The Overgrowth of Weeds, No. 15 from the series "Genji in Fifty-four Sheets (Genji gojuyonmai no uchi)"

Number fifteen from Shigenaga's ambitious series Genji in Fifty-four Sheets (Genji gojuyonmai no uchi), this horizontal hosoban beni-e in the Art Institute of Chicago depicts the chapter Yomogiu (The Overgrowth of Weeds), in which Genji rediscovers his former lover Suetsumuhana living in poverty in a house overgrown with weeds and reaffirms his loyalty to her. The Tale of Genji, written by Murasaki Shikibu in the early eleventh century, was the canonical work of Japanese fiction and was paraphrased, illustrated, parodied, and serialized across Japanese visual culture for a millennium. A fifty-four-sheet series, one print per chapter, was a substantial commercial undertaking and demonstrates that Edo's print market could sustain works of considerable literary ambition. Shigenaga's horizontal hosoban orientation, unusual for the artist, suggests a yokoban approach better suited to the architectural interiors and garden scenes of the Genji chapters. The beni-e palette adds rose pigment to a printed keyblock. The Chicago impression is a valuable witness to the series, which is rarely complete in any collection, and demonstrates Shigenaga's literary reach.