (ad 698–770) was appointed to the Japanese embassy to Tang China in ad 717. Before departure, he followed the custom of making a pilgrimage to Kasuga shrine on Mt Mikasa in order to pray for a safe return. In China he had a successful career, passing the civil service exam and receiving positions in the Tang administration, but by 734 he was ready to return home. Just as he set sail, a storm arose and his ship foundered, forcing him back to land. Around this time he composed a celebrated Japanese poem expressing nostalgia for his home country: ‘When I look up / into the vast sky tonight, / is it the same moon / that I saw rising / from behind Mt Mikasa / at Kasuga Shrine / all those years ago?’ (trans. Peter McMillan). Here the architecture and the foreground Taihu stones (a particular type of porous limestone) indicate the setting to be China. Hokusai captured the mood of the poem by showing the poet seated apart, wearing Japanese court robes, and gazing thoughtfully at the moon.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
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Exhibited:
2017 25 May - 2 July, London, BM, G35, Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave
2017 6 Oct - 19 Nov, Osaka, Abeno Harukas Art Museum
2022 16 Apr-12 Jun, Tokyo, Suntory Museum of Art, Hokusai from the British Museum
- Acquisition date
- 1910
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1910,0418,0.190
