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Paper short abstract:

Paintings based on narrative texts are created amidst a tension between faithfulness to the original and creativity in its pictorial representation. This paper considers how such paintings should be evaluated, using the case of the Tales of Ise picture scroll by Kanō Einō(1631-1697) as an example.

Paper long abstract:

This paper investigates the Tales of Ise picture scroll created by Kanō Einō(1631-1697), one of many works of pictorial art based on the classical text that were produced in Edo period. Here, making frequent comparison both with various other such visual depictions, as well as with the original text itself and its associated commentary tradition, I seek to explore Einō’s work in its actual diachronic context.

Upon close examination, it is intriguing that, while some representations in Einō’s scroll follow the original Tales of Ise faithfully, others clearly do not. One finds, for example, not only cases of figures present in the original being wholly absent, but conversely also cases of various items newly added lacking mention in the text. One even notes the occasional introduction of depicted scenery without any textual grounding. Yet why did Einō proceed thus, as opposed to simply reproducing accurately the content of the text as encountered?

When considering this problem, it is necessary to recall that he did not meet the original text in isolation. In addition to more direct precedents in the genre of the Tales of Ise paintings, his awareness of the text itself was shaped by various scholarly commentaries he consulted. Moreover, he was influenced by paintings of the Tale of Genji and by genre-paintings of Edo-period customs and culture.

When evaluating his work today, we must thus consider not only Einō’s faithfulness to the source, but also his creativity in bringing it pictorially to new life. These two elements might be oppositionally characterized as “accuracy” and “inaccuracy,” yet it is precisely in this conflict, I argue, that the value of the reception process itself is to be discovered. It is also from exploration of this tension that we must seek to understand the reason for the scroll’s creation, as well as the manner in which it was appreciated. Indeed, it bears ultimately on the question of what significance such works of reception past might continue to hold for us in the present.