The Sacred Tree — 賢木

The Japanese title 賢木 (Sakaki) identifies this as an illustration related to Chapter Ten of Murasaki Shikibu's eleventh-century Heian narrative The Tale of Genji. The sacred sakaki (Cleyera japonica) is an evergreen used in Shinto ritual practice, employed as an offering branch in shrine ceremonies. In the Sakaki chapter, the tree figures in the emotionally charged encounters between Genji and the Rokujô Lady near the Nonomiya shrine. Ebina Masao's interpretation likely depicts the shrine setting with sakaki branches, perhaps showing aristocratic figures in jûnihitoe (twelve-layered court robes) against an autumnal or nocturnal landscape. The composition would draw on the classical emaki (picture-scroll) painting tradition while adapting its conventions to the woodblock print medium, with carefully registered color blocks and fine line work for figural detail. The palette likely favors the deep greens of the evergreen foliage against the restrained architectural tones of a shrine enclosure, evoking the chapter's atmosphere of spiritual unease and romantic longing.