Preview
Creation Date
Reprint of the original, published in December 1865 (Keio 1).
Geography
Japan
Culture
Meiji-Period, Japanese
Credit Line
Purchase by the Department of Art History, 2026
Accession Number
2026.51
Description
This print comes from the artist's collection, Stories of Chivalry in Modern Times: Fujii Kazuma (近世侠義伝 藤井数馬 / Kinsei Kyogiden: Fujii Kazuma), which is part of a larger series, Biographies of Modern Men (or Stories of Chivalry in Modern Times).
It shows Fujii Kazuma (who was part of a gambling ring feud and an outlaw and swordsman) in a blue robe kneeling beside an ornate folding screen decorated with blue irises.
It is the screen that makes this print intriguing. It depicts the famous 8-planked bridge crossing over a lake filled with purple irises. This bridge was referenced in Tales of Ise, a Heian-Period work, where a courtier, exiled to the provinces is missing his wife. He creates a poem that read along one way starts each sentence with one of the characters which spells out the Japanese word for "iris." In it, he yearns for the wife he misses very much in exile.