Tale of Genji (Hakubyō Genji Monogatari emaki 白描源氏物語絵巻)

Asia, Japan

This small-format monochrome scroll depicts two of the fifty-four chapters of the Tale of Genji, arguably the earliest novel in the world and a lasting inspiration for visual arts for a thousand years (from the 11th century till the present day) in Japan. The scroll is composed of eight pictures and extensive calligraphy that copied excerpts (with some modifications) from Chapters 10 and 11 of the Tale of Genji. Texts and images alternate throughout the scroll, with a text preceding an image.

This scroll covers about two years of Genji’s life. The story goes as follows.

It was the beginning of September, and Genji visited lady Rokujo (widow of a former Crown Prince and Genji’s lover) and her daughter (picture 1). The illness of the emperor became worse, and at the beginning of the eleventh month the emperor died peacefully. Fujitsubo (the old emperor’s wife) tried to avoid Genji, but he could manage to find a way to enter her room secretly (picture 2). Sulking with the severe refusal of Fujitsubo, Genji went to Unrin’in Temple where he meditated, read the sixty Tendai sutras, and reflected on Fujitsubo and himself. Fujitsubo was making preparations for a solemn reading of the Lotus Sutra, to follow memorial services on the anniversary of the old emperor's death. A heavy snow fell on the anniversary, early in the eleventh month. Genji exchanged poems with Fujitsubo (picture 3). Fujitusbo announced her intention of becoming a nun, which surprised all of them because of the suddenness (picture 4). Genji and To-no-Chujo seldom went to court, and spent their time reading and playing instruments. On a mild rainy day in summer, Genji invited court people for rhyme-guessing games (picture 5). Genji met Naishi-no-kami (the 6th daughter of the Minister of the Right) secretly. One night the Minister of the Right happened to enter her room. Naishi-no-kami slipped through the curtain with a flushed face. He caught the sash of Genji entwined in her robe. Puzzling, he found a paper of Genji’s writings (picture 6). Enraged by them, he made a report to lady Kokiden (emperor’s consort and daughter of the Minister of the Right), and it became a scandal.

Taking advantage of a rare break in the early-summer rains, Genji visited Reikeiden, one of the old emperor's ladies. He talked over the memories with her into the night. The tall trees in the garden became darker in the light of the past twentieth day's moon. The scent of orange blossoms drifted in to call back the past (picture 7). Quietly Genji went to the west front and looked in on the younger sister (picture 8).

The pictures are drawn in fine lines in monochrome ink (hakubyō 白描), except the lips are depicted in tiny red dots. The painter used extremely economic brushstrokes to delineate the faces, and yet, the figures have expressive facial expressions. The technique used here is the so-called “slit eyes and hooked nose” (hikime kagibana引目鈎鼻), a method to draw faces of the nobility that first appeared in Heian-period yamato-e (for example, the 12th-century The Tale of Genji handscroll). The interior is rendered through another traditionally yamato-e technique called fukinuki yatai吹抜屋台, rendering a building without a roof and ceiling so that the viewer looks inside from above.

According to the connoisseur’s note at the end of the scroll as well as the writings on the box cover, the calligraphy was written by Inoo Tsunefusa (1422–1485), a famed calligrapher who served as a secretary for the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa (1436–1490). Tsunefusa studied waka poetry (和歌, "Japanese poem"), and was knowledgeable in Buddhism. He surpassed the Shōren’in青蓮院 calligraphy style, and founded his own school of calligraphy.