Parody of Narihira's Journey to the East

An MFA Boston print, this design recasts Ariwara no Narihira's Journey to the East — the central narrative of the Heian-period Tales of Ise (Ise monogatari), in which the exiled poet-courtier travels eastward from the capital, composing verses at landmarks along the way — as a mitate (parody) in contemporary dress. The Ise monogatari's eastward-journey episodes, especially the Yatsuhashi (Eight Bridges) iris scene and the crossing of Mount Utsu, were among the most painted and printed classical subjects in Japanese art, and ukiyo-e designers of the 1790s found the mitate format a productive way to combine literary respectability with up-to-date bijin imagery. Shūchō transposes the narrative into contemporary kimono and contemporary settings, the classical reference legible through compositional cues (a bridge, a river, a small group of travelers) rather than through literal costume. The double appeal — literary erudition for the educated buyer, fashion for the casual one — was a defining trick of late-Kansei mitate-e. The MFA's impression is at sc217101.