Genji Monogatari

One sheet from Saito's ten-volume mezzotint series on The Tale of Genji, produced between 1982 and 1991. Each plate in the series corresponds to an episode or chapter of Murasaki Shikibu's eleventh-century novel, rendered in the dense, atmospheric blacks for which mezzotint is well suited. The labor required is considerable: the plate is first rocked by hand to create a uniform burr that prints solid black, after which the image is built by selectively burnishing the surface smooth to lighten passages. Saito brings to this Heian-period subject the contemplative quality that mezzotint affords, evoking interior scenes lit by lamplight, garden views through bamboo blinds, or quiet exchanges between courtiers. The series complements the long tradition of Genji-e in Japanese visual culture and represents a distinct contribution to that lineage in an intaglio medium not historically associated with the subject.