Pausing to admire Mt. Fuji (parody of Ariwara no Narihira's journey to the east)
- Date:
- c. 1768/69
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print; chuban
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
Suzuki Harunobu's 'Pausing to admire Mt. Fuji,' dated to about 1763, is a witty parody of Ariwara no Narihira's celebrated journey to the east, a story familiar to Edo audiences from the Heian-era Tales of Ise (Ise monogatari). In the original episode the courtier-poet pauses at Mount Fuji and laments his exile from the capital. Harunobu restages this canonical moment in the language of contemporary Edo bijin-ga, replacing the noble exile with elegantly dressed contemporary figures and treating Mount Fuji as a fashionable backdrop rather than a heroic landscape. This kind of mitate-e was central to the artist's project: he repeatedly used the prestige of the classical canon to flatter the literate townspeople of Edo, allowing them to recognize themselves in the place of emperors, courtiers, and poets. The Art Institute of Chicago, the museum source for this record, dates the print to roughly 1763, just before the full polychrome nishiki-e revolution to which Harunobu would contribute decisively in 1765. The composition relies on a clear silhouette of Fuji and on the disciplined linework that marks Harunobu's mature manner. For collectors of Suzuki Harunobu, this print is doubly valuable: as a particularly clear demonstration of mitate-e logic and as a snapshot of how Edo bijin-ga absorbed the iconography of national landmarks like Mount Fuji into its largely interior, urban, and female-centered visual world.
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
Woodblock print
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, harimaze
Woodblock print
![Mount Fuji on a Moonlit Night, Kawai Bridge (Tsukiyo no Fuji [Kawaibashi]), from the series "Selection of Views of the Tokaido (Tokaido fukei senshu)" by Kawase Hasui](https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/d0960668-1e73-339a-b182-fb995a54bff0/full/843,/0/default.jpg)
1947
Color woodblock print; oban
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Pausing to admire Mt. Fuji (parody of Ariwara no Narihira's journey to the east) was created by Suzuki Harunobu (鈴木春信) in c. 1768/69.
Pausing to admire Mt. Fuji (parody of Ariwara no Narihira's journey to the east) depicts mount fuji.