“Channel Markers” (Miotsukushi) and “The Barrier Gate” (Sekiya)
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.This pair of screens has long been considered a masterpiece within the history of Japanese art. Most notably, they reveal an artist freely reinterpreting the tradition of Genji painting, not merely by adapting miniature-style painting to large-format screens but also by transforming the visual language of Genji illustration through simplification, clear-cut geometry, and an emphasis on materiality. Each episode represents a chance encounter between Genji and a former lover, and both scenes employ gates related to travel and pilgrimage, which perhaps led to their pairing here. Recent research shows that the screens were made in 1631; as one of only two securely dated works by Tawaraya Sōtatsu, they are crucial for understanding the artist’s still relatively enigmatic biography.
Genji writes to the Akashi Lady:
みをつくし恋ふるしるしにここまでも めぐりあひけるえにはふかしな
The channel markers show
how far love has taken us,
and how I’ve given fully of myself
since fate brought us together
because of our deep karmic ties.
Genji writes to the Akashi Lady:
みをつくし恋ふるしるしにここまでも めぐりあひけるえにはふかしな
The channel markers show
how far love has taken us,
and how I’ve given fully of myself
since fate brought us together
because of our deep karmic ties.
Artwork Details
- 俵屋宗達筆 源氏物語関屋・澪標図屏風
- Title: “Channel Markers” (Miotsukushi) and “The Barrier Gate” (Sekiya)
- Artist: Tawaraya Sōtatsu (Japanese, ca. 1570–ca. 1640)
- Period: Edo period (1615–1868)
- Date: 1631
- Culture: Japan
- Medium: Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, and gold on paper
- Dimensions: each: 60 1/16 in. × 11 ft. 8 in. (152.6 × 355.6 cm)
- Classification: Screens
- Credit Line: Lent by Seikadō Bunko Art Museum
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art