長からむ

心も知らず

黒髪の

乱れてけさは

物をこそ思へ

たいけんもんいんのほりかわ

ながからん

こころもしらず

くろかみの

みだれてけさは

ものをこそおもえ

Lady Horikawa

How long this will last

In my heart I do now know,

But my long black hair

Is all tangled this morning,

That is what I know for sure.

Hokusai

Lady Horikawa (dates unknown), or Taikenmon In no Horikawa, was the daughter of Minamoto no Akinaka. She was lady-in-waiting to Taikenmon In, the consort of emperor Toba. She has 67 poems in imperial collections.

Heian women usually wore their hair long and straight down their backs either loose or bound into a low ponytail. Only servants sometimes put it up and even that was not the rule.

From The Diary of Lady Murasaki (Japanese):

“When the order was given for the food to be brought in, a procession of eight ladies dressed in white, their hair done up with white ribbon, carried in a series of white trays. The lady in charge of serving Her Majesty this evening was Miya no Naishi. She always has great presence, but with her hair combed up so that it fell over her shoulders she looked even more striking than usual; I remember in particular that part of her profile not hidden by her fan. The eight ladies who had their hair done up, Genshikibu, Kozaemon, Kohyoe, Tayu, Omuma, Komuma, Kohyobu and Komoku - the most attractive young women - sat in two rows facing each other. It was certainly a sight to remember. It is in fact quite normal to have to put up one’s hair when serving Her Majesty, but these women, who had been specially chosen by His Excellency for the occasion, could do nothing but complain about how dreadful it was to be so exposed; I thought they made themselves ridiculous.”

The discussion around this poem is about it being read as one unit with a relation between the first two lines and the following three, or as two sentences with no obvious connection, the first one ending with line two. It seems to me that there is intended to be some connection between both parts, her feelings being as tangled up as her hair, or better still, her feelings still apprehensive after an amorous night.

Hokusai shows the Edo period hairstyle. The lady in question has her clothes in disarray. So it looks like he favours the latter possibility.