Ivy Lane
1704
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
About the artist
1704
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Ivy Lane is a 1704 unspecified by Fukae Roshū, a Baroque work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a narrow path winding up a rocky hill, covered in thick green ivy. This painting shows a moment from an old Japanese story. A man meets a priest here and gives him a letter for a woman he can’t see anymore. The path’s name sounds like the word for sadness in Japanese. The artist used soft colors and careful lines to make the scene feel quiet and lonely. Look up *The Tales of Ise* to find more stories like this one.
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.
Read the full account in the museum source.
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