Fan, Edo period, c.1680-1720 (ink, colour & gold on paper)

On one side of this circular fan is a painting illustrating a passage (Narihira and the pilgrim) from the Tales of Ise, a work of narratives and poems probably composed in the tenth century by an unknown author. In this passage, travelers encounter a dark pass through the mountains. They sense the desolate remoteness from their familiar world in Kyoto and express this feeling in a poem: Beside Mount Utsu In Suruga I can see you Neither waking nor, alas, even in my dreams. On the other side of the fan is a painting of white chrysanthemums beside a stream. The flowers are painted in low relief, a technique known as moriage.