The Tale of Genji

Ukiyo-e, ‘pictures of the floating world’, refers to a large body of artworks produced in Tokugawa-period Edo (now Tokyo). The term ‘floating world’ was used to imply the fleeting, sensory pleasures of urban daily life, the hedonism of the entertainment districts, and the joys of the theatre. Scholarship has traced the evolution of early ukiyo-e prints to the importation of late Ming volumes containing coloured erotic illustrations.

Literary masterpieces such as Murasaki Shikibu’s Tale of Genji–first published c.1021 and considered by some to be the world’s first novel–were a source of inspiration for ukiyo-e artists. Set in the Imperial court during the Heian period (794-1185), the story focuses on prince Hikaru Genji and his political and romantic exploits. The text was reworked into A Fraudulent Murasaki’s Rustic Genji (1829-42) by Ryutei Tanehiko, who transposed the characters to ukiyo Edo. Despite the original being written some 800 years earlier, the dashing playboy Genji was regarded as a perfect embodiment of the spirit of nineteenth-century Japan.

Murasaki’s Genji was influenced by the Chinese poem The Song of Everlasting Sorrow, a Tang dynasty retelling of the romance between the emperor and his concubine which earned its author, Bai Juyi (772-846), enormous popularity in Japan.

Read more information about the Tale of Genji in Picturing the Classics: Literary Traditions Depicted in the University of Melbourne’s Japanese Print Collections.