A Disguised Scene from The Tale of Genji (Fūryū Yatsushi Genji), Chapter 33, “Wisteria Leaves (Fuji no uraba)”
- Date:
- ca. 1794
- Medium:
- Triptych of woodblock prints; ink and color on paper
- Source:
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
A Disguised Scene from The Tale of Genji (Fūryū Yatsushi Genji), Chapter 33, Wisteria Leaves (Fuji no uraba), is a sophisticated literary parody in which Chobunsai Eishi recasts a moment from the eleventh-century novel in the dress and manners of late eighteenth-century Edo. Chapter 33 of Genji centers on the long-awaited union between Yūgiri and his beloved Kumoinokari, with wisteria blossoms serving as symbolic accompaniment to their reunion. Eishi follows the furyū yatsushi convention by stripping the scene of overt Heian costume and presenting his figures as fashionable contemporaries, leaving the chapter title and a few well-chosen motifs to signal the literary reference. The Metropolitan Museum of Art preserves this impression. Recognition of the source was part of the pleasure for Edo viewers, who took pride in detecting Genji allusions in fashionable [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga). The composition emphasizes the slender, elongated figures Eishi favored, their robes flowing in long, controlled lines that match the wisteria's hanging clusters. As Edo bijin-ga, the print is both a fashion plate and a quiet act of literary scholarship, the kind of double pleasure his cultivated audience prized. His Kano-trained [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) background, shaped by his apprenticeship under Kano Eisen-in, is evident in the disciplined draftsmanship and refined palette that distinguish the design from livelier contemporary prints. Chobunsai Eishi here exemplifies the synthesis on which his reputation rested: a deep engagement with classical literature joined to the visual vocabulary of popular Edo printmaking, producing images that addressed both connoisseurs and ordinary viewers.
c. 1790
Color woodblock print; oban
c. 1789/95
Color woodblock print; right sheet of oban triptych
c. 1791/92
Color woodblock print; chuban
c. 1793
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
Woodblock print
c. 1830/35
Color woodblock print; oban
![Mount Fuji on a Moonlit Night, Kawai Bridge (Tsukiyo no Fuji [Kawaibashi]), from the series "Selection of Views of the Tokaido (Tokaido fukei senshu)" by Kawase Hasui](https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/d0960668-1e73-339a-b182-fb995a54bff0/full/843,/0/default.jpg)
1947
Color woodblock print; oban
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
A Disguised Scene from The Tale of Genji (Fūryū Yatsushi Genji), Chapter 33, “Wisteria Leaves (Fuji no uraba)” was created by Chōbunsai Eishi (鳥文斎栄之) in ca. 1794.
A Disguised Scene from The Tale of Genji (Fūryū Yatsushi Genji), Chapter 33, “Wisteria Leaves (Fuji no uraba)” depicts mount fuji.