#31 Makibashira (Cypress pillar)
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Format:
- Oban
- Source:
- Art of Japan
"Makibashira" (Cypress Pillar) is chapter 31 of The Tale of Genji, in which Lady Higekuro's wife, devastated by her husband's abandonment in favor of Tamakazura, clings to a pillar of their home as she is taken away by her father. Kuniyoshi's treatment, numbered #31, likely depicts this wrenching domestic scene with the psychological intensity he brought to narrative subjects, translating Heian court tragedy into the vivid idiom of late Edo woodblock printing. The subject invited contemplation of grief and the dissolution of a household.
#31 Makibashira (Cypress pillar) was created by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳).
#31 Makibashira (Cypress pillar) depicts architecture and trees.
