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The Ugly Woman's Nomori (Akujo Nomori)

Artist Okumura Masanobu 奥村政信 (Japanese, 1686–1764)

Date1710s

MediumWoodblock print; ink on paper; sumizuri-e

Dimensions26.7 x 36.2 cm (10 1/2 x 14 1/4 in.)

ClassificationsPrints

Credit LineJohn Chandler Bancroft Collection

Terms

Object number1901.59.2236

DescriptionHorizontal oban (oban yoko-e)
Label TextIn this print an unattractive female hairdresser is seated on the ground beside a mirror-stand and a tray with implements of her trade. She looks up with a smiling face and holds the mirror so that a youth who sits above her on a veranda can gaze at his reflection and admire his handsome coiffure and face.This picture is a parody (mitate) of the No play "Caretaker of the Field" (Nomori) in which an old man, the caretaker of the field and a yamabushi (itinerant mountain monk) have a talk on the shore of a pond called Nomori no Kagami (Mirror of Nomori) in the Kasugano field. The old man is however really a devil who appears at nigh carrying a mirror.The No play is based upon the old legend that a dragon lived in Kasugano and assumed the guise of a nomori in the daytime, using the water of the lake as a mirror while making the transformation.

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