id: 144292 accession number: 1969.127 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1969.127 updated: 2020-11-04 21:09:26.417000 Scenes from the Tales of Ise, mid-1600s. Japan, Edo period (1615-1868). Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, and gold on gilded paper; painting only: 95.2 x 276 cm (37 1/2 x 108 11/16 in.); overall: 109.3 x 258.9 cm (43 1/16 x 101 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1969.127 title: Scenes from the Tales of Ise title in original language: 伊勢物語図屏風 series: series in original language: creation date: mid-1600s creation date earliest: 1625 creation date latest: 1675 current location: creditline: John L. Severance Fund copyright: --- culture: Japan, Edo period (1615-1868) technique: Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, and gold on gilded paper department: Japanese Art collection: ASIAN - Folding screen type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Painting only: 95.2 x 276 cm (37 1/2 x 108 11/16 in.); Overall: 109.3 x 258.9 cm (43 1/16 x 101 15/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Year in Review: 1969 opening date: 1970-01-27T05:00:00 Year in Review: 1969. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (January 27-February 22, 1970). title: Japanese Screens from the Museum and Cleveland Collections opening date: 1977-03-23T04:00:00 Japanese Screens from the Museum and Cleveland Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art (March 23-May 8, 1977). title: Byobu: The Art of the Japanese Screen opening date: 1984-08-01T04:00:00 Byobu: The Art of the Japanese Screen. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 1-October 14, 1984). title: Japanese Gallery 235 Rotation opening date: 2020-01-24T05:00:00 Japanese Gallery 235 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (January 24-July 19, 2020). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE (Elm and Company, Osaka, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: ?-1969 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1969- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: Scenes appear amid golden clouds augmented by raised designs formed of a pigment made from crushed shells (gofun). The technique is called moriage, literally “mounding” the pigment. digital description: wall description: While the 11th century Tale of Genji is universally regarded as Japan's literary masterpiece, the source for visual imagery in Japanese culture is rivaled by another literary classic, the Tales of Ise. A 10th century anthology of poems interspersed with commentary, the Ise portrays the emotional and geographical journey of a courtier from the capital (Kyoto) into the countryside and beyond. The poems describe features of the natural, untamed terrain, linking them to the rather melancholy state of the traveler.

Since the Tales of Ise was—and remains today—well read by educated Japanese, a person viewing these folding screens would immediately recognize its subject, organized as a series of discrete scenes read from right to left. Neither a signature nor a seal identifies the artist, but judging from related paintings, the work can be ascribed to an artist working in Kyoto during the first quarter of the 17th century in the manner of the painter Iwasa Matabei (1578–1650). This type of historical narrative composition became quite popular around 1600 among patrons favoring a distinctly Japanese style of painting which employed rich mineral pigments and a liberal use of gold. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Tōyō kaiga no seika: tokubetsuten: Kurīvurando Bijutsukan no korekushon kara [東洋絵画の精華 : 特别展 : クリーヴラント美術館のコレクションから = Highlights of Asian painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art]. Nara, Japan: Nara National Museum, 1998. page number: Reproduced: pp 130-131, cat. no. 86 url: Cuningham, Michael R. Unfolding Beauty: Japanese Screens from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. page number: Reproduced: cat. no. 38, p. 76 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1969.127/1969.127_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1969.127/1969.127_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1969.127/1969.127_full.tif