二品親王女三宮|The Third Princess and Kashiwagi, from Chapter 34, “New Herbs I (Wakana I)” (Nihon shinnō onna sannomiya)

Yōshū (Hashimoto) Chikanobu

1890 · Triptych of woodblock prints; ink and color on paper · Asian Art

Like his master, Toyohara Kunichika, Chikanobu is known for genre scenes in the triptych format. This triptych is related to an episode from Chapter 34, or New Herbs I, in the Tale of Genji, in which the youth Kashiwagi happens to notice a kitten running out from under a bamboo blind. He glimpses the elegant figure of the Third Princess, one of Genji's wives, behind the blind and falls in love with her, to disastrous effect. In this image, Chikanobu has transformed the Third Princess into a monumental image of woman. She is no longer the traditionally mysterious woman cloistered in an interior; she invades the outside world, as if she rules over the three courtiers.

Artist

Yōshū (Hashimoto) Chikanobu

Date

1890

Medium

Triptych of woodblock prints; ink and color on paper

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Gift of Lincoln Kirstein, 1985