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Activity/Discussion
1) Seasonal Signals.
Ask students to examine the plant life and see if they can identify when the two scenes
(top and bottom) took place. Hint: brown grasses and red-tinged maple symbolize
autumn, plum blossoms early spring. Chapter 30 takes place in autumn, Chapter 51
takes place in late-winter/early spring.
2) How is pictorial space treated?
Ask students to examine this painting and discuss the way it is organized. How has the
artist separated the three scenes? (clouds divide top from bottom; bridge divides top
right from top left). Where has the artist situated us, the viewers? (we are above looking
down) Japanese artists cleverly maximized their painting space. By bringing the viewer
up higher/tilting the ground, they had more space to depict the story. Subtle devices like
clouds give the viewer visual clues about where one scene ends and another begins.
Source:
Shikibu, Murasaki. The Tale of Genji. Translated by Edward G. Seidensticker. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, 1977.
Asian Art Museum Education Department