"O": Catalpa Bow, from the series "Tales of Ise in Fashionable Brocade Pictures (Furyu nishiki-e Ise monogatari)"

This color woodblock print, designed by Katsukawa Shunsho around 1767, is part of the series Tales of Ise in Fashionable Brocade Pictures, Furyu Nishiki-e Ise Monogatari, in which the syllables of the Japanese phonetic order are paired with episodes drawn from the classical poetic narrative Ise Monogatari. The syllable O marks the episode of the Catalpa Bow, one of the most evocative passages in the source text, in which a returning lover finds his former partner married to another man and leaves a poem alluding to the catalpa bow's twang of separation. Shunsho stages the scene in the fashionable visual idiom of mid-Edo ukiyo-e, the figures gracefully posed in updated robes and the setting suggested with restrained printed detail. Full-color nishiki-e printing, only recently perfected in Edo, allowed his design to convey subtle textile patterns and seasonal mood. Although Katsukawa Shunsho would soon become the dominant force in yakusha-e through the rise of the Katsukawa school, his work on the Ise Monogatari series reveals his sympathy for classical literary themes and his skill at adapting them for refined urban patrons. The print is held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, where it forms part of a substantial group documenting Shunsho's contributions to the visual culture of Edo period Japan.