A Parody of the Tales of Ise

A Parody of the Tales of Ise, dated 1784 in the Art Institute of Chicago, is one of Chōbunsai Eishi's earliest mitate-e drawn from classical literature. The tenth-century Ise monogatari, a collection of episodes loosely centered on the courtier-poet Ariwara no Narihira, was a touchstone of literary culture across the Edo period, and Eishi mines it here to dignify a contemporary scene of beauties with the prestige of Heian romance. The Chobunsai school, of which Eishi would become the founding voice, made this kind of classical citation a defining feature, drawing on his prior training under the Kano master Eisen'in Michinobu in the shogunal studio. The composition arranges figures in a quiet horizontal grouping, their willowy proportions and unhurried gestures replacing the courtly costumes of the original narrative with the fashionable kimono of late eighteenth-century Edo bijin-ga. The print's color palette is restrained, allowing the long sweeping contours of robes and the careful patterning of textiles to carry the design. The viewer is invited to identify the source episode through visual cues such as travel motifs, plants, or grouping while enjoying the contemporary surface, the same double reading prized in poetry circles of the day. The Art Institute of Chicago documents the impression's 1784 date and confirms it as an early example of the literary mitate that would run throughout Eishi's career. For students of how Edo bijin-ga absorbed classical Japanese literature, this sheet provides a particularly clear early instance.