The Poetess Ono no Komachi, from the series "Six Immortal Poets (Rokkasen)"

Famous poets of Japan’s classical age have been grouped into sets for centuries, likely as a way to teach their writings. The poet Ono no Komachi was the only woman among the Six Immortal Poets, commemorated in a print series by Katsushika Hokusai. She was born in the ninth century, and very little is known about her. Accounts of her vary: Some revered her as a talented poet and an incomparable beauty, while others portrayed her as an impoverished and unattractive old woman. Here she is dressed in ninth-century court robes as she looks over her shoulder from behind a standing screen. In the poem, Komachi subtly deplores the unreliability of a man’s love, comparing the change in a flower’s color to the changes in one’s heart: What fadesBut is not seen in colorIs in the blossomIn the heart of that personIn my world. (Translation by Roy E. Teele)