Parody of the Third Princess and Kashiwagi: “Chapter 50: A Hut in the Eastern Provinces”
Utagawa Kunisada Japanese
Not on view
Through his illustrations of A Fraudulent Murasaki’s Rustic Genji, single-sheet prints, triptychs, and diptychs, Utagawa Kunisada was more prolific than any other ukiyo-e artist in the creation of Genji-themed prints. This pair of prints is thirty-seventh in a group of thirty-eight diptychs from the series Lasting Impressions of a Late Genji Collection (Genji goshū yojō), published between 1857 and 1861. The most complex and visually satisfying of Kunisada’s Genji images, this series was lavishly printed on thick paper to allow special effects such as blind printing (karazuri) or textile-weave printing (nunomezuri). The metallic pigments, the burnishing (shōmenzuri), and the overall luxurious presentation usually characterize deluxe privately published prints called surimono.
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