Nagisa Palace from the Tales of Ise

late 1800s

Nagisa Palace from the Tales of Ise, late 1800s. Shibata Zeshin (Japanese, 1807–1891). Two-panel folding screen; ink, color, lacquer, and gold on silk; image: 175.3 x 190.5 cm (69 x 75 in.); each side: 162.8 x 88.6 cm (64 1/8 x 34 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1981.2 This screen depicts an episode from the Tales of Ise, a 10th-century collection of poems and associated narratives in which the main character composes the following poem while drinking sake and viewing cherry blossoms: If, in this world of ours / All the cherry blossoms / Disappeared / The heart of spring / Might find peace.

Our hero relaxes on a shoulder rest, gazing at the flowers, his sake dish before him on a lacquered stand. A plump boy attendant monitors the sake dishes, a ewer at the ready. An associate sits with paper, ink, and brush, poised to record poems.