Title: Inishie Genji Monogatari Tosa Ie E Ehon Xiě (The Old Tale of Genji, Tosa Family Illustrated Copy), Circa 1800-1850. A Beautiful Manuscript Copying the Famed 12th Century Scroll, With Four Skillfully Reproduced Paintings
Author: Original Story by Murasaki Shikibu; Stated Attribution to Tosa School
Condition: Very Good
A Late Edo Period, early to mid 19th century manuscript, entitled Inishie Genji Monogatari Tosa Ie E Ehon Xiě, or The Old Tale of Genji, Tosa Family Illustrated Copy, the original title re-laid to the scroll’s inside.
As the title would entail, this manuscript is an emakimono handscroll of Murasaki Shikibu’s great literary work, the Tale of Genji often considered to be history’s first novel, and the first by a woman to have global recognition. The text itself is broken down in 54 chapters, depicting the lives of highborn courtiers of the Heian Period, and the text itself was originally written in hiragana. The first section, being chapters 1-33, focus on the life and experiences of Hikaru Genji, the titular protagonist, who is the son of Japanese Emperor Kiritsubo, and a low-ranking concubine. The second section of chapters 34-41 focus on his senior years and death, while the final section of chapters 42-54 focuses on Genji’s grandson Niou, and presumed son, Kaoru.
This handscroll contains four painted scenes and chapters from the novel, with vivid and distinctly painted figures, mostly focusing and male and female courtiers, with their many layered vestments all uniquely painted, the style very much reminiscent of Heian Period emakimono picture scrolls produced in this manner.
Having compared to digitisations, these paintings are astounding copies after the fragmentary Genji Monogatari Emaki a rather famed edition made during the 12th century and only surviving as a bare fraction of what it once was. The original scroll was about 450 feet long, consisting of twenty rolls, with over 100 paintings, and over 300 sheets of calligraphy. The surviving scrolls of The Genji Monogatari Emaki, however, are not even close to a substnatial depiction of The Tale of Genji, consisting of only 19 paintings, 65 sheets of text, and 9 pages of fragments housed in the Tokugawa Art Museum in Nagoya and the Gotoh Museum in Tokyo. The surviving scroll amounts to about 15 percent of the original scroll.
The artist must have spent considerable time some of those original fragments and paintings, to produce their manuscript in such a manner, even going so far as to imitate the damage incurred to fragments. It is rather similar to the Genji Monogatari Emaki and Genji bá xiě Ichi Maki also in this catalog, and one must wonder if it is the same artist who works on it, or one of the same school.
There is a stated attribution to the Tosa School, or at least an insinuation that the original 12th century example was produced by them.
There is a provenance stamp for that of Matsuyama Bunko, a now-dissolved bookselling firm.
The paintings have been laid down and bound in a scroll for preservation, with a beautiful brocade decorated cover of green and yellow flowering designs, and there are jikusaki (knobs) made of lacquered wood. There is a wooden box to accompany it, preserving the scroll. The box itself has a label for the work, but it has largely worn away.
One brocade bound emakimono (picture scroll) painting on fine paper, 26.8 x 290 cm full length. The knobs are not included as part of the measurement.
This handscroll is in very good shape, with minimal rubbing or wear to the covers. There is some spotting and foxing, and a few vertical stains, possibly from where each section was laid down. There are also some minor creases.