ANONYMOUS, TOSA SCHOOL
An Album of 12 Genji Paintings and Calligraphies
Edo period (1615-1868), 18th/19th century
Ink, colours, and gold on paper, each with gold clouds decorated with raised mon (crest) motifs, each painting opposite a page of elegant calligraphy from the text of the same chapter, in ink on paper decorated with a pond and water plants, comprising the following 12 chapters of Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji): 9, Aoi (Leaves of Wild Ginger); 10, Sakaki (A Branch of Sacred Evergreen); 12, Suma (Exile to Suma); 14, Miotsukushi (Channel Markers); 16, Sekiya (The Barrier Gate); 19, Usugumo (A Thin Veil of Clouds); 21, Otome (Maiden of the Dance); 22, Tamakazura (A Lovely Garland); 26, Tokonatsu (Wild Pinks); 29, Miyuki (An Imperial Excursion); 35, Wakana no ge (Early Spring Greens: Part 2); and 40, Minori (Rites of the Sacred Law) (title translations from John T. Carpenter and Melissa McCormick, The Tale of Genji: A Japanese Classic Illuminated, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2019), in 20th-century mounts of gold-flecked card bound in orihon (accordion-fold) format within boards wrapped in silk brocade and with a blank title slip; with a cardboard box. Each leaf: 27.9cm x 23.5cm (11in x 9¼in). (2).
Footnotes:
Provenance:
Sold at Bonhams, New York, 14 September 2010, lot 6062.
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