げんじ ものがたり
On Friday I went to the Asian galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see a special exhibition of illustrations from the Tale of Genji (源氏物語).
After introducing the context (Heian court life in Kyoto) and the author (Murasaki Shikibu) the exhibition explained the sustained influence that this famous story made on Japanese language (hiragana), world literature (first novel), and beyond (editorial illustration).
The art-part of the exhibition surveys the evolving formats (from calligraphic scrolls, to paperbacks) and styles (from yamato-e, to shin-hanga) that have assisted readers throughout the centuries to imagine the narrative.
Among my favorites are the miniature, monochromatic ink-line drawings by Tosa Mitsunori.
Mitsunori's albums contain one or more scenes for each chapter, reproducing the original compositions at a dramatically-reduced scale.
The scene above is from the chapter called Morning Glory (Asagao), in which the character Asagao reads a waka poem from Genji.
More about the exhibition and the work of Tosa Mitsunori, here:
https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2019/tale-of-genji
