Marks, Andreas. Genji’s World in Japanese Woodblock Prints. — Claremont, Calif.: Scripps College & Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 2012

Hardcover, 292 × 292 mm, light grey paper over boards with black lettering to front cover and spine; olive-green endpapers; pictorial colour dust jacket, [1–4] 5–288 pp. Illustrated throughout in colour and monochrome. Catalogue of 275 items on pp. 70–256. Issued in conjunction with the exhibition Genji’s World in Japanese Woodblock Prints, organized by the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery of Scripps College (touring 2012–2014).

Inprint: © 2012 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. All rights reserved.

Author: Andreas Marks
Place/Date: Leiden, 2012.
Publisher: Hotei Publishing (imprint of Koninklijke Brill NV); Scripps College (Claremont, CA)
Printer: High Trade, Zwolle; printed in Slovakia.
Language: English.
ISBN: 978-90-04-23353-9.

Title-page: Genji’s World | in Japanese Woodblock Prints | From the Paulette and Jack Lantz Collection | Andreas Marks | with contributions by | Bruce A. Coats, Michael Emmerich, Susanne Formanek, Sepp Linhart, and Rhiannon Paget | Scripps College, Claremont, Calif. | in association with | Hotei Publishing ||

Contents

7  Foreword / Acknowledgments
8  Notes to the Reader
8  Introduction
10 Genji Prints: A Nineteenth-century Craze
18 MICHAEL EMMERICH: A Rustic Genji by a Fraudulent Murasaki: A Sense of the Story
22 BRUCE A. COATS: The Changing Face of “The Twilight Beauty” (Yūgao) in Genji Prints
32 MICHAEL EMMERICH: A Rustic Genji World
40 SUSANNE FORMANEK AND SEPP LINHART: Playing with the “Shining Prince”: Genji-related Woodblock-printed Games
54 RHIANNON PAGET: Erotic Genji Fantasies

Catalog 70  Serial Devices in Genji Series 114  His Figure: Related Copies of Other Pictures (Sono sugata yukari no utsushi-e) 136  Lasting Impressions of a Late Genji Collection (Genji goshū yojō) 152  Subjects in Genji Prints 214  Genji in Kabuki 218  Fan Prints 220  Genji Incense Signs 222  Artist Collaborations 238  Reissues and Variants: Eleven Examples

257  Appendix I: Index of Genji Prints (by Artist)
280  Appendix II: Index of Erotic Genji Prints and Illustrated Books
282  Appendix III: Poems from The Tale of Genji Frequently Encountered in Ukiyo-e
284  Bibliography
288  Authors

Fan Prints

Over fifty different fan prints (uchiwa-e) with a Mitsuuji subject are known today, and ninety-five per cent of these are by Kunisada. The survival rate of fan prints is considerably lower than other formats because uchiwa-e were intended to be cut out and glued onto the ribs of fans. This accounts for the rarity of fan prints, particularly those in good condition. The largest collection of extant Genji fan prints is housed in the Japan Ukiyo-e Museum in Matsumoto.

The earliest Genji-related fans are by Kunisada and date to the first half of the 1840s, including the series Six Jewel Faces (Mu tamagawa; G300). This set is a parody on the theme “Six Jewel Rivers” (mu tamagawa), and the images illustrate half-length figures set against a background of tie-dyed fabric patterns. These figures are almost all female beauties, but in one Mitsuuji holds a spray of mountain rose (yamabuki; G300-04). Kunisada produced the majority of his Genji fan prints between 1849 and 1851.

In addition to Kunisada, the Utagawa-school artists Sadahide, Hiroshige, and Kunisada II received commissions for fan prints during the 1850s. Fan prints from 1886 by Yōdō Gyokuei, a disciple of Toyohara Chikanobu, are perhaps the last of this type. Its title, Genji at Blooming Famous Sights: View of Mount Matsuchi from Sumida River (Kaika Genji meisho: Sumidagawa Matsuchiyama no kei; G500), suggests that it might have been part of a series.

Only two designs—both related to Chapter 35 of A Rustic Genji and illustrating Mitsuuji with Tasogare’s daughter Tamakuzu—are known from this series.

218 UTAGAWA KUNISADA
"Playing the Koto," from the series
From a Picture Contest (Yukari no e-awase)
1847-50; uchiwa-e
PUBLISHER: Ibaya Senzaburo
BLOCK-CUTTER: Yokogawa Takejiro
G304-02
NMIG, Chap. 35, p. 19/20

219 UTAGAWA KUNISADA
“The Twilight Beauty” (Yūgao), from the series
Graceful Figures from […] (Yasa sugata yukari no […])
PUBLISHER: Sanoya Kihei
II/1852; uchiwa-e
G324-03
NMIG, Chap. 5, p. 8/9

There are three prints in the set Graceful Figures from… (Yasa sugata yukari no…): “The Twilight Beauty” (Yūgao), “Falling Flowers” (Hanachirusato), and “Spring Shoots” (Wakana). Each depicts Mitsuuji in the company of a woman in a scene that is modeled on that in A Rustic Genji. In this work, he is together with Tasogare in an abandoned Buddhist temple.

220 UTAGAWA KUNISADA
“Snow” from the series The Elegance of Snow, Moon, and Flowers (Fūryū setsugekka no uchi)
II/1853; uchiwa-e
PUBLISHER: Izumiya
G330-01

Each of the three prints in this set shows a single half-length figure. The motifs seem to be inspired by A Rustic Genji, even though they are not based on any particular scene. The series title appears in a red cartouche, which cleverly integrates a yellow Genji incense sign; the connection between the images and chapters remains unclear. “Snow” carries the sign for “The Twilight Beauty” (Yūgao), “Moon” for “The Bluebell” (Asagao), and “Flowers” for “At the Pass” (Sekiya). A print subtitle is not included on the sheets, rather implied by the background design.

221 UTAGAWA KUNISADA
Moon, from the series The Elegance of Snow, Moon, and Flowers (Fūryū setsugekka no uchi)
II/1853; uchiwa-e
PUBLISHER: Izumiya
G330-02

222 UTAGAWA KUNISADA
Flowers, from the series The Elegance of Snow, Moon, and Flowers (Fūryū setsugekka no uchi)
II/1853; uchiwa-e
PUBLISHER: Izumiya
G330-03

Contributors Marks, Andreas (German, b. 1964) Coats, Bruce A. (American)
Emmerich, Michael (American, b. 1975) Formanek, Susanne (Austrian, b. 1959) Linhart, Sepp (Austrian, b. 1944)
Paget, Rhiannon (Australian)