Katsukawa Shunsho

1726-1792

Tale of Ise: Chapter 56, Se
(Furyu nishiki Ise monogatari: Se)

signed Shunsho ga, published by Urokogataya Magobei, ca. 1772

8 1/2 by 6 1/4 in., 21.7 by 16 cm

The poem is by Narihira from the 9th Imperial anthology Shinchoku senshu and used in chapter 56 of the Ise monogatari.

Wa ga sode wa
kusa no iori ni
aranedomo
kurureba tsuyu no
yadori narikeri

My sleeve of course is not
A simple hut
Thatched with grass
Yet how the dew clings to it
As night closes in

[McCullough: Tales of Ise, 1968]

In Shunsho 1771 he created forty-eight small-format prints based on the classic Ise monogatari (Tales of Ise), a compilation of episodes and poems linked to Ariwara no Narihira, a 9th century courtier and poet. Although Ise subjects had appeared earlier in ukiyo-e productions as black and white prints or book illustrations, Shunsho appears to have been the first to use the full-color print process for Ise subjects when he provided designs for the publisher Urokogataya Magobei. The first part of the series was titled Furyu nishiki Ise monogatari nijuyo mai (The Tales of Ise in Fashionable Brocade on Twenty-Four Sheets). The designs were cut two to an aiban-size block and then each sheet was cut in half into two single designs. The publishing history of the series remains somewhat unclear: apparently a set of 24 designs was issued circa 1771, both as single sheets and bound together in albums. Then a second set of 24 additional designs was issued the following year, including this design, but prints from the second group are notably more scarce than that of the first, possibly due to the loss of the prints and woodblocks in a widespread fire that struck Edo in the second lunar month of 1772, likely damaging the publisher's workshop.

Reference:
Timothy T. Clark & Osamu Ueda, The Actor's Image: Print Makers of the Katsukawa School, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1994, p. 184 (on series)

(inv. no. 10-4894)

price: Sold