Yadorigi　宿木

KEY WORD :　art history / paintings

A pictorial subject taken from "The Ivy" Yadorigi, Chapter 49 of GENJI MONOGATARI 源氏物語 (The Tale of Genji). In the chapter, Prince Niou *Niou no miya 匂宮 marries Roku no kimi 六君, daughter of *Yuugiri 夕霧, much to the regret of his first wife Naka no kimi 中君 (see *Sawarabi 早蕨). Kaoru 薫, in turn, continues to make advances toward Naka no kimi, because her older sister Ooigimi 大君 (see *Agemaki 総角) who is now dead, was the unrequited love of his life. Rejecting him, Naka no kimi tells him of a half-sister *Ukifune 浮舟, who also resembles the late Ooigimi. After being married to the reigning emperor's second daughter Onna Ni no Miya 女二宮, Kaoru returns to Uji 宇治 and sees Ukifune for the first time. Scenes chosen for illustration include: Kaoru playing a game of go 碁 with the emperor who obliquely offers him the hand of his daughter; Kaoru, about to go by carriage to visit Naka no kimi, standing in his garden where morning glories asagao 朝顔 and maiden flowers nadeshiko 撫子 are blooming; Niou playing a lute biwa 琵琶 beside the pregnant Naka no kimi, who leans against an armrest and likens her half-abandoned state to the autumn grasses in the garden below. Three scenes from this chapter, the go game between Kaoru and the Emperor, Niou and Roku no kimi on the third morning after consummating their marriage, and Niou playing a lute beside Naka no kimi, are found in the earliest extant illustrated version (12c) preserved by the Tokugawa 徳川 Art Museum in Aichi prefecture.

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*genji-e 源氏絵

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