Suetsumuhana: Mukan-no-tayu Atsumori, from the series "Japanese and Chinese Comparisons for the Chapters of Genji (Wakan nazorae Genji)"

Suetsumuhana: Mukan-no-tayu Atsumori, from Utagawa Kuniyoshi's 1855 series Japanese and Chinese Comparisons for the Chapters of Genji (Wakan nazorae Genji), pairs the Suetsumuhana (Safflower) chapter of The Tale of Genji with the figure of Taira no Atsumori, the young flute-playing Heike warrior whose death at Ichi-no-tani became one of the most affecting moments in The Tale of the Heike. Suetsumuhana, a melancholy noblewoman whose oddly long red nose makes her the gentle laughingstock of the Genji world, may seem an incongruous match for Atsumori, but the series often works by indirect resonance, linking a chapter's mood, color, or emblem to a heroic figure. Kuniyoshi, an Utagawa-school master best known for warrior prints, foregrounds Atsumori's identity through armor, flute, and elegant pose, weaving the visual cue of red, recalling Suetsumuhana's emblematic safflower, into the costume and color scheme. The cartouche supplies the chapter title and a poem to anchor the literary frame, while the figure work shows the firm contour drawing and richly patterned textiles characteristic of Kuniyoshi's late style. The Art Institute of Chicago preserves this impression (artworks/236198) within its substantial Kuniyoshi holdings. The sheet exemplifies how mid-nineteenth-century Edo ukiyo-e publishers used Genji and Heike traditions in combination to produce sophisticated, multi-layered prints aimed at culturally literate collectors.