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Citation for External Source:
Fragment from the Hon'ami Edition of Kokin Wakashu
National Institutes for Cultural Heritage
https://emuseum.nich.go.jp/detail?langId=en&webView=null&content_base_id=101056&content_part_id=0&content_pict_id=0

Quotation: “In the course of this, written Chinese assumed enormous importance in matters of state, philosophy, and religion. Any serious engagement with such matters required knowledge of written Chinese and for some time writing was equivalent with writing in Chinese…reading and interpretation of Chinese canonical texts came to assume great importance,  both within Buddhism and in government administration.” Bjarke Frellesvig, A History of the Japanese Language, p. 11.

I thought this quotation was interesting in the context of the Heian-era scroll (Fragment from the Hon'ami Edition of Kokin Wakashu) presented on the NICH website. As the quote indicates, China’s influence on premodern Japan in a myriad of ways - in politics, in religion, and in the physical literature from the premodern era. In the 8th century, Japanese writing was wholly represented by Chinese characters. However, in the scroll, one can see the usage of native Japanese characters. While the poem is physically written on imported Chinese paper, the stylistic choices of the calligraphy seem to indicate the development of a uniquely Japanese artistry. This points to the liminal status of Japan in the 11th century - still influenced by China, and yet developing its own identity.

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Citation for External Source:
Genji espies Murasaki for the first time, from the Wakamurasaki chapter of The Tale of Genji
UMMA Exchange
https://exchange.umma.umich.edu/resources/30246/view#

Quotation: "Anyway, the really fascinating girl is the one of whom no one has ever heard, the strangely appealing one who lives by herself, hidden away in some ruinous, overgrown old house." Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji, p. 24.

I thought this direct quote and this artistic depiction of a scene from The Tale of Genji provided an interesting juxtaposition between the perspective of women and romance as seen in the novel versus what was commonly popularized amongst the aristocracy. While the direct quote provides interesting nuance on what the ideal woman looks like, more commercial scenes of beautiful women and blossoming romance seem to be depicted in paintings and drawings. To me, this is an example of commercialization - something I would not have expected to see in premodern Japan.

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Accession Number
2002/1.168

Title
Genji espies Murasaki for the first time, from the Wakamurasaki chapter of The Tale of Genji
Object Creation Date Medium & Support
Credit Line
Museum Purchase made possible by the Friends of the Museum of Art ink, color, and gold pigment and foil on paper
circa 1670-1680
Dimensions
45 1/16 in x 136 1/4 in (114.46 cm x 346.08 cm)

Label copy
In the seventeenth century, large-scale folding screens
with Genji themes were popular items in the wedding
trousseaus of members of the military aristocracy. Such
screens were decorated with scenes idealizing courtly love,
rather than the darker moments in the novel. This episode
relates Genji's discovery of the villa of a noblewoman nun
with temporary charge of her granddaughter, Murasaki
(Wakamurasaki means "the young Murasaki"). Genji peeks
through the fence, drawn by the commotion caused when
a maid accidentally releases Murasaki's pet sparrow. He
is struck by the beauty of Murasaki, who later becomes
his favorite concubine. In this rendering of their fateful
first encounter, a cherry tree in full bloom suggests the
blossoming of romance, while the distant stream and
hilltops indicate the isolated setting.
The style of these paintings looks back to the earliest
Genji pictures of the eleventh and twelfth centuries,
which established a classical model for the theme: gold
and bright mineral pigments are thickly applied to create
a rich, jewel-like surface, and figures are drawn with
generic features to allow viewers to imaginatively project
themselves into the scene.
Fall 2015 Gallery Rotation
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On an excursion in the mountains, Genji discovers the villa of a tonsured noblewoman. The nun has temporary charge of her granddaughter, Murasaki. (Wakamurasaki means "the young Murasaki.") Drawn by the commotion caused when a maid accidentally released Murasaki's pet sparrow, Genji peeks through the fence. Struck by Murasaki's beauty, he arranges to adopt her; she later became his favorite concubine. In this rendering of their fateful first encounter, a cherry tree in full bloom suggests the blossoming of romance, while a more distant stream and hilltops indicate the isolated setting.
In the seventeenth century, large-scale folding screens of Genji themes became popular trousseau items among members of the military aristocracy. For these auspicious purposes, artists chose scenes that idealized courtly love, rather than the darker moments in the novel. The style of these paintings looks back to the earliest Genji pictures of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, which had established a classical model for the theme: gold and bright mineral pigments are thickly applied to create a rich, jewel-like surface, and figures are drawn with stylized features to allow viewers to imaginatively project themselves into the scene.
Maribeth Graybill, Senior Curator of Asian Art
Exhibited in "Stories from the Past: Narrative in Asian Art "
January 24-July 25, 2004

Subject matter
On an excursion in the mountains, Genji discovers the villa of a tonsured noblewoman. The nun has temporary charge of her granddaughter, Murasaki. (Wakamurasaki means "the young Murasaki.") Drawn by the commotion caused when a maid accidentally released Murasaki's pet sparrow, Genji peeks through the fence. Struck by Murasaki's beauty, he arranges to adopt her; she later became his favorite concubine. The cherry tree in full bloom suggests the blossoming of romance.
In the seventeenth century, large-scale folding screens of Genji themes became popular trousseau items among members of the military aristocracy. For these auspicious purposes, artists chose scenes that idealized courtly love, rather than the darker moments in the novel. The style of these paintings looks back to the earliest Genji pictures of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, which had established a classical model for the theme: gold and bright mineral pigments are thickly applied to create a rich, jewel-like surface, and figures are drawn with stylized features to allow viewers to imaginatively project themselves into the scene.

Physical Description
Among a gold and bright mineral pigmented landscape, Genji stands below a cherry tree in full bloom and watches Murasaki, who stands in an architectural structure. A distant stream and hilltops indicate the isolated setting.

Primary Object Classification
Painting

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

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Exchange: Genji espies Murasaki for the first time, from the Wakamurasaki chapter of The Tale of Genji

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Accession Number 2002/1.168 Title Genji espies Murasaki for the first time, from the Wakamurasaki chapter of The Tale of Genji Object Creation Date Medium & Support Credit Line Museum Purchase made possible by the Friends of the Museum of Art ink, color, and gold pigment and foil on paper circa 1670-1680 Dimensions 45 1/16 in x 136 1/4 in (114.46 cm x 346.08 cm) Label copy In the seventeenth century, large-scale folding screens with Genji themes were popular items in the wedding trousseaus of members of the military aristocracy.

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"The heyday of the heikyoku tradition was the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries...During the sixteenth century the artform diminished in popularity, and most blind musicians of the Tôdôza fumed to more contemporary forms of music, in particular music of the koto and shamisen, as a mainstay for their livelihoods...The tradition continued until the early Meiji Period (1868-1912), when the Tôdôza was banned by the new government."

Citation for External Source:
HEIKYOKU or HEIKEBIWA
Global Performing Arts Consortium
http://www.glopac.org/Jparc/HEIKYOKU/tale-of-heike.html

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Quotation from in-class reading: "The Jetavana bells ring the passing of all things. Twinned sal trees, white in full flower, declare the great man's certain fall. The arrogant do not long endure: They are like a dream one night in spring." Royall Tyler, translator. The Tale of the Heike, p. 1.

The famous opening lines of Heike Monogatari echo the Buddhist concept of impermanence, a theme strongly associated with the epic. When reading the external source, I was intrigued by how the trajectory of Heike as an art form seemed to parallel this theme of transience - just as man must fall, so too must their stories. With this, I wonder if the traditional telling of Heike - through oral tradition and song - was done in an intentionally transient medium so as to reflect the Buddhist principles that shape the story.

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The Tale of the Heike (Heike Monogatari) has been called the most representative work of Japanese national literature. "The Tale" is at once a narrative of the downfall of a warrior clan, the Heike, who were the most powerful political force in the country between the 1150s and 1180s, and a collection of many tales about events and individual participants in the struggle between the Heike and the rival Genji clan, whose leaders established the military rule of the Shogunate in 1185. The approximately two hundred 'episodes' or chapters ( ku) of the Tale had origin as oral literature, and are thought to have been performed with biwa accompaniment by professional singer-storytellers since the early thirteenth century. The musical performance tradition has been referred to by several terms, most commonly " heikyoku", " heikebiwa", or simply "Heike". From the first, heikyoku has been transmitted by blind musicians, and they have played a primary role in shaping the nature of its music. For centuries the Heike Monogatari continued to be experienced orally-through the medium of performance-rather than in written form. The heyday of the tradition was the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when performances took place frequently in the mansions of the ruling samurai and nobility, and in major Buddhist temples and indigenous shrines throughout the country. At that time performers of heikyoku were able to establish a professional guild ( za) called the Tôdôza. During the sixteenth century the artform diminished in popularity, and most blind musicians of the Tôdôza fumed to more contemporary forms of music, in particular music of the koto and shamisen, as a mainstay for their livelihoods. At the same time, the Tokugawa Shogunate utilized as one of a number of forms of ceremonial music, and study of the narrative performance tradition was taken up by scholars, poets, and others, as an amateur pastime considered both elegant and highly intellectual. In this way, the tradition continued until the early Meiji Period (1868-1912), when the Tôdôza was banned by the new government. The transmission of heikyoku ended in most regions of Japan, but enthusiastic amateur players in the northern Tsugaru region and blind musicians in the city of Nagoya managed to maintain their performance traditions until the present day.

The music of heikyoku strongly resembles that of the kôshiki, a genre of Buddhist ritual recitation. The vestiges of a very old musical style are apparent in the way the voice draws out individual syllables, tracing melodic lines in prolonged zigzag shapes and hard-edged, terraced contours. In accordance with the narrative content, a number of formulaic melody patterns are deployed in variant forms and sequences that were once familiar to all enthusiasts of the artform. This compositional principle was inherited from heikyoku by musicians of the nô drama and the bunraku (puppet) and kabuki theatres.

The biwa used in heikyoku (called the heikebiwa) probably developed from that played in gagaku, court ensemble music of continental Asian origin. The form of the heikebiwa and some of its performance techniques are thought to have been based on those of the gagaku instrument. From well before the advent of heikyoku, blind musicians called biwa hôshi are recorded as having played biwa in accompaniment to oral narrative performance, and in documents of the Todoza it is claimed that biwa hoshi devised the instrumental melodies of biwa from solo compositions for the courtly biwa. While the performance style of the modern heikebiwa undoubtedly has been influenced by music for the shamisen (a type of lute, first played in Japan in the late sixteenth century, which subsequently became the foremost instrument of Japanese musical life until the Meiji Period), the earlier practice of heikyoku has had an immeasurable influence on all subsequent sales of Japanese narrative music.

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The Tale of the Heike (Heike Monogatari) has been called the most representative work of Japanese national literature. "The Tale" is at once a narrative of the downfall of a warrior clan, the Heike, who were the most powerful political force in the country between the 1150s and 1180s, and a collection of many tales about events and individual participants in the struggle between the Heike and the rival Genji clan, whose leaders established the military rule of the Shogunate in 1185.

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Quotation from in-class reading: "They embrace, flesh to flesh, then fall to the group and weep -- how pitiful they are! Their strings of tears unite like entwining branches, or the pine and palm that grow from a single trunk, a symbol of eternal love. Here the dew of their unhappy lives will at last settle."

Something I noticed while reading the Chikamatsu plays was that movement, description, characterization, and plot was a lot more fleshed out than what we had read previously - theatricality seems a lot more present, and I think that this quote demonstrates the nuance required of these performances. In the quote, something as simple as an embrace indicates pity while simultaneously acting as a symbol of eternal love. This is further reflected in the external source - the joruri expert describes the subtlety in movement that is required to convey emotion, gender, and character elements. The theatricality, to me, is reminiscent of modern theatrical performances, and is an evolution from the longer, more traditional Noh theatre of prior eras.

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The art of ningyō jōruri. Insights into Bunraku with Kanjuro Kiritake III