Japan’s Great Female Poets
@ The Art Institute of Chicago
111 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60603
On view through Monday, July 14th
Japan has long celebrated the talents of its great female poets.
The Heian period (794–1185), the golden age of the Japanese imperial court, saw many women writers garner acclaim for novels and a specific type of poetry called waka. Murasaki Shikibu (about 973–1016) and Ono no Komachi (active about 833–57) are two of the country’s most renowned poets from this period.
Although little is known about them, these women and their writings inspired numerous legends, some of which became the subjects of Nō and Kabuki plays, as well as woodblock prints. Many of the prints allude to these legends though mitate-e, a playful pictorial device in which one thing is substituted for another, such as a contemporary woman standing in for a historical figure.
The images in this exhibition, made during the Edo (1615–1868) and Meiji (1868–1912) periods, show the various ways that artists, including the world-famous Katsushika Hokusai, have interpreted the stories of these influential poets.
Japan’s Great Female Poets is curated by Janice Katz, Roger L. Weston Associate Curator of Japanese Art, the Art Institute of Chicago.
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Tags: Chicago, Janice Katz, Japan’s Great Female Poets, Katsushika Hokusai, Loop, Murasaki Shikibu, Ono no Komachi, The Art Institute of Chicago
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