Hana-no-utage (from In the Garden of Genji)
花宴
- Medium:
- Aquatint, deep etching, gold leaf
- Image courtesy of
- Hiroaki Miyayama Official Site — In the Garden of Genji
花宴
The eighth chapter takes its name from the cherry blossom banquet at the imperial palace and centers on Genji's nighttime encounter, by the light of a misted moon, with the woman known thereafter as Oborozukiyo. The chapter's central image is the cherry tree ([sakura](/glossary/sakura)) in full bloom, the season and the assignation conjoined in a single botanical sign. Miyayama's plate for Hana-no-utage takes the blossom as its emblematic carrier, deep etching describing the contour of branch and petal, aquatint introducing tonal modulation, and gold leaf applied to the ground in the manner of the gilded screens that historically accompanied Genji subjects. The flat decorative organization places the print within the lineage of Edo-period Genji-e while the intaglio process locates it firmly in contemporary practice. Within In the Garden of Genji, the cherry blossom sheet belongs alongside Momiji-no-ga in the cycle's vocabulary of seasonal emblems, the spring and autumn festivals of the Heian court reduced to their respective floral and arboreal signs.
![[Garden of] Taj Mahal, No. 1 (Taji Maharu no niwa, dai ichi) by Hiroshi Yoshida](https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/230993a7-d4f0-c979-c267-127d48e1ef1c/full/843,/0/default.jpg)
Taji Maharu no niwa, dai ichi
1931
Color woodblock print; oban
January 1938
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
1938
Color woodblock print; oban
10/70, 1966
Woodblock print
Hana-no-utage (from In the Garden of Genji) (花宴) was created by Hiroaki Miyayama (宮山 広明).
Hana-no-utage (from In the Garden of Genji) depicts gardens and literary.
