Tamakatsura from Lady Murasaki's "The Tale of Genji"

This woodblock print by Ebina Masao depicts Tamakatsura, a character introduced in the thirteenth chapter of Murasaki Shikibu's eleventh-century prose narrative The Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari). Tamakatsura is the daughter of the courtier Yugao; raised in the provinces, she is eventually discovered and brought to reside at Hikaru Genji's Rokujo estate. As a subject for woodblock print design, she belongs to the bijin-ga tradition as adapted to literary illustration, representing a beautiful woman of the Heian court in layered silk robes appropriate to her station. Ebina's design would likely draw on yamato-e pictorial conventions established in classical manuscript illustration: an elongated figural treatment, conventionalized hairstyle, and decorative patterning on the robes conveying social rank and narrative context. Genji chapter subjects were revived as woodblock print subjects in the twentieth century, particularly within the shin-hanga and sosaku-hanga movements, reconnecting the medium with its deep roots in the illustration of classical Japanese literature.