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Fig. 2 The Divine Princess at Uji Bridge ( Hashihime), Chapter Forty-Five, Illustrated Handscrolls of the Tale of Genji ( Genji monogatari emaki). Late Heian period, early twelfth century. Painting: colors, ink, and shell white on paper; calligraphy: gold and silver foil and dust on dyed paper, height 22 cm. Tokugawa Museum of Art, Nagoya.
In contrast, the album format uses only the laborative endeavor, involving a patron, an artist briefest excerpts from the tale, either short prose
and his painting studio, six calligraphers, and at
passages or one to three poems, to encapsulate the
least two coordinators overseeing the project. The
work in a concise manner. Albums are therefore not
goal was for the selection of scenes and textual pas-
digests; their short excerpts never explain the plot,
sages to encapsulate the story in a compelling and
characters, or setting as that genre of paratexts had
meaningful way for the patron. Most examples of
begun to do by the fourteenth century. That is not
premodern Japanese artworks created before the
to say that the producers of the Genji Album did not
year 1600 lack documentation, making it hard to
take full advantage of the various digests, commen-
say who produced them. In the case of the Harvard
taries, character charts, dictionaries, and other tools
Genji Album, remarkably, the patron and most details
for understanding the universe of the tale. Indeed,
of the work’s production are known, having been
as we shall see, the men who made the album were
recorded in the diary of the courtier and one of the
not only consumers, but producers of such texts.
coordinators of the project, Sanjōnishi Sanetaka
The album, however, works best as a supplement
(1455–1537).6 And because the creators of this album
to a full Genji manuscript, and for readers already
did not simply have a passing interest or superfi cial
knowledgeable about the tale, allows them to visu-
knowledge of the Genji, but viewed their commit-
alize scenes more clearly and to understand familiar
ment to the work as a lifelong scholarly endeavor,
passages and poems in a new light. The unique their curation of these pairs of leaves enriches our selection and coordination of Genji texts and images
own understanding of the tale.
in all formats, whether scroll, book, or album, are
Although The Tale of Genji was originally writ-
always suggestive of how contemporary audiences
ten by a woman in the context of the imperial court
understood the tale. The Genji Album in the Harvard
of the Heian period (794–1185), and though it cen-
collection off ers a particularly important point of
ters on the life of an imperial prince, it enjoyed a
view in this regard, both as the sole surviving album
healthy readership throughout the medieval period
predating 1600 and because of the group of individu-
among members of the warrior class. From the
als behind its creation.5
twelfth century onward, successive military leaders
The Genji Album was not mass produced but assumed increasing political control over the cen-instead made for a specifi c patron. Thus its 108 texts
tral government, while the emperor and nobility
and images contain a wealth of information about
remained intact in Kyoto, resulting in a fi ssion of
the values, interests, and aspirations of those who
the polity that would continue until the nineteenth
commissioned the work and assisted in its creation
century. While the institutional and economic
in the sixteenth century. Its production was a col-
power of the imperial court and the aristocracy
Introduction| 3
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Fig. 3 A Boat Cast Adrift ( Ukifune), Chapter Fifty-One of The Tale of Genji. Artist and calligrapher unknown. Kamakura period, thirteenth century. Thread-bound book, with illustrations in ink on paper, 23.7 × 19 cm. The Museum Yamato Bunkakan, Nara.
waned over time, the spiritual identity of the matic arc of Genji’s fortunes, f rom his privileged emperor and thus the court’s ideological and sym-position at birth, to his nadir in exile, to his sub-
bolic infl uence survived and remained desirable sequent rise to glory, proved relatable, despite his and valuable to those on the outside. Rulers of the
Ashikaga Shogunate, for example, belonged to a
ers who aimed to be counted among the elite and to
lineage of imperial princes turned commoners who
engage in cultural discourse, The Tale of Genji was
took the Minamoto (a.k.a. Genji) surname, like the
simply too important and pervasive to ignore. With
eponymous hero of The Tale of Genji. For warlords
its allusions to the Heian and pre-Heian traditions
like the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358–1408),
of Japanese and Chinese poetry, prose, folk songs,
Genji’s ability to achieve the exalted status of honor-
myths, history, philosophy, and politics, it was a rich
ary retired emperor ( jun daijō tennō) as a commoner
source of references and erudition. And as medi-
was aspirational.7 Murasaki Shikibu’s character-
eval commentators on the Genji fi rmly believed,
ization of her commoner hero as a rightful ruler
the tale’s underlying narrative structures, if parsed
dispossessed, but with the undeniable radiance of
properly, could reveal the profound truths of
a Buddhist monarch, most certainly played a part
Tendai Buddhist nonduality, presented in harmony
in earning the shogun’s admiration as he sought
with beliefs in the indigenous gods, or kami, that
his own kingly power. Even for men without a protected the archipelago.9 With no work of liter-professed Minamoto bloodline, however, the dra-
ature before or after approaching it in complexity,
4 | The Tale of Genji
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The Tale of Genji was widely viewed as miraculous, trade beyond the archipelago. Sue Hiroaki was one
authored only with the help of divine interven-
such individual living amid material wealth and
tion.10 The supernatural aura of the tale should immersed in elite culture and scholarship. He had not be discounted when considering the attraction
a long history of interaction with litterateurs from
that it held for many. At the same time Genji has
the capital, including linked verse ( renga) poets, and
always made for entertaining reading, in no small
his own scholarly activities are legendary, beginning
part because of its memorable female characters.
with his collation and copy of the Kamakura-period
By the sixteenth century, such characters had taken
military c
hronicle, Mirror of the East ( Azuma kagami).12
on lives of their own, transformed into protagonists
By 1516, the Genji Album leaves were in Hiroaki’s
of their own tales in new forms of fi ction and Noh
possession, and he declared his intention to dedicate
plays, making a knowledge of the tale indispensable
them to Myōeiji, the Buddhist mortuary temple he
for full participation in the culture of the day.
founded on behalf of his deceased mother. This
information appears on the backing papers of the
Patrons: Sue Saburō and Sue Hiroaki
leaves of the Genji Album in the form of inscriptions
by Hiroaki himself (fi g. 4), which were discov-
The patron of the 1510 Genji Album, Sue Saburō, also
ered during conservation of the album in 1998.13
known as Okinari, hailed from the western prov-
Importantly, it was in that year that Hiroaki hosted
ince of Suō (present-day Yamaguchi Prefecture), and
at his residence a series of lectures on The Tale of
commissioned the album during a temporary stay in
Genji ( Genji kōshaku) by the renowned renga poet
the capital.11 Although the Sue clan would be remem-
Sōseki (1474–1533) who was traveling throughout the
bered for eventually bringing about the destruction
western provinces.14 Through their peregrinations,
of the Ōuchi house, in the early sixteenth century
renga masters not only disseminated scholarship
they were still its allies and loyal retainers. The Sue
and transmitted esoteric readings of the tale, but
derived countless benefi ts from their relationship also created a “book network” by which texts and with the Ōuchi clan head, Ōuchi Yoshioki (1477–1528),
classical works of literature circulated. The point of
who in 1508 became one of three military leaders in
production was most often the capital, f rom which
charge of the government in Kyoto, and who con-
Genji volumes with title slips brushed by prominent
trolled one of only three offi
cial trade boats running
calligraphers made their way to distant provinces,
between the archipelago and the Chinese mainland.
including the domains of Suruga, Echigo, and Suō,
The Sue were also wealthy, and like their Ōuchi
at the request of regional daimyo, and often, their
lords, had the resources to engage in a range of
wives.15 Sue Hiroaki enlisted Sōseki for just such
cultural activities, including the commissioning of
deliveries, with one conveyance including a copy of
paintings and literary works. Sue Saburō arrived in
the tenth-century waka poetry anthology Collection
Kyoto in 1508 with Ōuchi Yoshioki and immediately
of Waka Old and New ( Kokinshū), as well as chapter
began petitioning the foremost courtier-scholars of
title labels for his own copy of The Tale of Genji.16
the day to mentor him in poetry and classical texts. It
The Genji lectures of 1516 were thus conducted for a
was during this time that he commissioned the Genji
man steeped in the tale and who approached it with
Album, not merely for himself, but on behalf of his
a certain reverence; they may even have occurred
father, the estimable warrior and scholar, Sue Hiroaki
on the fi fteenth of the eighth month, the date that
(1461–1523), who then held the title of Governor of
according to ancient legend Murasaki Shikibu was
Hyōgo. While the capital continued to be the cultural
said to have begun writing her tale beneath a full
center of gravity, certain provincial domains had autumn moon at the temple of Ishiyamadera.17 It fl ourished to the point of emerging as “little Kyotos,”
was not uncommon for medieval Genji scholars and
especially those overseen by men in the Ōuchi sphere
afi cionados to submit poetic off erings to commem-
with funds to spend and access to exotic goods from
orate the text’s mythogenesis on that date.
Introduction| 5
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Fig. 4 Backing paper f rom The Tale of Genji Album, 1510; behind the leaves for Rites of the Sacred Law (Minori), Chapter Forty, with inscriptions by Sue Hiroaki and the dedication date of Eishō 13 (1516). 24.2 cm × 36.5 cm. Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge.
The album leaves, so carefully acquired in the
form of public display. Along with fan paintings, the
capital, could very well have been a centerpiece practice of pasting sets of shikishi sheets illustrating for the Genji lectures of 1516.18 Inscriptions on the
courtly tales or verses from poetic anthologies onto
backing papers suggest that Hiroaki had the album
screens had existed by the thirteenth century and
leaves remounted onto folding screens not long after
became more and more common in the fi fteenth
he received them, and one possibility is that he had
and sixteenth centuries.21 As the focal point of a
done this in anticipation of Sōseki’s arrival in Suō.19
Genji exegetical gathering, the leaves were not mere
Thus on the third day of the fourth month of 1516,
decoration but could be integrated into a culture of
Hiroaki prepared the leaves for mounting by inscrib-
discussion and interpretation of the tale, and as such
ing pertinent information on their backing papers:
they continue to reward close analysis.
he carefully noted the numeric order for each pair
of leaves, the chapter title, the date, the name of
Coordinators: Sanjōnishi Sanetaka
each calligrapher, and the temple dedication (for and Gensei
later donation), followed by his name and seal.20
Folding screens displaying the leaves could thus be
For guidance in creating a Genji compendium of
set up during the lectures as an exquisite backdrop
the highest order there could be no better expert
with their vibrant polychrome calligraphy papers than Sanjōnishi Sanetaka (fi g. 5). As a high-ranking and paintings and refulgent gold clouds. The Genji
member of the court hierarchy with ties through
Album paintings and texts were surely made for some
marriage to the imperial court, Sanetaka had
6 | The Tale of Genji
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direct access to the emperor and was a prolifi c and
to Sanetaka’s expertise better, however, than his
renowned poet, scholar, and calligrapher.22 He is
immersion in the tradition of Genji commentaries.26
remembered as one of the most remarkable histor-
These exegetical texts were usually based on previ-
ical fi gures of the Muromachi period (1338–1573) in
ous commentaries as well as Genji lectures like those
large part because of his meticulous sixty-year diary
held at Hiroaki’s residence, which coul
d consist of
in which, among many other things, he recorded
several sessions, with a single chapter remaining the
the details of Sue Saburō’s Genji Album project.23
topic of discussion for as many as four or fi ve days.27
Sanetaka had been a cultural advisor and tutor
The lecturer would usually touch on the biography
serving members of the imperial family since young
of Murasaki Shikibu, the genesis of the tale, the ori-
adulthood, and by the time he met the warrior gin and meaning of the fi fty-four chapter titles, and from Suō Province had overseen countless projects
the structure of the narrative as a whole, as well as
involving the coordination of texts and images.24 To
carrying out line-by-line readings and exegeses of the
his work on Sue Saburō’s album Sanetaka brought
text. As mentioned, the album leaves commissioned
years of experience studying the tale and making
by Sue Saburō were likely displayed during Genji lec-
manuscript copies of the entire work for himself
tures delivered by Sōseki at the Sue residence in 1516,
and others. He had also devoted considerable time
and they may have even been created with this event
to authoring works that would help readers under-
in mind, which would have made the involvement of
stand The Tale of Genji, including an explanatory
a scholar of Sanetaka’s caliber invaluable.
chart of the dizzying number of its characters and
Sue Saburō’s introduction to the famous court-
their complex interrelationships.25 Nothing attests ier came by way of another coordinator overseeing the album’s production, the renga poet Gensei (1443–
1521). Gensei’s knowledge of The Tale of Genji rivaled
that of Sanetaka, and this speaks to the importance
of the tale as a source for renga poetry.28 Handbooks
provided appropriate “linking” words from Genji,
boiling the narrative down to discrete units, includ-
ing chapter titles, character names, and seasonal
motifs, that formed the building blocks for new, col-
lectively authored chains of poetry. New genres of
Genji-specifi c renga, in which poets composed links
exclusively related to the narrative and its poetry
( Genji kotoba renga), came to rival traditional modes
of linked verse.29 There even arose a genre known as