Scenes from the Tale of Genji (late 1700s): Art, History and Details

Scenes from the Tale of Genji (late 1700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Folding screens served as temporary dividers in traditional Japanese open-plan architectural spaces. This pair was inspired by Japan’s most celebrated work of literature, the Tale of Genji, written by Murasaki Shikibu, an attendant to the empress in the early 11th-century imperial court. The novel follows the love life of the “Shining Prince” Genji and delves into the psychological states of his many companions. Distinct episodes are nestled within a matrix of golden clouds and landscape elements. Each screen includes six episodes presented in a nonlinear fashion, capturing scattered highlights of the story.

Object facts

• Title: Scenes from the Tale of Genji
• Date: late 1700s
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, and gold on gilded paper
• Dimensions: Image: 154.4 x 351.2 cm (60 13/16 x 138 1/4 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Folding screen
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1948.124

Collection credit

Gift of William G. Mather

Further reading listed by the museum

• Arts of Japan from the Cleveland Museum of Art: The Mansfield Art Center, March 25-April 22, 1979. Mansfield, Ohio: The Art Center, 1979.
• Cunningham, Michael R. Unfolding Beauty: Japanese Screens from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.