Hanachirusato and Tamakazura

A literary subject drawn from Murasaki Shikibu's eleventh-century Tale of Genji. Hanachirusato, the Lady of the Falling Flowers, is a quietly devoted consort introduced in the chapter bearing her name, while Tamakazura is the daughter of Yugao whom Genji takes into his household and presents as his own. The pairing suggests a domestic interior scene, likely set within the Rokujo-in estate where Tamakazura was placed under Hanachirusato's care. Genji-e prints of this kind generally use a flattened, decorative palette, a high vantage looking down through removed roof panels (fukinuki yatai), and the trailing kimono and standing curtains (kicho) of Heian aristocratic settings. The technique calls for multiple color blocks printed on washi, with care taken to register the fine textile patterns of court robes. Within Shusui's catalogue—better documented for landscape and nature than for narrative subjects—a Genji-e composition represents a less common direction and may reflect either a literary series or an isolated commission.