"U": Narihira Presents a Chancellor with a Model of a Pheasant, from the series "Tales of Ise in Fashionable Brocade Pictures (Furyu nishiki-e Ise monogatari)"

Designed by Katsukawa Shunsho about 1767, this color woodblock print is part of the series Tales of Ise in Fashionable Brocade Pictures, Furyu Nishiki-e Ise Monogatari, organised by the syllables of the Japanese phonetic order. The syllable U identifies the episode in which Ariwara no Narihira presents a chancellor with a model of a pheasant, drawn from the classical Heian narrative Ise Monogatari, a text that was studied and prized throughout the Edo period. Shunsho stages the courtly scene in the contemporary visual idiom of Edo ukiyo-e, dressing the figures in fashionable robes and arranging the composition with the decorative poise expected of a luxury literary series. The relatively recent technology of full-color nishiki-e printing allowed designers like Shunsho to register subtle textile patterns and refined seasonal mood across multiple woodblock impressions. Although Shunsho would soon lead the Katsukawa school in transforming yakusha-e, his work on the Ise Monogatari series confirms his fluency with classical themes and his interest in projects aimed at well-read patrons. The print is preserved in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, where it contributes to scholarly understanding of how mid-eighteenth-century Edo designers bridged the gap between classical Japanese literature and the experimental commercial print culture in which the modern actor print would soon come to maturity.