Parody of a scene from The Tale of Genji

Object Details

• Artist

  Kawamata Tsuneyuki 川又常行 (1676?-1741?)

• Signatures

  Signed: Tsuneyuki hitsu.

• Marks

  Contains seal.

• Label

  The Tale of Genji, written in the early eleventh century by Murasaki Shikibu, a woman of the imperial court, became widely known during the Edo period (1615-1868) through illustrated printed books. By the eighteenth century, when this painting was created, the conventional elements identifying famous episodes were recognizable, even without text. Here a scene from the thirty-fourth chapter of Genji is transformed into an unexpected contemporary context through a convention known as mitate (often translated as "parody"), a literary and pictorial device that employs an unexpected parallel or comparison between apparently unrelated images.

  In The Tale of Genji, an illicit romance begins when Prince Genji's rival at court glimpses Genji's new wife as a cat pushes the bamboo curtain aside during a game of kemari, a form of kickball. Here, the Genji scene is suggested by the white kemari ball, the spring setting, and the woman concealed behind a bamboo blind, but instead of Heian-period (794-1185) courtiers, the women in the courtyard are contemporary courtesans of the urban "floating world," and the woman behind the blind, who is a high-ranking courtesan, reclines as she allows the red lining of her kimono to show alluringly outside the curtain.

• Provenance

  To 1898

  Edward S. Hull Jr., New York to 1898 [1]

  From 1898 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Edward S. Hull Jr. in 1898 [2]

  From 1920

  Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

  Notes:

  [1] See Original Panel List, L. 6, pg. 2, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Edward S. Hull Jr. was Ernest Francisco Fenollosa’s (1853-1908) lawyer. Hull often acted as an agent, facilitating purchases of objects consigned to him by Fenollosa, as well as purchases of objects consigned to him by Fenollosa's

  well-known associate, Bunshichi Kobayashi (see correspondence, Hull to Freer, 1898-1900, as well as invoices from E.S. Hull Jr., 1898-1900, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives). See also, Ingrid Larsen, "'Don’t Send Ming or Later Pictures': Charles Lang Freer and the First Major Collection of Chinese Painting in an American Museum," Ars Orientalis vol. 40 (2011), pgs. 15 and 34. See further, Thomas Lawton and Linda Merrill, Freer: A Legacy of Art, (Washington, DC and New York: Freer Gallery of Art and H. N. Abrams, 1993), pgs. 133-134.

  [2] See note 1.

  [3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Painting the Classics: Japanese Scrolls and Beyond (November 17, 2018 to October 20, 2019)

  Tales and Legends in Japanese Art (June 21, 2003 to January 4, 2004)

  Japanese Ukiyo-e Painting (May 2, 1973 to July 1, 1974)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Edward S. Hull Jr. (C.L. Freer source)

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  Japan

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Painting

• Restrictions and Rights

  CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)

  This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.

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• Date

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• Name

  Hull, Edward S., Freer, Charles Lang

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

  Charles Lang Freer collection, Art, Playing, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Ukiyo-e, Cherry blossom, Game playing, Kakemono

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Paintings