Courtesans in an Iris Garden
Katsukawa Shunchō Japanese
Not on view
This triptych recalls one of the most popular episodes from the tenth-century literary classic, the Ise monogatari (The Tales of Ise), a series of poems on love and journeying accompanied by brief textual notes. This episode tells of a young aristocrat who happens upon a place called Eight Bridges, where a river branches into eight channels, each spanned by a bridge. Admiring the lush growth of irises, he composes a poem of five lines, each beginning with one syllable of the Japanese word for iris, which immortalized the flower's association with the place. The poem expresses his longing for a loved one left behind in the capital:
I have a beloved wife,
Familiar as the skirt
Of a well-worn robe,
And so this distant journeying
Fills my heart with grief.
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