"Ta": Purification Ceremony to Remove the Pains of Love, from the series "Tales of Ise in Fashionable Brocade Pictures (Furyu nishiki-e Ise monogatari)"

This color woodblock print by Katsukawa Shunsho, designed about 1767, belongs to the series Tales of Ise in Fashionable Brocade Pictures, Furyu Nishiki-e Ise Monogatari, with each sheet keyed to a syllable of the Japanese phonetic order. The syllable Ta identifies the episode of the Purification Ceremony to Remove the Pains of Love, drawn from the classical Heian poetic narrative Ise Monogatari, in which a lovesick courtier attempts to free himself from emotional torment through ritual purification. Shunsho recasts the scene in the contemporary idiom of Edo ukiyo-e, the figures wearing stylish current robes and gesturing with a quiet, theatrical poise. Newly available full-color nishiki-e printing techniques allowed his publisher to register fine pattern, atmospheric backgrounds, and subtle gradations of feeling. Although Shunsho would soon transform yakusha-e through the rise of the Katsukawa school, the Ise Monogatari cycle reveals his sympathy for classical themes and his ability to translate canonical poetry into a visually fashionable form. The print is preserved in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, where it forms part of a broader holding documenting Shunsho's career and the early decades of nishiki-e production in Edo, demonstrating the dialogue between ancient literary tradition and the experimental commercial print industry of the late eighteenth century.