Landscape and Legend

Katsushika Hokusai

The Emperor Tenji, from One Hundred Poems Explained by the Nurse

c. 1835/36

Color woodblock print, 26.2 × 37.7 cm. The Art Institute of Chicago

Farmers haul rice sheaves past a flimsy hut where, a story says, an emperor sheltered from rain.

• He reigned 668–671 and is credited with Japan's first civil law code.
• His poem sympathizes with farmers who meet such rain day after day.
• The picture turns a court poem into a scene of farm work.

The Nurse

The series imagines an old nursemaid explaining each classic poem in plain terms.

Image: Art Institute of Chicago open access · CC0