Fifty-Four Scenes from The Tale of Genji

Japan

Not on view

The eleventh-century literary masterpiece The Tale of Genji is set almost entirely in the capital city of Kyoto and its environs. Here, scenes from all fifty-four chapters appear in sequence across two screens—from right to left and top to bottom—in a composition that transcends shifts in time, season, and setting. The convention of “blown-off roofs” (fukinuki yatai) permits views into interiors, most of them aristocratic mansions. Famous sites such as the iconic bridge over the Uji River (at top left of the left-hand screen), south of Kyoto, are easily recognizable. Viewers familiar with the narrative can enjoy the challenge of identifying characters, episodes, and plot points.

The screens were evidently created by a Kano-school painter and at least one assistant; miniature screens seen within the interiors, mostly ink landscapes, betray a hand from around the time of Kano Yasunobu (1613–1685).

Fifty-Four Scenes from The Tale of Genji, Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, gold, and gold leaf on paper, Japan

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2015.300.37.1, right screen, overall

Fifty-Four Scenes from The Tale of Genji, Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, gold, and gold leaf on paper, Japan
Fifty-Four Scenes from The Tale of Genji, Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, gold, and gold leaf on paper, Japan
Fifty-Four Scenes from The Tale of Genji, Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, gold, and gold leaf on paper, Japan
Fifty-Four Scenes from The Tale of Genji, Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, gold, and gold leaf on paper, Japan
Fifty-Four Scenes from The Tale of Genji, Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, gold, and gold leaf on paper, Japan
Fifty-Four Scenes from The Tale of Genji, Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, gold, and gold leaf on paper, Japan
Fifty-Four Scenes from The Tale of Genji, Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, gold, and gold leaf on paper, Japan
Fifty-Four Scenes from The Tale of Genji, Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, gold, and gold leaf on paper, Japan

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