Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
“Broom Cypress” (Hahakigi)
Not on view
This remarkable screen depicts a story within a story told to a seventeen-year-old Genji one rainy night. The cautionary tale describes a brazen woman who flaunted her skills on the koto, demonstrating that in some cases a woman can be too alluring.
A spectacular koto stands in for the seductive woman. Notice its details: the wood grain, the thirteen bridges with notched tops to secure the gold strings, the motifs of sandbars and flying geese that suggest inlaid mother-of-pearl. The sliding doors of the room might allude to a folk song mentioned in the anecdote. Bordered by colorful brocade and fitted with paulownia-crest door handles, they bear paintings of rice planting
in watery fields as well as figures pouring sake and singing songs for a rich harvest.
This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
