Poetry and Painting

	A 10th-century literary classic, Tales of Ise (Ise Monogatari) provides the subject matter for this single, six-fold byõbu. A poem in the Ise recounts the journey of the poet and courtier Ariwara no Narihira (about AD 825-880) from the capital, Kyoto, toward the distant northern provinces. Along a mountain pass strewn with red ivy, Narihira, seen here in a blue outer robe, encounters a monk who is walking back to Kyoto. He asks the monk to carry a letter to a lover there.
	Fukae Roshu painted three byõbu versions of this subject, all presenting this colorful autumn scene on a gold foil background. The mountain shapes are cut off at the top and depicted without any Western "realistic" features. Similarly, the silver stream and nearby rocks and plants are simplified to help compose and highlight the figures. The elegant colors and highly stylized forms represent fundamental visual characteristics of classical and modern Japanese-style painting (yamato-e).

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