06/02/2021
Just Arrived: The Tales of Ise. A delightful fragment from an 18th Century E-Makimono 絵巻物 Picture Scroll, later mounted into an Orihon 折本 Concertina Fold Book.
The scene depicts Episode 9, known as "Departing For The East" .
The Poet and Great Lover Narihira Observes:
Mount Fuji
Knowing Not The Seasons
Which One Do You Think It Is?
Snow Still Covers Your Peak
The Dappled Coat of a Fawn
A Single Sheet, Framed & Glazed:
Opaque Pigments and Flakes of Gold Upon Paper.
Yamato - E of the Tosa School
The Tales of Ise 伊勢物語, Ise Monogatari, is a Japanese Uta Monogatari, or collection of Waka poems and associated narratives, dating from the Heian period (794 - 1185).
Thematically, The Tales of Ise embodies the courtly Miyabi aesthetic, prevalent among the surviving works produced by and for the cultural elite of the Heian period, such as the more well-known The Tale of Genji.
The poems themselves explore nature, the court society, culture, and love and relationships.
The Tosa school (土佐派, Tosa-ha) of Japanese painting was founded in the early Muromachi period (14th–15th centuries), and was devoted to Yamato-e, paintings specializing in subject matter and techniques derived from ancient Japanese art, as opposed to schools influenced by Chinese art, notably the Kanō school (狩野派).
Yamato-e (大和絵) is a style of Japanese painting inspired by Tang dynasty paintings and fully developed by the late Heian period.
As its name suggests, Yamato - e is considered a purely Japanese painting style, in which paint is applied in opaque layers with strong outlines.
Faces, which are indicated by abbreviated strokes are not individualised.
