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ArtistFull-screen, complete width, broad, 16:9 format of an extremely detailed linocut rendering of poem number 74, Minamoto no Toshiyori Ason, of the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu: "It was not for this / I prayed at the holy shrine: / That she would become / As pitiless and as cold / As the storms on Hase's hills." A modern-day Japanese traveler is coming down the mountain through a snowstorm, his staff in his hand and his cloak whipped about by the relentless wind. He is returning from pilgrimage, glum and unhappy. In heavy cloud cover, we see the image of a scornful face of a woman with piercing eyes looking at the traveler exposed to the brunt of the bad weather. Early winter ambiance, painstakingly detailed linocut, especially of the cloud cover with the scornful woman's face. Exquisite Japanese foili depicting unrequited love.
Poem No. 74 from the Japanese poetry collection Ogura Hyakunin Isshu (see https://jti.lib.virginia.edu/japanese/hyakunin/hyakua.html). According to the information in https://100poets.com/2013/07/18/backfired-poem-number-74/, this poem was an entry at a poetry contest with the topic "unfulfilled love so strong that one even prays to the gods." Well, I guess it didn't work. .