The Third Princess (Nyosan no miya)

Utagawa Toyokuni I's "The Third Princess (Nyosan no miya)" treats one of the most poignant figures from "The Tale of Genji" — the young aristocrat whose marriage to Genji becomes the trigger for the novel's later tragedies. Held by the Art Institute of Chicago, the print belongs to the long tradition of mitate-Genji and Genji-related imagery within Edo ukiyo-e, in which classical literary subjects are reimagined through the visual language of contemporary fashion. Although Utagawa Toyokuni I is best known as the founder of the Utagawa school's dominance in kabuki actor prints, his work on classical and literary subjects shows the same hand — the same crisp contour, the same calibrated balance of robe and figure. Nyosan no Miya is identified by her signature attribute, the cat whose escape from her chamber begins the chain of events leading to her downfall; whether or not the cat appears explicitly here, the figure carries the unmistakable air of cloistered Heian-court vulnerability. For Edo audiences, the literary reference flattered cultivated buyers while leaving room for purely visual pleasure in the pattern of robes and the curve of a sleeve. The Art Institute of Chicago's catalogue documents the work without invention. For collectors of Edo ukiyo-e and Utagawa school yakusha-e alike, the print is a useful reminder that Toyokuni's interests ran well beyond the kabuki theater into the literary culture his audience also knew by heart.