Screen (six-panel)
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The Tale of Genji, Chapter 34; Kashiwagi catches sight of the Third Princess

Tosa Mitsuoki (1617-1691)

17th century

Medium
Ink, color and gold on paper
Classification
Paintings
Dimensions
H x W (overall): 171.7 x 376.8 cm (67 5/8 x 148 3/8 in)
Culture
Japanese
Museum
Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Asian Art
Credit line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Rights
CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed

View at the Smithsonian Institution

About this work

Written in the early eleventh century by a lady of the imperial court, Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji presents an enthralling narrative of the life of Prince Genji. Already illustrated before the end of the Heian period (794-1185), the pictorial conventions for Genji illustrations were well established. All fifty-four chapters, separated by golden clouds, could be illustrated on a large Japanese screen, but sometimes one chapter was illustrated on one of a pair of screens.