Sakaki　賢木

KEY WORD :　art history / paintings

A pictorial subject based on "The Sacred Tree" Sakaki, Chapter 10 of GENJI MONOGATARI 源氏物語 (The Tale of Genji). One autumn night Genji, holding a spray of sakaki, enters the rustic temporary shrine precincts of Nonomiya 野宮 to bid farewell to Lady Rokujou, Rokujou no Miyasudokoro 六条御息所 and her daughter who is finishing preparations to become priestess at Ise 伊勢. Genji and his former lover exchange poems. Illustrations of this chapter, such as the hanging scroll by Iwasa Matabee 岩佐又兵衛 (1578-1650; Idemitsu 出光 Museum of Art, Tokyo), typically show a shrine gate *torii 鳥居 of unbarked wood and the thick grasses surrounding Nonomiya. In this chapter, Emperor *Kiritsubo 桐壷 dies and his consort (and Genji's secret lover) Fujitsubo 藤壷 (see *Wakamurasaki 若紫) enters a religious order. During the summer Genji makes a secret visit to Oborozukiyo 朧月夜 (see *Hana-no-en 花の宴) and is discovered by her father, whose report of this provokes the wrath of the emperor's mother, Lady Kokiden, Kokiden no Nyougo 弘徽殿女御, which eventually results in his exile from the capital.

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*genji-e 源氏絵

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