"Ra": Narihira Requests a Painting from a Former Lover, from the series "Tales of Ise in Fashionable Brocade Pictures (Furyu nishiki-e Ise monogatari)"

This 1767 Katsukawa Shunsho print at the Art Institute of Chicago, titled with the syllable Ra and depicting the courtier-poet Ariwara no Narihira requesting a painting from a former lover, belongs to the series Tales of Ise in Fashionable Brocade Pictures (Furyu [nishiki-e](/glossary/nishiki-e) Ise monogatari). The series adapts episodes from the ninth-century literary classic Ise monogatari, the collection of lyrical poems and prose anecdotes traditionally attributed to Narihira himself, into the visual idiom of mid-eighteenth-century [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e). The work demonstrates the range of subjects Shunsho commanded beyond his celebrated [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e): classical literature, courtly romance, and the visual conventions of mitate (parodic substitution) that ukiyo-e artists used to make ancient material resonate with contemporary Edo sensibilities. The nishiki-e (brocade picture) full-color woodblock technique, perfected by Suzuki Harunobu just a few years before this series appeared, allowed Edo ukiyo-e to achieve a new pictorial richness, and Shunsho's command of the medium is evident in the carefully balanced color organization and the subtle modulation of textile patterns across the figures' robes. As founder of the Katsukawa school, Shunsho is most remembered for his actor portraits, but works such as this Ise monogatari design demonstrate his versatility within Edo ukiyo-e as a whole. The series participates in a long tradition of visual response to Narihira's amorous escapades and contributes to the eighteenth-century vogue for furyu (modish or fashionable) reinterpretation of classical materials. The Art Institute impression preserves the refinement of the printing and the elegance of Shunsho's draughtsmanship in this less frequently discussed branch of his oeuvre.