Chinese boats sit off a rocky shoreline - the roofs of a coastal village are just visible within the towering rocks. Two figures dressed in Chinese clothes on board a boat point towards a small flock of birds. The series One Hundred Poems Explained by the Nurse was based on the famous anthology of poems compiled in 1235, the Hyakuin Isshu (One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets). Clearly one hundred prints were intended for this series, however only twenty-seven are known.

The poem by Otomo no Yakamochi has been translated by Peter MacMillan, One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each: A Translation of the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu (New York, 2008), p. 9:

Kasasagi no
wataseru hashi ni
oku shimo no
shiroki o mireba
yo zo fukinikeri

How the night deepens.
A ribbon of the whitest frost
is stretched across
the bridge of magpie wings
the lovers will cross.

For another impression in the collection of The British Museum, museum no. 1906,1220,0.573, go to:
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1906-1220-0-573
Post Lot Text
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