Details
Six-panel screen; ink, color, gold and gold leaf on paper
37½ x 104¾ in. (95.2 x 266.1 cm.)


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Lot Essay

The Tale of Genji is a long, romantic novel in fifty-four chapters, written about the year 1000 by Murasaki Shikibu, a lady-in-waiting to the empress. It is set in the tenth century, Japan's golden age, when great wealth and power were concentrated in the hands of a small group of highly cultivated aristocrats. Scenes from the novel are recurring themes in Japanese art, for there has rarely been a time when the educated elite was not nostalgic for the charms of Prince Genji, the amorous hero.

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