Kozuka with Sotoba Komachi

Description The 9th-century Japanese poet Ono no Komachi is shown here at the end of her life as an old beggar woman. She is sitting on a grave marker, known as a "sotoba." Depictions of her with the grave marker are known as "Sotoba Komachi" and there is a noh play about her with the same name.

Provenance Henry Walters, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions none

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters