The Genji Changes: From the Album in the Muromachi Period to the Inaka Genji in the Edo period

Ruoning Fang

doi:10.54254/2753-7064/31/20232056

Research Article

Open access

Published on 17 May 2024

Download pdf

Fang,R. (2024). The Genji Changes: From the Album in the Muromachi Period to the Inaka Genji in the Edo period. Communications in Humanities Research,31,153-159.

Export citation

The Genji Changes: From the Album in the Muromachi Period to the Inaka Genji in the Edo period

Ruoning Fang *^,1,

¹ Dickinson College

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

https://doi.org/10.54254/2753-7064/31/20232056

Abstract

This paper selects the illustrations from chapter four of The Tale of Genji to display the changes of Japan from Muromachi period to Edo period. It focuses on showing the changes of the media and the techniques the artists applied to meet the demands of the audience in these two periods. For the album from Muromachi period, the author takes a close look at the calligraphy and artsy techniques of the illustrations to emphasize the art achievement of the Japanese court at that time. For the Inaka Genji from the Edo period, the author analyses the illustrations that were mostly finished in a short period, which provides a brief overview for the peasants and other lower classes an overview of the whole chapter. This work shows the pivotal role that media played in the spread of The Tale of Genji in the Japanese literacy world.

Keywords

album, inakagenji, the Tale of Genji, Muramachi period, Edo period

View pdf

References

[1]. Lyons, Martyn. A Living History. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum. p. 30. 2011

[2]. Birmingham Museum of Art. Guide to the Collection. Birmingham, AL, p. 49, 2010.

[3]. Sankei News, “Late Kamakura period manuscript of The Tale of Genji found (鎌倉後期の源氏物語写本見つかる)", 10 March 2008. Archived from the original on 14 March 2008. Retrieved 11 March 2008.

[4]. McCormick, Melissa. "Genji Goes West: The 1510 Genji Album and the Visualization of Court and Capital", Art Bulletin, College Art Association of America, New York, Mar., 2003.

[5]. Tale of Genji Album (Genji monogatari gajō) of Illustrations and Calligraphic Excerpts (Two Volumes). Accessed 25 November 2023. https://hvrd.art/o/200061

[6]. McCormick, Melissa. “The Tale of Genji: A Visual Companion.” Princeton University Press, pp. 37-39

[7]. Yamamura, Kozo. "Toward a reexamination of the economic history of Tokugawa Japan, 1600–1867." Journal of Economic History, 1973

[8]. Emmerich, Michacl. “The Splendor of Hybridity: Images and Text in Ryutei Tanehiko’s Inaka Genji”, chapter 8.

[9]. Ryūtei, Tanehiko 1783-1842. Inaka Genji. Edo: Senkakudo Tsuruya Kiemon inkō, Bunsei kichu-Tenpo 13 [1829-1842] shinchō. Harvard University: Harvard College Library, Harvard-Yenching Library. Accessed 25 November 2023. https://nrs.lib.harvard.edu/urn-3:fhcl:37563804

[10]. Ryūtei, Tanehiko 1783-1842. Inaka Genji. Edo: Senkakudō Tsuruya Kiemon inkō, Bunsei kichū-Tenpō 13 [1829-1842] shinchō. Harvard University: Harvard College Library Harvard-Yenching Library. Accessed 25 November 2023. https://nrs.lib.harvard.edu/urn-3:fhcl:37563804

Cite this article

Fang,R. (2024). The Genji Changes: From the Album in the Muromachi Period to the Inaka Genji in the Edo period. Communications in Humanities Research,31,153-159.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

Disclaimer/Publisher's Note

The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s). EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.

About volume

Volume title: Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication Studies

Conference website: https://www.icihcs.org/

ISBN：978-1-83558-389-0(Print) / 978-1-83558-390-6(Online)

Conference date: 15 November 2023

Editor：Javier Cifuentes-Faura, Enrique Mallen

Series: Communications in Humanities Research

Volume number: Vol.31

ISSN：2753-7064(Print) / 2753-7072(Online)

© 2024 by the author(s). Licensee EWA Publishing, Oxford, UK. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Authors who publish this series agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this series.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this series.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See Open access policy for details).