初代中村吉右衛門（明治19年～昭和29年・1886～1954）と清方は、親しく交流していました。昭和23年（1948）に髙島屋美術部により二人の合作の展覧会が企画され、吉右衛門は『吉右衛門句集』から約二十点を選び揮毫、清方は句をもとに描き対幅作品として制作しました。

（吉右衛門　句）絵燈籠や昔習ひし紀伊の國　吉右衛門 秀山

初代中村吉右衛門（俳号・秀山(しゅうざん)）が昭和12年（1937）に詠んだ俳句で、名人・花柳勝次郎に手ほどきを受けていた幼い頃を追懐したもの。
吉右衛門は十三代目守田勘彌と共に端唄の「紀伊の國」を稽古してもらい、燈籠の絵が回りながら大きくなり消えていく様を表現する場面で、よく失敗を重ねていたことを、早世した勘彌への思いを込めて詠みました。

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Edōrō (1948)
color on silk; hanging scroll
Each 42.0 x 52.5 cm
(First exhibited at Shōhin Nijūdai Exhibition)

Nakamura Kichiemon I (1886-1954) and Kiyokata were close friends. In 1948, Takashimaya department store designed an exhibition around their collaboration. Kichiemon chose twelve poems from the Kichiemon kushū, his collection of poems, and Kiyokata painted pairs of hanging pictures based on the poems.

Verse by Kichiemon:
Edōrō ya mukashi narahi shi Kii no kuni. Kichiemon Shūzan (Painted lanterns, long ago when we practiced—Kii no Kuni. Kichiemon Shūzan)

Nakamura Kichiemon I (poetry name: Shūzan) wrote this verse in 1937. It recalls the choreographer Hanayagi Katsujirō who taught Kichiemon the basics when he was still a child.
Kichiemon used to practice the short popular song Kii no kuni together with Morita Kanya XIII. The verse shows his affection for Kanya, who died young, and recalls the many mistakes they made as they practiced the scene in which the pictures in the painted lanterns are spinning around, now growing larger, now disappearing.