The Uji Princesses (Uji no Miya no himegimi-tachi)
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.Matsuoka Eikyū depicts these scenes from Genji with arresting clarity, on a monumental scale suitable for the new modern venue of the public art exhibition. Eikyū based the screen at right on a painting from the twelfth-century Genji Scrolls in which Kaoru glimpses the Princesses at Uji. As if to capture Kaoru’s introspective nature, the artist removes him from the role of voyeur, placing him on the veranda of the Uji villa, where he appears to prefer the moon (on the screen at left) to the women inside. The subject matter of the left screen is unclear, but the regal-looking courtier in luminous white robes likely represents Genji, shown amid falling cherry blossoms, visiting the residence of his late wife Aoi before he departs for Suma.
Artwork Details
- 『宇治の宮の姫君たち』 松岡映丘筆
- Title: The Uji Princesses (Uji no Miya no himegimi-tachi)
- Artist: Matsuoka Eikyū (Japanese, 1881–1938)
- Period: Taishō period (1912–26)
- Date: 1912
- Culture: Japan
- Medium: Pair of six-panel folding screens; color on silk
- Dimensions: Image: 63 7/8 in. × 11 ft. 3/4 in. (162.3 × 337.2 cm)
Overall: 65 13/16 in. × 11 ft. 2 5/8 in. (167.2 × 342 cm) - Classification: Screens
- Credit Line: Lent by Himeji City Museum of Art
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art