Hana-chiru-sato (from In the Garden of Genji)

The eleventh chapter's title — the village of falling flowers — refers to Genji's visit to a quiet former lover at her secluded estate, evoked through the perfume of mandarin orange (tachibana) blossoms that fall through the summer night. Miyayama's print likely suspends a small constellation of five-petalled tachibana flowers, or the citrus fruit that is the plant's emblem, against an expanse of gold leaf. The flat decorative ground recalls the tarashikomi pooled-pigment passages of Rinpa-school painting, while the aquatint provides an inkstone-like density behind the bitten contour line. Within the series Hana-chiru-sato sits between the death of Aoi and Genji's exile, a brief lyrical pause; Miyayama's treatment of the chapter generally reflects this register, favouring restraint and a sparer palette than the politically charged plates that surround it.