64. Nakamaro views the moon in China

Abe no Nakamaro (701-770) was the son of a high court official, who at the age of 16 was sent to China to study timekeeping and the Chinese calendar. By the whim of fate he remained there until he died. The poem is thought to express his homesickness for Japan: “Now I lift my gaze to the high plain of heaven, I see the moon that rose at Kasuga over Mount Mikasa!" The kite-shaped impression in the centre was rubbed over from the blue sections of Lady Ariko's biwa in print #38, that was once was mounted in an album opposite our print. (printed May 1888)