Ivy Lane
Medium
six-panel folding screen; ink and color on gilded paper
Dimensions
136.5 × 271 cm · image: 133.1 × 267.6 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Japanese Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
John L. Severance Fund
Accession Number
1954.127
Tags
male
About this artwork
In an episode from the tenth-century literary classic The Tales of Ise, a courtier happens upon a Buddhist priest on an ivy-covered pass on Mount Utsu, a Japanese homonym for “Melancholy Mountain.” He entrusts the priest with a letter to a former lover in the capital whom he laments he can no longer see, even in dreams. The Tales of Ise features poems set within a basic narrative of the journeys of a courtier in exile.