Paper short abstract:

In my presentation I shall look first at the distinctive features of the vernacular versions of Genji by "Baiō," the ukiyoe artist Okumura Masanobu (1686-1784), before moving on to consider the originality of Masanobu's illustrations and their relationship to the text.

Paper long abstract:

In the seventeenth century, complete texts of The Tale of Genji were published in E-iri Genji monogatari (1650), Shusho Genji monogatari (1673), and Kogetsushō (1673). At about the same time, digests of Genji, such as Genji kokagami (1657), Jūjō Genji (1661), and Osana Genji (1665), were published in illustrated form. Knowledge of Genji and its iconography was beginning to spread more widely, and by the eighteenth century, vernacular translations and rewritings of Genji began to be produced in great numbers. These illustrated translations and rewritings were the culmination of the process by which The Tale of Genji came to be regarded as a "classic" of the early modern era, and also prepared the way for the fusion of text and image in Nise murasaki inaka genji (1829-42), the quintessential Tale of Genji of its time.

The first vernacular translation of Genji to be published was Miyako no Nishiki's Fūryū Genji monogatari (1703). Thereafter, "Baiō" (the pen name of the ukiyo-e artist Okumura Masanobu, 1686-1784) published four vernacular translations of chapters of Genji: Wakakusa Genji monogatari (1707), Hinazuru Genji monogatari (1708), Kōhaku Genji monogatari (1709), and Zokuge Genji monogatari (1710). As illustrator of his own versions of Genji, Okumura Masanobu made many original contributions to the ukiyo-e genre, which are clearly to be seen in his illustrations for his vernacular versions of Genji. In my presentation I shall look first at the distinctive features of these vernacular versions of Genji, before moving on to consider the originality of Masanobu's illustrations and their relationship to the text.