Suma

Suma — Chapter 12 of The Tale of Genji, in which Genji voluntarily goes into exile at the Suma coast near Kobe, the self-imposed withdrawal that marks the turning point of his life's arc — is depicted in a print that stands as either a chapter illustration or an independent treatment of the Suma episode. The coastal exile at Suma had a particular poetic resonance in Japanese literature, the location associated with famous exiles from Prince Arima to Ariwara no Yukihira, and Maeda's composition likely captures the melancholy beauty of the coastal setting in which Genji spent his years of voluntary exile.