Transcription
So, the tale of Genji is the first major loan exhibition in North America to focus on the artistic tradition inspired by Japan's most celebrated work of literature, which was written about 1,000 years ago by a noblewoman, Murasaki Shikibu. Generally recognized as the world's first novel, the captivating story of the radiant Prince Genji and his amorous escapades introduced audiences to some of the most iconic characters in the history of Japanese literature and launched an artistic phenomenon that continues to thrive today. The exhibition presents nearly 1,000 years of Genji-related origin through more than 120 works representing the tale and nearly every conceivable form.
The exhibition is really about how the tale of Genji was read and interpreted over the past 1,000 years. Here you're looking at the oldest illustrated Genji book in the world. The character called Ukifune. She is receiving a letter from one of her lovers who is accusing her of being unfaithful. She does not know how to reply. Next to the image is actually the content of the letter. In the second room of the exhibition, you're going to see a lot of portraits or portrait icons of the author of the tale, Murasaki Shikibu. It explained that she took a pilgrimage to the temple called Ishiyama-dera; she gazed out over the waters of Lake Biwa and saw the flickering reflection of the moon on the water, and in that moment her mind cleared and she saw her chapters of the tale of Genji appear before her. In this triptych, we see Murasaki Shikibu. In the very center, to unify the triptych—the three paintings as one—you can see how the shore connects across all three paintings. On the right, you have a scene of Genji in Suma, from that chapter of the tale of Genji. We find the protagonist in exile, and on the left, you have Genji in Akashi, going for the first time to meet Lady Akashi.
At the end of the 10th century, at the beginning of the 11th century, there was a flourishing of a women's literary salon culture. This is a time not only of the great tale of Genji but of The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon, of all of the great diaries written by female writers. There hasn't been such a flourishing of women's literature in Japanese history again until the 20th century. By the 10th century, we see that there was a fully developed phonetic syllabary called Kana that allowed writers to express themselves in the Japanese vernacular. And of course, the tale of Genji, Genji Monogatari, means that it's a tale talking about things also in the vernacular. The Kana writing system was so closely associated with women writers; it was, in fact, called women’s hand. In contrast to writing in Chinese, which was called the men's writing system or the men's hand.
Especially in Genji paintings, employed a device called the removal of the roof, and these scrolls and paintings they pause at a viewer who is looking down into space, like a bird's-eye view, and it's what some scholars call a psychological perspective, or these sort of spirits that appear in the tale of Genji, as though there's a kind of hovering perspective above these scenes. So, some of the most dramatic parts of the tale of Genji involve spirit possession, and no one better exemplifies spirit possession than Lady Rokujo, who is Genji’s older lover, but she's been willfully neglected by Genji, who has been consumed with other affairs and also his official wife, Lady Aoi. So, one day Genji is making a procession, and the novel is very explicit about exactly how beautiful Genji is, how everyone is tripping over themselves to get a spot along the road to see Genji. And in this screen, he's riding a horse and he's accompanied by an attendant as he moves horizontally across this pair of folding screens. And this would be First Avenue in Kyoto. The third panel here we find what's called the battle of the carriages. And this is where Genji’s official wife, Aoi, who is actually pregnant at the time, also reluctantly goes out to see her husband in the procession, but she does, so she comes late and her men push out of the way the cart of the Rokujo lady. Broken the pedestal of Rokujo’s carriage, and you can see how it's broken. And as you can see, as Genji passes by in a procession, he has men bow out of deference to the official wife, Aoi, and Lady Rokujo is ignored. And so this is just too much for her to bear, and her vengeful wandering spirit leaves her body and then attacks poor Aoi when she has given birth to Genji’s son. Aoi suffers terribly during childbirth, but she gives birth. The child is healthy. All seems well, and everyone departs for the palace when all of a sudden the vengeful spirit sweeps in and kills Lady Aoi.