わたの原

八十島かけて

漕ぎ出でぬと

人には告げよ

海女の釣舟

さんぎたかむら

わたのはら

やそしまかけて

こぎいでぬと

ひとにはつげよ

あまのつりぶね

Counsellor Takamura

When setting sail

For the eighty distant isles

Over the wide sea,

Will the ama divers’ boats

Tell people of my journey?

Hokusai

Sangi Takamura (802 - 853), also known as Ono no Takamura, was an early Heian period scholar, poet, and counsellor to the emperor. Takamura has a number of odd stories and legends about him. One of the most singular of these legends is the claim that every night he would climb down a well to hell and help the devil in his judgements. After a quarrel he was banished from the imperial court and sent to the Eighty Islands (the Oki Islands).

作者略伝と語釈

Ama divers are women diving for abalone, shells or pearls. And that is what Hokusai is showing us. The women and men take no notice whatsoever of the parting ship.

Takamura by Kikuchi Yosai