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[Homage to Ono Otsū's moji-e]
Ono-shi, Tsūjo [original illustration by]; [hand-copier unidentified].
[Japan, ca. Edo period (18th to early 19th century?)]. In manuscript.
A hand-painted copy by an unknown admirer of an illustration of the waka poet Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (sometimes known as Hitomaru, c. 653–655–c. 707–710) by the woman calligrapher Ono Otsū (c. 1568–1631, also known as Ono no Otsū or Ono no Ozū). Above the portrait is Hitomaro's poem "My thoughts / follow a boat over Akashi's Bay / faint in first light / through morning mist / now slipped away among islands" (translated by Meredith McKinney in Travels with a Writing Brush (2019). The characters that make up Kakinomoto no Hitomaro's name (柿本人丸) are 'hidden' within the lines of the illustration. The original scroll in Otsū's hand is housed in the Century Akao Collection at Keio University.
One hanging scroll, housed in wooden box. Sandanhyōsō, paper mounted on fabric. Creases, light soiling, and a few small wormholes to paper and mounting. Loss to paper and calligraphy in the upper right corner, professionally repaired. Paper repair to mounting verso. One panel of wooden box lacking. Paper measures approximately 68.3 x 49 cm; scroll measures approximately 159 x 62 cm when unfurled.