ISE MONOGATARI 伊勢物語 [Tale of Ise]

Finely illustrated manuscript of Tale of Ise on smooth & thick torinoko paper with 30 full-page & one double-page paintings, employing sumi ink, various washes, sprinkled gold, & gold paint. Leaves of text underpainted in gold with delicate floral devices. Written throughout in a fine calligraphic cursive hand. 34; 35; 33 leaves. Three vols. Small 4to (234 x 171 mm.), retchoso binding, orig. gold & blue-green silk brocade over semi-stiff wrappers, gold endpapers, gold-patterned manuscript labels on upper cover. [Japan]: early to mid-Edo.


A very beautifully illustrated manuscript of Tale of Ise, one of the earliest and most (truncated) famous literary classics of Japan, a collection of some 125 prose tales with the addition of 209 waka poems and based on the adventures and amorous exploits of the Heian courtier-poet Ariwara Narihira 在原業平 (825-80). The “‘young man’ of the Ise Monogatari episodes apparently is the prototype of the consummate courtier-lover of the Heian period: handsome, sensitive, fashionable, and skilled in the arts, especially in composing poetry. His love-affairs are with women of varying ages and from different levels of society, so it is not surprising that these tales were a popular subject for narrative illustrations from the Heian period on.”–Miyeko Murase, Tales of Japan. Scrolls and Prints from The New York Public Library (Oxford: 1986), p. 81.


Our manuscript is very finely illustrated with one double-page and 30 full-page paintings, using the black ink lines of hakubyō 白描 (literally “white drawing” or monochrome) in the Chinese style, with the addition of delicate ink washes in various grays of sumi ink; subtle shades of red, pink, and blue; and the ample use of gold mist and paint. Our manuscript reveals the blending of the hakubyō style of the Kamakura period with the coloring of the yamato-e やまと絵 (Japanese style of painting).


The leaves of text were first decorated with many underpaintings of floral devices in gold before the calligrapher set to work with his brush.


In very fine condition, preserved in a box within box.


❧ Earl Miner et al., The Princeton Companion to Classical Japanese Literature (1985), p. 170–“The Ise Monogatari was recognized with the Genji Monogatari by the renga masters as one of the two classics of monogatari literature central to their art…The legacy of the work is broader still in some respects — not as a cause or influence so much as a major early exemplar of much that is most characteristic in Japanese literature…It is, finally a work extraordinarily rich in half-hidden detail. The attentive folklorist, psychologist, and historian reap rewards akin to those of the poet and novelist as readers…the student of Japanese literature will find the Ise Monogatori one of the most surprisingly rich, as also richly surprising works of all classical literature.”. (Inventory #: 10749)