The Ohio State University Libraries are fortunate to have a wide range of fascinating Japan-related special collections. Several available are related to the famous classical Japanese novel, The Tale of Genji. Whether you are an established Genji scholar or a curious student, I would like to highlight some of our materials that can provide an extraordinary visual guide to this classic tale. I have spent time with two works in particular for this essay: they are a set of reproduction prints of the iconic Genji monogatari emaki as well as a separate set referred to as the Genji monogatari gajō. This post will serve as part one in a two-part blog series about these iconic artworks!
“Wood-block reproductions of the Genji picture scrolls,” ND1059.6 G4 W66 1994
The Tale of Genji (源氏物語, Genji monogatari), written by the female court attendant Murasaki Shikibu in the 11th century, is perhaps the most well-known and precious treasure of the Japanese literary tradition. This Heian-era (794-1185) classic is lengthy, character-driven, and full of vivid detail about the look and feel of the imperial Japanese court and aristocratic society. The tale follows the romantic life of Hikaru Genji, the “Shining” Prince, and depicts his many, mostly tragic relationships with women. Genji is the son of the emperor and a lower-ranking court lady known as the Lady Kiritsubo. While he is his father’s favorite child and is considered for imperial succession, he is ultimately removed from the imperial line and made a member of the Genji clan. This protagonist earns the description “hikaru” (光る, shining or radiant) on account of his beautiful appearance and endearing qualities. However, these same infatuating traits set up the bulk of the conflict in the tale, as the myriad women Genji becomes intimate with invariably experience neglect and jealousy or other courtly drama of the polygynous aristocratic setting. The memorable and complex characters of the Shining Prince’s world have appealed to Japanese audiences for centuries, and it’s no surprise that scores of portrayals, homages, and allusions have popped up since the tale was written over a millenium ago.
The Tale of Genji Illustrated Scrolls
About a hundred years after Murasaki Shikibu completed her story, around the time of the retired emperors GoShirakawa (後白河天皇, 1053-1129) and Toba (鳥羽天皇, 1103-1156), the celebrated work was visualized in the court-commissioned Genji monogatari emaki (“Tale of Genji illustrated scrolls,” hereafter also shortened to: Emaki); this work is in itself a national treasure, representing the earliest and most famous illustrated depiction of Murasaki Shikibu’s famous tale. After its creation, hundreds of artists into the Edo period and beyond marked their skill by following the tradition of Genji illustrations.
The Emaki are ancient, fragile, and incomplete; four volumes, carried between the Gotoh Museum (Tokyo, one volume) and the Tokugawa Art Museum (Nagoya, three volumes) survive, only displayed for about one week each November. By the nature of their old age, and the impermanence of the medium, the scrolls are at a great risk of deterioration each time they are handled or displayed outside of storage—a situation dire enough that the illustrations were cut out and mounted individually in 1932 as an attempt to preserve them better. The fragility has led to the quandary of one of Japan’s greatest cultural treasures being most often completely unavailable for enjoyment by the public.
As a part of the conservation effort, Tokugawa Yoshichika made the difficult decision in 1932 to cut out each illustration so that they could be mounted individually and more carefully handled.
A recent exhibition celebrated the restoration of the illustrations shown in their original handscroll format and ran from November 13, 2021 to December 12, 2021. Follow this link for details.
The problem was first tackled by the Tokugawa Art Museum shortly after its foundation in 1935. The museum was established by Tokugawa Yoshichika (徳川義親, 1886-1976), the nineteenth head of the Owari Tokugawa family, one of three branches of daimyō descended from the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. He possessed an extensive ancestral collection of historic artworks, and, concerned with its future preservation, the museum was filled with such cultural treasures handed down by the Tokugawa family for centuries. Among these was the aforementioned three volumes of the Genji monogatari emaki, and Yoshichika proceeded to make plans to assure both their posterity and their wider availability to the Japanese public.
The first project was an attempt by Yoshichika to reproduce the scrolls in a scaled-down color print version. However, in 1936, mechanically producing prints in anything but monochrome was not the norm, and Yoshichika was unsatisfied with the results both aesthetically and pragmatically. He finally came upon the decision that the best way to reproduce the pictures was by using the method of woodblock printing, which had already been used for widespread color printmaking for hundreds of years in Japan. Thus, in 1943, Yoshichika entrusted his woodblock Emaki project to Kawazura Yoshio.
The 1936 printing is currently held by the National Diet Library in Japan, and it can be viewed digitally at this link.
It took many years and a team of dozens of specialists to realize the woodblock project. A full set of the scrolls was reproduced via woodblock printing by 1963. Each image took between twenty and thirty individual woodblocks to create. The prints were also artificially weathered to mimic the look of the Emaki as they were, as opposed to guessing about their original, pristine look.
Only a limited number of sets were created from the original woodblocks that were overseen by Kawazura, due partly to the immense cost and labor of production. Even so, Yoshichika’s original intent may have been fulfilled, as subsequent printing runs of woodblock prints have expanded access to the Emaki. One such printing, a 1994 set published by Kyōdō Tsūshinsha, is currently in the possession of the Ohio State University Rare Books & Manuscripts Library.
While digital photography and scanning technology has made seeing rare and famous works of art easier than ever, there is a distinct tangible element missing from viewing artworks on a computer screen. The original size, the elements of presentation, the look and feel of the materials and the medium used: each of these things is lost in digitization. The advent of computers and clear, accurate, and cheap digital photography were beyond Yoshichika’s imagination, but he seems to have understood as a museum curator the importance of the mode of presentation in an artwork; and even though the original Emaki are not woodblock prints, there is a visceral satisfaction in handling them just the same, where the layering of pigments provides a pleasing depth and increased sense of perspective. The Heian courtiers of the time of the Emaki’s creation would have understood this as well. Via the illustrations themselves and the beautiful calligraphy accompanying them, the people on the inside of the imperial palace could enjoy Murasaki Shikibu’s tale a hundred years after its writing in an especially physical way.
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I hope you have enjoyed learning about the history of the Genji monogatari emaki and its preservation by the Tokugawa Art Museum. In the next part of this blog series, I will introduce a second distinctive item in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library. Also, I will offer a comparative analysis of the two works and how they portray space and style in The Tale of Genji. If you have questions about these or other rare Japanese holdings at The OSU Libraries, please contact Japanese Studies Librarian, Dr. Ann Marie Davis, at davis.5257@osu.edu.
