The Wedded Rocks (Meoto Iwa) by Futamigaura

The Wedded Rocks (Meoto Iwa) by Futamigaura, in the Art Institute of Chicago, depicts one of the most iconic landscape sites in Japanese popular and religious culture: the two sea-rocks at Futamigaura on the coast of Ise Province, joined by a great straw rope (shimenawa) marking them as a sacred pair and traditionally associated with the Shinto creator deities Izanagi and Izanami. The site was a pilgrimage destination connected to the Grand Shrine of Ise and was widely depicted in ukiyo-e meisho-e and shrine-visit prints. Shunman's surimono treatment, dated to the early nineteenth century, distills the landscape into its essentials: the two rocks, the linking rope, the surrounding water, the sky. The composition is austere, with substantial unprinted space framing the central motif, and the kyoka inscriptions presumably link the image to themes of marital harmony, sacred bonds, or seasonal pilgrimage. The Wedded Rocks were also associated with the New Year sunrise - viewing the sun rise between the rocks at the spring equinox was considered especially auspicious - and the print may have been commissioned for a New Year occasion. Shunman's late style suits the subject perfectly: the quiet meditative landscape, reduced to its sacred geometry, becomes a vehicle for poetry rather than a record of place. The Art Institute of Chicago's holding of this surimono is among the most evocative landscape works in its Shunman group.