Artworks

The Carriage Fight (Tale of Genji)

Artwork · Kanō Sanraku · early 17th century · byōbu · Tokyo National Museum

Four panels of a set of fusuma painted by Kanō Sanraku (1559–1635) for the Kujō family, now a single screen: the most famous scene of the Aoi chapter of the Tale of Genji, in which the attendants of Lady Rokujō and of Genji’s wife Lady Aoi fight for a good place along the route of the Kamigamo festival parade. The narrative techniques of thirteenth-century Tosa emaki are adapted to the large format; the artist individualizes every figure. Sanraku, once a page of Hideyoshi, was adopted by Eitoku; after the fall of the Toyotomi he became a priest, and his calmer style became the model for the Kyoto branch of the Kanō. 1 Mason 2005, pp. 258–259, fig. 299. ↩ Literatur Mason 2005: Penelope E. Mason, History of Japanese Art, 2nd, Pearson Education LTD. 2005.