Calling upon the Lady Tamakazura, from the illustrated book "Collection of Pictures of Beauties (Bijin e-zukishi)"

This hand-colored double-page illustration in the Art Institute of Chicago, cut from the circa 1683 illustrated book Collection of Pictures of Beauties (Bijin e-zukishi), depicts Lady Tamakazura, a celebrated character from the Heian classic The Tale of Genji, being called upon in her residence. Tamakazura, a beauty whose mysterious parentage and complicated romantic trajectory make her one of the Tale's most striking female figures, was a frequent subject in classical yamato-e painting, and Moronobu's inclusion of her in his bijin compendium demonstrates the way his Bijin e-zukushi sought to bridge the contemporary [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga) tradition with classical female literary iconography. The double-page composition allowed Moronobu to set Tamakazura in a richly detailed Heian interior, with the kind of elaborate architectural and textile detail his ehon were known for. The hand-coloring, likely tan and other mineral pigments added after the initial sumizuri-e printing, enriches the courtly setting with the saturated palette traditionally associated with Genji imagery. Surviving sheets from this book have often been extracted and treasured separately, as this Art Institute of Chicago example demonstrates, documenting the high regard in which Moronobu's bijin imagery was held by later generations.