TOSA MITSUYOSHI. Scene from The Oak Tree" ("Kashiwagi"), from The Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari)"

TOSA MITSUYOSHI (1539-1613)

Scene from The Oak Tree" ("Kashiwagi"), from The Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari)"

Scene from "The Oak Tree" ("Kashiwagi"), from The Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari). Artist: Tosa Mitsuyoshi (Japanese, 1539-1613). Culture: Japan. Dimensions: Image: 9 3/4 × 8 3/16 in. (24.7 × 20.8 cm) Overall with mounting: 54 5/16 × 15 1/2 in. (138 × 39.4 cm) Overall with knobs: 54 5/16 × 17 1/4 in. (138 × 43.8 cm). Date: late 16th-early 17th century. Kashiwagi, the younger son of Prince Genji's closest friend, lies on his sick bed. In the adjoining room his father and an ascetic confer about his condition. Kashiwagi has fallen ill after suffering remorse over his affair with Genji's wife, the young and immature Third Princess, Onna Sannomiya. The princess gives birth to Kashiwagi's son, Kaoru, who is passed off as Genji's child, and Kashiwagi dies soon after revealing his dark secret to Yugiri, Genji's adult son. Tosa Mitsuyoshi, leader of the Tosa school of painters during the Momoyama period, specialized in album-leaf paintings of The Tale of Genji: delicately painted, meticulously detailed, almost miniaturist images in rich colors with gold. He also produced larger-scale works on the same themes. His successors in the Tosa studio perpetuated this exquisitely refined style of narrative illustration.

Album leaf remounted as a hanging scroll; ink, color and gold on paper

Momoyama period (1573-1615)

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

Album / Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

Model: No - Property: No
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3148 x 4200 px | 37.8 MB

26.7 x 35.6 cm | 10.5 x 14.0 in (300 dpi)