The Tale of Genji: Legends and Paintings

by Miyeko Murase

Unquestionably one of the world's greatest literary masterpieces and the finest achievement of classic Japanese prose narrative, The Tale of Genji , written by Murasaki Shikibu shortly after 1000 A.D., has provided endless inspiration for Japanese painters throughout the centuries. Widely held to be the first novel ever written, its story relates the amorous adventures of "the shining prince" Genji and the elaborate and highly ordered court culture of the Heian era. Presented here is one of the most exquisite, complete, and beautifully preserved series of paintings illustrating the tale, bringing to life the events of this classic work. The fifty-four imagesillustrating one chapter eachdate from the mid-seventeenth century and were executed by an artist trained in the traditional Tosa school of painting. Their small dimensions (they measure just over five inches square) and lyrical colors call to mind the illustrated manuscripts of medieval Europe. Roofs are entirely removed from houses to reveal small, doll-like figures within. Delicate flowers and plants suggest the seasons of the year. Surrounded by gilded clouds, these graceful paintings shimmer with uncommon beauty and delicacy. Murase's introduction examines the paintings in detail, providing insight into the uniqueness of this set in particular, exceptional for being one of the most pristine and complete surviving series of illustrations of The Tale of Genji . Commentaries on each of the images describe the scene depicted and summarize, in brief, the key events from the tale. 54 color illustrations, 8 black-and-white illustrations.

Genres: Art, Literature, Japan, Nonfiction, Classics

136 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Morgiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Tale of Genji, the world’s first novel, has inspired artists for nearly 1,000 years. The subject of this book is a particular series of 17th century paintings, and magnificent works they are. Known as the Burke albums, they are attributed to Mitsuoki Tosa, but may have actually been painted by another artist from the Tosa school. But that is an argument for art historians, and is not relevant to the beauty of the paintings. Murase talks about this theory, as well as giving further information about the novel, Murasaki Shikibu, and the Burke albums, in the introduction.

In this series, there is one painting for each of the novel's 54 chapters. (Genji, the titular character, doesn't appear in all of them; he dies around chapter 41 and the story continues with his son's exploits.) Murase summarizes the events that take place in each chapter and points out certain details in the painting corresponding to a particular scene. For those who don't want to read the novel, which can be over 1,000 pages in English translation, this is an excellent book: one can follow the story quite easily, without being overwhelmed. Murase and the publishers even went to the extent of making the book the actual size of the paintings, which is why it's rather oddly shaped. The Tale of Genji: Legends and Paintings is a wonderful book for anyone interested in Japanese literature or art.

[Eli]

I've wanted to read the tale of genji for a few years now but I'm super intimidated by it, so I got this version with historical paiting illustrations from the library. My idea was that this would give me a loose idea of the plot and characters so that if I want to actually read a translation text, I can focus on the writing instead of trying to puzzle out the millions of love interests. I used to find this helpful when I first started reading Jane austen, which I think is a lot more accessible from where I am, haha.

I'd say after reading this I have about the same level of interest in the full text. I love political court drama but I still feel like I dont have enough cultural/historical context to really get it. I'm also uhhhh not sure how the intense grooming/philandering vibes will land with me.

[Betty · Rating 4 out of 5]

The illustrations are attributed to Tosa Mitsuoki, 1617-1691, who made them about six-hundred years after Genji's being written by an Heian court woman around 1008 in the Japanese kana phonetic script, i.e. the vernacular for female use, rather than in the formal Chinese writing of Japanese males. The illustrations are said to agree with a conventional, stylized model of Genji iconography of the Taso school of painting.

There is one illustration for each chapter of Murasaki Shikibu's "The Tale of Genji", and this painted set in two parts called the Burke Albums is typical in its being without accompanying text. Our book under review, however, has added a summary beside each full-page illustration to highlight the events of the chapter and the figures and significance of the illustration. The full Genji narrative typically runs over a thousand pages of reading, definitely has a strange way of character identification, and leaves a lot of hints and gaps for the reader's imagination to connect, so this book of "...Legends and Paintings" is useful as an illustrated guidebook to the Japanese classic novel "The Tale of Genji".

[ems · Rating 4 out of 5]

on the one hand, this is an epic story from basically the japanese jane austen* (from 1000 yrs ago) and the paired illustrations are all amazing. on the other, genji is is a creepy and unlikable character. so ...

*their awesomely sarcastic personalities and the themes of social mores/romance in their work ... plus being the complete & acknowledged master of a form of writing (novels) despite (because of?) the disadvantages in both their times of being a female writer

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the historical fiction part and the amazing illustrations but I began to think of Genji as a pedophile which ruined the illusion, Not too p.cc. about a story written 1400 years ago, but pedophilia is abhorrent no matter when in time it manifested itself.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful compendium of Gengji illustrations accompanied by summaries of each chapter — a more accessible way to read through The Tale of Genji!

[E.A. Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a very helpful resource and the artwork is beautiful.