Maboroshi　幻

KEY WORD :　art history / paintings

A pictorial subject taken from "The Wizard" Maboroshi, Chapter 41 of GENJI MONOGATARI 源氏物語 (The Tale of Genji). This chapter, the last in which the central protagonist actually appears, depicts Genji's sorrowful life in the year after the death of his principal wife, Lady Murasaki, Murasaki no Ue 紫の上. A scene often chosen for illustration has Genji gazing at Murasaki's favorite red plum tree in full bloom in the second month while a warbler, uguisu 鴬 sings. Another shows Genji visited in the eleventh month of the year after his wife's death by his son *Yuugiri 夕霧, and two of Yuugiri's young sons, and accompanied by a retinue of several of their uncles, dressed in tunics of blue gosechi 五節 print, which has a blue open-dyed pattern of "mountain sedge".

REFERENCES:

*genji-e 源氏絵

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NOTES:

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