Poet preparing ink, by Yashima Gakutei

An image of Poet preparing ink. Gakutei, Yashima (Japanese, 1786(?)-1868). Surimono. Colour print from woodblocks, with blind embossing (karazuri). Semmen-ban. Signed: Gakutei. Seal: Yashima. Poets: Bunsô (Fumimado) Takemasa(?) and Ise no Hamaogi, circa 1820-circa 1829. Ukiyo-e. Notes: Spring kyôka surimono commissioned by poets from the Go group. The unusual fan format occurs in only five known fan surimono, which are all by Gakutei. This and another fan surimono with a similar signature show Heian period court poets, and may be from a series of three depicting the set of three divine waka poets, in this instance Ono no Komachi (834-80). Komachi was the daughter of the governor of Dewa province and the adopted daughter of the poet Ono no Takamura. She was renowned for her beauty as well as her poetry, and scenes from her life were made famous in many plays from the 14th-century onwards; these were often depicted in prints. She was also one of the Rokkasen (Six immortal poets) depicted in the adjacent print.

Terms of use

These images are provided for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-ND). To license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who will discuss fees, terms and waivers.

Download this image

Creative commons explained - what it means, how you can use our's and other people's content.

Poet preparing ink. Gakutei, Yashima (Japanese, 1786(?)-1868). Surimono. Colour print from woodblocks, with blind embossing (karazuri). Semmen-ban. Signed: Gakutei. Seal: Yashima. Poets: Bunsô (Fumimado) Takemasa(?) and Ise no Hamaogi, circa 1820-circa 1829. Ukiyo-e. Notes: Spring kyôka surimono commissioned by poets from the Go group. The unusual fan format occurs in only five known fan surimono, which are all by Gakutei. This and another fan surimono with a similar signature show Heian period court poets, and may be from a series of three depicting the set of three divine waka poets, in this instance Ono no Komachi (834-80). Komachi was the daughter of the governor of Dewa province and the adopted daughter of the poet Ono no Takamura. She was renowned for her beauty as well as her poetry, and scenes from her life were made famous in many plays from the 14th-century onwards; these were often depicted in prints. She was also one of the Rokkasen (Six immortal poets) depicted in the adjacent print.

Image data

Accession Number: P.269-1937
Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Aperture: f/22.0
Focal length: 120
Camera: Hasselblad H4D-31
Photographer name: Sam Cole
Image height: 605 pixels
Image width: 1023 pixels
Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.0 (Windows)
Filesize: 125.34kB
Exposure time: 1/125
ISO Speed: 100
Fnumber: 22/1
Captured: 2017:07:24 11:26:48

Key words

19th Century blind embossing colour printing court court poets courtly divine embossed embossing fan shaped fan surimono fans female Fitz_PDP Gakutei Go group immortal immortal poets immortality ink pot inkstand Japan Japanese karazuri kimono Komachi Ono no Komachi poem poetry poets print Rokkasen Spring surimono texts ukiyo-e woman woodblock woodcut writer writing writing equipment Yashima Gakutei

Citation for print

This page can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:


            The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024)
            "Poet preparing ink, by Yashima Gakutei"
            Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-968546150 Accessed: 2024-04-19 04:46:13

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this page on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:


            {{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-968546150
            |title=Poet preparing ink, by Yashima Gakutei
            |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-04-19 04:46:13|publisher=The
            University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/images/media-218343

Bootstrap HTML code for reuse

To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:

<div class="text-center">
    <figure class="figure">
        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/pdp/pdp82/large_P_269_1937_1_201707_sjc288_dc2.jpg"
        alt="Poet preparing ink"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Poet preparing ink, by Yashima Gakutei</figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>