• Praying for Rain (<i>Amagoi</i> - 雨乞 ) from the series <i>Modern Beauties as the Seven Komachi</i> (<i>Tōsei bijin Nana Komachi</i> - 当世美人七小町)
Praying for Rain (<i>Amagoi</i> - 雨乞 ) from the series <i>Modern Beauties as the Seven Komachi</i> (<i>Tōsei bijin Nana Komachi</i> - 当世美人七小町)
Praying for Rain (<i>Amagoi</i> - 雨乞 ) from the series <i>Modern Beauties as the Seven Komachi</i> (<i>Tōsei bijin Nana Komachi</i> - 当世美人七小町)
Praying for Rain (<i>Amagoi</i> - 雨乞 ) from the series <i>Modern Beauties as the Seven Komachi</i> (<i>Tōsei bijin Nana Komachi</i> - 当世美人七小町)
Praying for Rain (<i>Amagoi</i> - 雨乞 ) from the series <i>Modern Beauties as the Seven Komachi</i> (<i>Tōsei bijin Nana Komachi</i> - 当世美人七小町)
Praying for Rain (<i>Amagoi</i> - 雨乞 ) from the series <i>Modern Beauties as the Seven Komachi</i> (<i>Tōsei bijin Nana Komachi</i> - 当世美人七小町)
Praying for Rain (<i>Amagoi</i> - 雨乞 ) from the series <i>Modern Beauties as the Seven Komachi</i> (<i>Tōsei bijin Nana Komachi</i> - 当世美人七小町)
Praying for Rain (<i>Amagoi</i> - 雨乞 ) from the series <i>Modern Beauties as the Seven Komachi</i> (<i>Tōsei bijin Nana Komachi</i> - 当世美人七小町)
Praying for Rain (<i>Amagoi</i> - 雨乞 ) from the series <i>Modern Beauties as the Seven Komachi</i> (<i>Tōsei bijin Nana Komachi</i> - 当世美人七小町)
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Utagawa Kunisada (歌川国貞) / Toyokuni III (三代豊国) (artist 1786 – 01/12/1865)

Praying for Rain (Amagoi - 雨乞 ) from the series Modern Beauties as the Seven Komachi (Tōsei bijin Nana Komachi - 当世美人七小町)

Print

ca 1821 – 1822
15.375 in x 10.25 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Gototei Kunisada ga (五渡亭国貞画)
Publisher: Kawaguchiya Uhei
Censor's seal: kiwame
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - another print from this series: Parrot
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - another print from this series: Gravepost
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - another print from this series: Washing the book
Hagi Uragami Museum There are other copies of this print in the Hagi Uragami Museum and the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art.

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The text in the carouche reads: Kotowari ya/ hi no moto nareba/ teri mo sen/ saritote wa mata/ ame ga shita to wa

ことわりや日のもとならばてりもせめさりとてはまたあめかしたとは
Though it is true that Japan
lies under the sun
where its light afflicts us
even so this land is also
below the rain

(translation by David Waterhouse)
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According to Robert Schaap Kunisada may not have been involved in the final production of this print

In an illuminating and fascinating article in Andon 105, April 2018 Schaap wrote: about an earlier 1818-20 set of Kunisada prints entitled 'The Twelve Bells of Edo' (Edo jūnishō). Each of these paired a bijin with a bell and floral motif. He said on page 21: "The prints were issued by Kawaguchiya Uhei (Fukusendō) around 1818–1820 and were later re-issued by the same publisher in 1821–1822, but with new insets, new designs for the kimono and different colour schemes.... The series is now titled Contemporary beauties of the seven Komachi (Tosei bijin nana Komachi). Ono no Komachi was a famous waka poet from the Heian period, one of the Rokkasen, the six best poets of the period. It seems logical that this new series was an initiative of the publisher, who still owned the blocks, and that Kunisada had nothing to do with this second publication."
Kawaguchiya Uhei (川口屋卯兵衛) (publisher)
beautiful woman picture (bijin-ga - 美人画) (genre)