“The Illustrated Tales of Ise—an example of early illustrated story scrolls (emaki-mono)”

Leaf Two—Episode 22, rekindled love

“. . . when the birds sing in the morning, our talk of love would still

be unfinished (ことば残りてとりや鳴きなむ)”

Detail of garden insects from lower right-hand corner Leaf Three—Episode 4, “Is not the moon different?”

Ariwara Narihira (有原業平) loses his secret love Takaiko (藤原高子) to the emperor.

“Is not the moon different? And this is not the last year’s spring. Only my

body is just as my body was . . . (月やあらぬ春や昔の春ならぬわが身ひ

とつはもとの身にして)”

Leaf Four—Episode 27, Japanese paper and text The paper alludes to a poem in Episode 68:

“Geese cry / The chrysanthemum blooms / Such is autumn / But how

good it is / To live by Sumiyoshi’s spring seashore (雁なきて菊の花さ

く秋はあれど春の海辺にすみよしの浜).” う み へ Characters for “spring seashore”—春の宇見遍—are incorporated into the shapes of the pine tree trunks.

Detail of pine tree from left-central portion with character for “spring” superimposed.

Leaf Nine—Episode 5, waiting for the guard to sleep “As for the watchman / Who knows my path to love— / How I

wish him to drift into sleep / Night upon night (人知れぬわが

通ひ路の関守はよひよひにうちも寝ななむ).”

Detail of woman (lower left-hand corner) Detail of man and guard (with umbrella) Leaf Ten—Episode 14, an early departure

Detail

Details of the scroll discussed today: Illustrated Tales of Ise (伊勢物語絵巻), housed at Kuboso Memorial Museum of Arts, Izumi City (和泉市久保惣記念美術館) 26.9cm X 41.23cm, Kamakura period, probably 13th c. Originally complete with all 129 episodes of the tale, now in ten leaves (with one of a different origin added at the end).

Vocabulary introduced: hikime kagihana (引目鉤鼻): a method of painting faces with subtle expressions using “lined eyes and a hooked nose”; fukinuki yatai (吹抜屋台): literally, “room scene with [the roof] blown away” it is the above ground perspective typical of emaki-mono; emaki-mono (絵巻物): scrolls that mix text and paintings as illustrated versions of popular stories; Ise monogatari (伊勢物語): Tales of Ise, author unknown, mid- 10th c., a collection of stories of romantic situations turning on the composition and exchange of poems with its male protagonist widely taken to be Ariwara Narihira; emaki (源氏物 語絵巻): Illustrated Scroll of ; irogonomi (色好): an aristocratic code of elegant behavior for amorous relationships; Yamato-e (大和絵): Japanese paintings as opposed to paintings in Chinese style.

References: ◆日本の絵巻１８「伊勢物語絵巻」他、小松成美、中央公論社、1988 ◆A History of Japanese Literature, vol 3, Jin’ichi Konishi, Princeton UP, 1991 ◆日本文学新史、２、鈴木一雄、至文堂、1985.