Kozuka with A Traveling Case and Ivy ("Tales of Ise")

Description A wicker backpack is shown sitting on a small mound covered in ivy. This is a reference to an episode in the 9th chapter of the Tales of Ise, a 10th-century collection of stories. The hero, Ariwara no Narihira (825-880) was exiled from Kyoto. While wandering through Japan with two companions, he met a traveling monk in the area of modern day Shizuoka. The monk was wearing a pack like the one depicted here and the road was covered with ivy. Narihira asked the monk to take a letter back to the capital for him. The episode is sometimes called the Narrow Ivy Way.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
4/18/1984	Treatment	cleaned

Exhibitions

• The Taste of Maryland: Art Collecting in Maryland 1800-1934. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1984.

Provenance William T. / Henry Walters Collection, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions none

Credit Acquired by William T. or Henry Walters