"Mu": Clapping the Hands to Effect a Curse, from the series "Tales of Ise in Fashionable Brocade Pictures (Furyu nishiki-e Ise monogatari)"

Plate Mu, Clapping the Hands to Effect a Curse, from Katsukawa Shunsho's series Tales of Ise in Fashionable Brocade Pictures (Furyu nishiki-e Ise monogatari) illustrates a striking episode of supernatural petition drawn from the tenth-century Ise monogatari. Held in the Art Institute of Chicago and produced in the late 1760s, the plate belongs to the iroha-ordered suite that updates the Heian classic into the furyu manner of mid-Edo ukiyo-e, dressing the figures in contemporary kimono and reframing the action in eighteenth-century interiors. The clapping of hands to effect a curse was a recognized ritual gesture in classical and medieval Japanese practice, called ushi no toki mairi when performed during the ox hour at a shrine, and the Ise episode draws on the deeply ambivalent visual repertoire of women's vengeance. Shunsho's design captures the moment with quiet intensity, the gesture of hands brought together carrying the ritual force without overt theatrical excess. While Katsukawa school renown was built on yakusha-e, the Furyu nishiki-e Ise monogatari demonstrates Shunsho's command of classical narrative and his ability to render the more shadowed emotional content of the Ise tales. The series is one of his most significant early Edo ukiyo-e projects beyond the actor print and shows the breadth of literary and pictorial intelligence he brought to the medium.