1600s
Part of a set. See all set records
Painting in an accordion-style album; ink, light color, and gold on paper
Each leaf: 26.3 x 22 cm (10 3/8 x 8 11/16 in.); Painting only: 17 x 20.6 cm (6 11/16 x 8 1/8 in.)
Gift of Vera Sterne in memory of her husband, Maurice Sterne 1961.202.g
The illustrations are identified by chapter title in cartouches to the upper right of the paintings.
This album contains illustrations for the classic literary work the Tale of Genji, authored in the 1000s by Murasaki Shikibu, an aristocrat of the Heian period (794–1185) court. The scenes are painted in the “white drawing” (hakubyō) mode, in which a fine ink line is used to depict figures and spaces with great subtlety, punctuated only occasionally by traces of red pigment for a character’s lips, a detail of a garment, or a decorative element. These two scenes illustrate episodes from the chapters “Thin Veil of Cloud” (Usugumo) and “Barrier Gate” (Sekiya).
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