"Akashi", "Channel Buoys" ("Miotsukushi"), "The Wormwood Patch" ("Yomogiu"), "Gatehouse" ("Sekiya"), and "Picture Contest" ("E-awase") chapters from the Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari)
Muromachi period (1392–1573)
Not on view
The Tale of Genji, Japan’s most famous work of literature, has been the subject of painting since its creation, in the early 11th century, by Murasaki Shikibu. The life and loves of the handsome, sensitive Prince Genji made him an ideal hero to members of court society. Numerous illustrations of the tale exist, some sumptuous and colorful, but this example, which contains poems and prose notes from five chapters, is similar in style to a number of Muromachi-period Genji scrolls painted in a rather ingenuous, simplified version of the classic monochrome hakubyō (white drawing) style. These images, rendered with a touch of naiveté and lively, sometimes crowded compositions, resemble other Muromachi hakubyō handscrolls in their small size; at less than 20 centimeters in height they can be called ko-e, literally “small pictures.” This type of narrative painting was popular among amateur painters—including women—of the courtier class.
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