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Group Description:The man depicted in the center holds a shakuhachi in his hand, and behind him is a view of a coastline. The woman on the right has a koto at her feet, while the woman on the left, who is opening or closing the shutter, has a xylophone, mokkin, at her side. This triptych belongs to a series of four (flowers, birds, wind and moon), the last one corresponding to the moon. The scene illustrates a scene from a popular novel by Ryûtei Tanehiko entitled Nise murasaki inaka Genji, published from 1828 to 1842.
On the other hand, each of the prints can be read as an independent allusion to a different chapter of the novel. Thus the one on the right is related to chapter 22, entitled Tamakazura, as can be read on the genji mon of the fan; the central one, to a scene from Suma, chapter 12, as the genji mon of the candle seems to indicate; and the one on the left would allude to chapter 24, Kocho, butterfly, the animal depicted on the woman's kimono. Deciphering literary classics through subtle allusions set in the contemporary world was an interesting intellectual game.
Kunisada created a large number of mitate-e during a period in his career when he used Kochorō as his signature. FORRER, Matthi. The Baur Collection, vol. 1. Art Media Resources Inc, 2001, G317
Ryūtei Tanehiko (1783-1842), who completely rewrote The Tale of Genji as a gōkan (popular literature published in bound volumes) in thirty-eight chapters. The protagonist is Mitsuuji, who lives in the fifteenth century, and his love affairs take place in pleasure quarters. Much of the stimulus for the late-Edo Genji imagery (Genji-e) was due to Ryūtei Tanehiko and his book, the first Japanese book to sell more than ten thousand copies.
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