Eight-Platform Bridge (Yatsuhashi), from the "Tale of Ise (Ise Monogatari)"
- Date:
- c. 1764/65
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print; hosoban, mizu-e
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
Eight-Platform Bridge (Yatsuhashi), from the Tale of Ise (Ise Monogatari), is Suzuki Harunobu's 1759 design illustrating the most beloved episode of the ninth-century poetic narrative. The Tale of Ise's ninth section recounts how the courtier Ariwara no Narihira, exiled from the capital, pauses at a marsh in Mikawa where eight zigzag plank bridges crisscross a field of irises. Asked to compose a poem on irises (kakitsubata), he writes an acrostic each of whose five lines begins with one of the syllables of the flower's name, expressing his longing for the wife and home he has left behind. Harunobu, characteristically, transforms this canonical episode into a piece of Edo bijin-ga by replacing the exiled courtier with one or more contemporary Edo figures who walk among the irises in fashionable robes. The technique of mitate makes the print legible to viewers at every literary level: those who know the Tale of Ise feel the poignancy of Narihira's longing, while those who do not can still admire the geometry of the bridges and the color of the blossoms. The sheet's careful registration of multiple blocks reflects the maturing nishiki-e workshop of the late 1750s, in which Suzuki Harunobu's experiments anticipated the technical breakthrough that would arrive in 1765. The print stands as one of his most enduring negotiations between classical literature and the consumer ukiyo-e market. Source: Art Institute of Chicago, no. 19977.
c. 1767/68
Color woodblock print; hashira-e
c. 1767/68
Color woodblock print; chuban
c. 1767/68
Color woodblock print; chuban
c. 1764/65
Color woodblock print; hosoban, mizu-e
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1947
Color woodblock print; oban
1926
Color woodblock print; oban
1930
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
Eight-Platform Bridge (Yatsuhashi), from the "Tale of Ise (Ise Monogatari)" was created by Suzuki Harunobu (鈴木春信) in c. 1764/65.
Eight-Platform Bridge (Yatsuhashi), from the "Tale of Ise (Ise Monogatari)" depicts bridges.