"At the Edge of the River Akutagawa" from the Tales of Ise (Ise monogatari)

One of the stories in The Tales of Ise that Edo-period readers loved best was the episode of the abduction of a young noble lady by the amorous hero. These two scenes originally were mounted together as a single composition so the viewer could appreciate the witty juxtaposition of the widely divergent interpretations of the story. The lower picture closely follows traditional illustrations of this passage: the young man carries his beloved piggyback before a willow tree. The Edo artist has even retained the lengthwise format of a traditional handscroll illustration.

The larger scene above is a humorous modern Edo revision of the classical story: the girl lies with her abductor with the air of a willing accomplice to his amorous adventure. To leave no doubt as to her role in this scene, the Edo artist deliberately placed the reclining lovers atop a large pair of pine needles that, in the parlance of Edo slang, symbolizes the illicit union of two conspirators. This piquant contrast between the stuffy traditional view and its racy contemporary parody is further underscored by the contrast in styles: the tightly focused descriptive scene below is replaced by the dynamic swirling lines and mixed motifs in the close-up view of figures above.