Genji Monogatari

A third plate from the Genji Monogatari series, in which Saito turns again to Murasaki Shikibu's narrative for source material. The mezzotint medium, which Saito adopted in 1968 after a period of work in abstract oil painting, here serves a subject matter far removed from postwar abstraction — the courtly ceremonies, romances, and exiles of an eleventh-century novel. The compositional restraint typical of his Genji plates suits the novel's own tone of mono no aware: figures recede into shadow, surfaces catch faint light, and the velvety dark of the rocked plate reads as both interior depth and the texture of memory. Saito's series stands apart from the more familiar Edo-period Genji-e woodblocks of artists like Kunisada in its absence of color and its focus on tonal atmosphere over decorative detail. This print, like its companions, was produced during the 1982–1991 working period of the volumes.