“Genji province-name renga” ( Genji kokumei renga), in
which poets composed verses based alternately on
the names of provinces throughout the realm and
the titles of the fi fty-four Genji chapters.30 At the same
time it would be a mistake to overstate the infl uence
of renga over waka in terms of medieval Genji reception, and the album’s creation. Waka remained the
dominant poetic form when it came to the creation
of new poetry inspired by Murasaki’s tale, and Gensei
and renga masters like him left countless examples.31
Fig. 5 Portrait Sketch of Sanjōnishi Sanetaka. By Tosa
Mitsunobu. Dated 1501. Single sheet, ink on paper, 41.2 × 25.8
As the analyses of the texts and images in the pages
cm. Historiographical Institute, The University of Tokyo.
that follow will attest, an emphasis on the use of
Introduction| 7
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specifi c semantic units (derived from waka as well as eighth month of 1509 bearing calligraphy papers
renga) to represent Genji scenes and the calligraphy
( shikishi) to accompany a set of Genji pictures.
of Genji texts helped shape the appearance of the
These correspond to the fi fty-four colorful papers
leaves in the 1510 album. At the same time, Gensei’s
that make up half of the album today. Sanetaka’s
expertise extended to the entire content of the tale.
diary does not mention the preparation of the
Like Sanetaka, he was well versed in Genji commen-
shikishi, but they were certainly decorated by the
taries and borrowed volumes of a commentary by
time Sue Saburō handed them over, painted in
Yotsutsuji Yoshinari (1326–1402), Gleanings from the
fi ve diff erent colors — red, blue, yellow, pink, and
Rivers and Seas [of Genji Commentaries] ( Kakaishō, four-
green — and embellished with “dragon borders”
teenth century) at the start of the album project, no
that appear above, and on the right or left, of each
doubt to help facilitate conversations with the album’s
rectangular sheet (fi g. 6).35 The colored papers
patron or to provide him with instruction on the tale.32
emulate high-quality imported Chinese paper
Renga masters like Gensei typically rose from hum-
with similar dragon motifs that had been used pri-
ble backgrounds and proved valuable as instructors
marily in Zen circles since the fourteenth century.
to aristocrats as well as members of the military elite
Such Chinese-style paper is an interesting choice
like the Ōuchi and Sue; they assisted their patrons
for the inscription of The Tale of Genji, a work of
in the successful navigation of poetry gatherings prose fi ction ( monogatari) and waka poetry written and regularly corresponded with them, correcting
in kana, the phonetic Japanese script, usually con-
or sending advice on their written poems.33 As they
sidered antithetical to Chinese logographs, which
were not subject to the protocol that accompanied
were employed for offi
cial writing. The pairing of
court rank or military status, they could function as
the fi ve-colored Chinese-style dragon papers with
mediators, moving among disparate social groups as
kana calligraphy in fact embodies the aesthetic of
go-betweens for a variety of transactions, and trav-
wa-kan, a form of creative expression in art and lit-
eling throughout the country transporting texts and
erature that deliberately juxtaposed Japanese ( wa)
off ering their services in distant provinces. Gensei
and Chinese ( kan) cultural objects and practices.36
was a disciple of Sōgi (1421–1502), the medieval In the case of Sue Saburō’s Genji Album, this aes-period’s most famous renga poet, who had traveled
thetic choice may refl ect his family’s identity as
to the Ōuchi domains in 1480, and again in 1489,
Ōuchi retainers, men engaged in foreign trade,
and had forged strong ties to the daimyo and their
with claims to continental culture.
retainers, including Sue Hiroaki. Sōgi even counted
Inherent in the juxtaposition of wa and kan is
among his disciples Sanetaka himself; although also an underlying societal and cultural gender Sanetaka had been educated since early childhood in
structure that associated offi
cial Sinitic writing
the Chinese and Japanese classics, it was Sōgi who
with the masculine gender and vernacular writing
trained him in a closely guarded tradition of exegesis
in kana with the feminine. The latter was literally
of the fi rst imperial waka anthology, the Kokinshū, as
called “the female hand” ( onna-de), a gendered
well as The Tale of Genji.34 The shared connection of
mode of writing that, ironically, counted men as
Gensei, Sanetaka, and Sue Hiroaki to the venerable
some of its most celebrated practitioners.37 Certain
Sōgi allowed Gensei to introduce his warrior patron
leaves in the 1510 album employ some of the tropes
to Sanetaka, which he did within six months of Sue
of classical onna-de such as “scattered writing”
Saburō’s arrival in the capital.
( chirashi gaki), in which the kana do not appear in
syntactical order in regular right-to-left columns
Calligraphers: Aristocratic Traces
but are distributed across the paper in meandering
patterns. Chapter Sixteen in the album is the most
The album’s production began in earnest when
conspicuous example, with a prose excerpt that
Saburō arrived at Sanetaka’s residence early in the
begins in the center and zigzags across the sheet
8 | The Tale of Genji
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in a dizzying manner. But such leaves are relatively
the need to remain discernible when viewed across
rare in the album. The calligraphy of the 1510 a room.
album is not in the quintessential onna-de style of
It was up to the coordinators of the project to
Heian calligraphy, characterized by gossamer thin
ensure variety in the graphic design of the album’s
brushstrokes that vertically connect multiple pho-
calligraphy. Sanetaka and Gensei both played a role
nemes into long fl owing ligatures of contiguous
in the organization of the album’s texts, which
lines of script. The writing is of the Muromachi
involved selecting the excerpts, procuring the par-
period, and the six calligraphic hands of the album
ticipation of the six calligraphers, and collecting
represent distinct calligraphic lineages of the early
and collating the sheets of writing. They began
sixteenth century.38 Even across these distinctive with t
he fi rst of these tasks, the selection of texts, and identifi able stylistic lineages, however, there
which they sent to the various calligraphers, along
is a certain consistency in the use of bold strokes
with instructions or templates.39 The calligraphers
brushed in dark, voluptuous ink. The calligraphers
were probably not, in other words, left entirely to
primarily limit themselves to the kana syllabary,
their own devices in terms of the layout of their
but strategically employ darkly inked and densely
calligraphic assignments. Manuals on protocols
tectonic Sinitic logographs to great visual eff ect.
for inscription of shikishi existed for just this pur-
The ink traces on these shikishi represent asser-
pose, which the calligraphers themselves may have
tive calligraphic expressions brushed with clarity
used.40 The calligraphers did have some artistic
for maximum legibility, perhaps for screens, and
leeway, for example, in the way they responded
to the dragon borders of each leaf in a diff erent
manner, sometimes ignoring and transgressing
them, and other times skillfully using the borders
to off set words or phrases of signifi cance. The
coordinators did, however, carefully orchestrate
the color coordination of the sheets. They sent
each of the six calligraphers a total of nine leaves
and distributed the colored sheets in such a way
that minimized repetition between calligraphic
hand and paper hue in the sequence of the com-
pleted album.41 As will be seen in the chapters
ahead, the color of a calligraphy leaf often comple-
ments the subject matter of the text inscribed on
its surface in ways that must have been more than
mere coincidence.
The calligraphy of the Genji Album is brimming
with visual appeal, and yet this eff ect was no doubt
secondary in importance to the sum of the cal-
ligraphic and courtly lineages it represented, the
“aristocratic body” that is inscribed into the work
itself. Each of the hands were as indicative of the
identity of the calligraphers as their names and
court rank, which in fact endowed the leaves with
Fig. 6 Sanjōnishi Sanetaka (1455–1537), calligraphy for Leaves
value. The album becomes, through the hands of
of Wild Ginger (Aoi), Chapter Nine f rom The Tale of
its six calligraphers, both a manual reproduction
Genji Album. 1510. Ink on paper, 24.3 × 18.1 cm. Harvard Art
Museums, Cambridge.
of the Genji and a calligraphic representation of
Introduction| 9
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courtly society that the Sue household could use to
gorgeously represented, their faces, namely those of
possess “the capital,” even in the distant provinces.
elites, are depicted with an economy of means. The
preferred vocabulary that has developed to describe
Painters: Tosa Mitsunobu
them refers to the “lines” employed for the eyes and
and the Painting Bureau
the “hooks” that delineate the noses ( hikime kagi-
hana). One of the most striking elements of these
Although Sanetaka’s diary does not mention the paintings is their abundant use of wafting gold paintings for the Genji Album, there is no doubt that
clouds to f rame and order each composition, and
they were entrusted to the artist Tosa Mitsunobu (act.
the interplay between the organic shapes of these
ca. 1462–1525), who had been Director of the Painting
clouds and the straight lines and zigzagging diago-
Bureau ( edokoro azukari) since 1469.42 Mitsunobu held
nals of the architectural components. The paintings
that title (bestowed on him by both emperor and
are divided between outdoor scenes in which typi-
shogun) for over fi fty years. It was a coveted post for
cally a group of fi gures takes part in a courtly ritual
a professional painter that ensured a certain amount
or activity, and indoor scenes in which the roofs are
of fi nancial stability and a steady stream of com-
“blown off ” ( fukinuki yatai) to provide full visual
missions from a varied clientele beyond the court
access to interiors. This technique of direct access
and shogunate for paintings of all kinds, including
to a scene f rom a high vantage point is part of a
Buddhist icons, mortuary portraits, narrative hand-
mode of representation that diff ers f rom paintings
scrolls, fans, and of course Genji paintings. The that employ a one-point perspective, or that orga-number of extant works by Mitsunobu show him
nize a composition along an imagined horizon line.
to be one of the most prolifi c and successful artists
Thus, rather than depicting the action of narrative
of medieval Japan, and his name is associated with
scenes within a f ramework of illusionistic space,
several artistic innovations of the period.43 As Chino
in which characters and motifs decrease in size
Kaori fi rst demonstrated, the unsigned paintings and placement according to a coherent, if unseen of the 1510 Genji Album are stylistically a perfect fi t
grid of seemingly quantifi able spatial relationships,
with Mitsunobu’s other known works.44 Mitsunobu
these paintings demonstrate other organizational
was in many ways the most logical artist to entrust
priorities. A fi gure’s larger size or prominence in any
with such a task. His prestigious title and relatively
given painted scene is often indicative of a textual
high court rank endowed his paintings with a cer-
emphasis on their interiority in the corresponding
tain cachet, and to the members of the Sue house his
narrative passage, or their centrality to the action
works would have epitomized court culture itself.
of the scene. This sliding scale of visual emphasis
Mitsunobu was also the painterly counterpart to weighted according to narrative content has been calligraphers and poets such as Sanetaka and Gensei
described as a system of “psychological perspec-
and had in fact collaborated with both men before.45
tive,” which emerged out of the symbiosis of word
Mitsunobu’s interactions with this coterie of court-
and image in Heian period literature.48 Such a picto-
ier-scholars, which included discussions concerning
rial system provides an appropriate counterpart to
The Tale of Genji and frequent participation in poetry
the reading experience of Genji, which aff ords rel-
gatherings, resulted in paintings that exhibit a sophis-
atively unmediated access to characters’ thoughts.
ticated understanding of the literary canon that he
It continued to be the primary mode of Genji rep-
was so often asked to visualize.46
resentation with modifi cations in style and format
The painted leaves of the 1510 album evoke
narra-
over the centuries. The paintings in the 1510 album
tive paintings of the earlier Heian period, with their
thus employed long-standing techniques of courtly
vibrant palette of mineral pigments, shell white for
narrative painting and established a Genji Album tra-
the powdered faces of aristocrats, and fi ne ink lines
dition that would continue with members of the
for details (fi g. 7).47 While the clothing of fi gures is
Tosa and Sumiyoshi schools among others.
10 | The Tale of Genji
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Mitsunobu’s paintings stand out, however, as obscure the artist’s hand in narrative paintings and qualitatively diff erent f rom all Genji album paintings
put them at a remove conceptually f rom ink paint-
that come afterward. These diff erences are manifest
ings, which aim to connect viewers viscerally with
in their use of pigments (relatively light and transpar-
the energy and persona of the artist through the
ent in certain areas), the sketchy quality of faces and
vitality of exposed calligraphic line. The hand of the
other details, and the prevalence of a wavy line to
master artist could reemerge, however, through the
defi ne rocks, hills, and trees. The approach is unique
addition of fi nishing touches in black ink after the
within so-called yamato-e ( Japanese-style pictures)
color had been applied to the paintings. At this stage,
of the era, and it signals an artist interested in incor-
Mitsunobu introduced his signature artistic feature,
porating certain characteristics of Sino-Japanese the tremulous lines that resonate with the indexical ink painting, calligraphic line and wash eff ects, into
brushwork of the ink painting tradition, and they
the realm of polychrome narrative paintings. The
imbue Mitsunobu’s paintings with an individuality
very process by which narrative paintings are made,
that seems lacking in many other Genji pictures.
however, renders this a diffi
cult endeavor. They con-
Mitsunobu’s formal Sinitic pictorial infl ections
sist of “built-up pictures” ( tsukuri-e), for which the
tend to appear only on the margins of the paintings,
lead artist provides a master drawing in ink, usually
The Tale of Genji- A Visual Companion Page 3