Ivy Lane

Discussion

FROM THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART’S CATALOG

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.

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