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<em>Scenes from the Tale of Genji</em>, early 17th century. Pair of six-fold screens, ink and colors on gold leaf, 45 1/2 x 68 1/2 in. (115.6 x 174 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Anonymous gift, 77.140a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 77.140a_bw.jpg)
Scenes from the Tale of Genji, early 17th century. Pair of six-fold screens, ink and colors on gold leaf, 45 1/2 x 68 1/2 in. (115.6 x 174 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Anonymous gift, 77.140a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 77.140a_bw.jpg)
<em>Scenes from the Tale of Genji</em>, early 17th century. Pair of six-fold screens, ink and colors on gold leaf, 45 1/2 x 68 1/2 in. (115.6 x 174 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Anonymous gift, 77.140a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 77.140a_bw.jpg)

Scenes from the Tale of Genji, early 17th century. Pair of six-fold screens, ink and colors on gold leaf, 45 1/2 x 68 1/2 in. (115.6 x 174 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Anonymous gift, 77.140a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 77.140a_bw.jpg)

<em>Scenes from the Tale of Genji</em>, early 17th century. Pair of six-fold screens, ink and colors on gold leaf, 45 1/2 x 68 1/2 in. (115.6 x 174 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Anonymous gift, 77.140a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 77.140a_left_bw.jpg)

Scenes from the Tale of Genji, early 17th century. Pair of six-fold screens, ink and colors on gold leaf, 45 1/2 x 68 1/2 in. (115.6 x 174 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Anonymous gift, 77.140a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 77.140a_left_bw.jpg)

<em>Scenes from the Tale of Genji</em>, early 17th century. Pair of six-fold screens, ink and colors on gold leaf, 45 1/2 x 68 1/2 in. (115.6 x 174 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Anonymous gift, 77.140a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 77.140a_right_bw.jpg)

Scenes from the Tale of Genji, early 17th century. Pair of six-fold screens, ink and colors on gold leaf, 45 1/2 x 68 1/2 in. (115.6 x 174 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Anonymous gift, 77.140a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 77.140a_right_bw.jpg)

<em>Scenes from the Tale of Genji</em>, early 17th century. Pair of six-fold screens, ink and colors on gold leaf, 45 1/2 x 68 1/2 in. (115.6 x 174 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Anonymous gift, 77.140a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 77.140a_center_bw.jpg)

Scenes from the Tale of Genji, early 17th century. Pair of six-fold screens, ink and colors on gold leaf, 45 1/2 x 68 1/2 in. (115.6 x 174 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Anonymous gift, 77.140a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 77.140a_center_bw.jpg)

<em>Scenes from the Tale of Genji</em>, early 17th century. Pair of six-fold screens, ink and colors on gold leaf, 45 1/2 x 68 1/2 in. (115.6 x 174 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Anonymous gift, 77.140a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 77.140b_bw.jpg)

Scenes from the Tale of Genji, early 17th century. Pair of six-fold screens, ink and colors on gold leaf, 45 1/2 x 68 1/2 in. (115.6 x 174 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Anonymous gift, 77.140a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 77.140b_bw.jpg)

<em>Scenes from the Tale of Genji</em>, early 17th century. Pair of six-fold screens, ink and colors on gold leaf, 45 1/2 x 68 1/2 in. (115.6 x 174 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Anonymous gift, 77.140a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 77.140b_right_bw.jpg)

Scenes from the Tale of Genji, early 17th century. Pair of six-fold screens, ink and colors on gold leaf, 45 1/2 x 68 1/2 in. (115.6 x 174 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Anonymous gift, 77.140a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 77.140b_right_bw.jpg)

<em>Scenes from the Tale of Genji</em>, early 17th century. Pair of six-fold screens, ink and colors on gold leaf, 45 1/2 x 68 1/2 in. (115.6 x 174 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Anonymous gift, 77.140a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 77.140b_left_bw.jpg)

Scenes from the Tale of Genji, early 17th century. Pair of six-fold screens, ink and colors on gold leaf, 45 1/2 x 68 1/2 in. (115.6 x 174 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Anonymous gift, 77.140a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 77.140b_left_bw.jpg)

<em>Scenes from the Tale of Genji</em>, early 17th century. Pair of six-fold screens, ink and colors on gold leaf, 45 1/2 x 68 1/2 in. (115.6 x 174 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Anonymous gift, 77.140a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 77.140b_center_bw.jpg)

Scenes from the Tale of Genji, early 17th century. Pair of six-fold screens, ink and colors on gold leaf, 45 1/2 x 68 1/2 in. (115.6 x 174 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Anonymous gift, 77.140a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 77.140b_center_bw.jpg)

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Scenes from the Tale of Genji

Asian Art

This pair of screens depicts multiple episodes from the eleventh-century novel The Tale of Genji. Though shown out of order, the episodes were so well known that they would have been recognizable to the screens’ viewers. The scenes are divided by golden clouds, a convention used often in Japanese narrative imagery but particularly popular for Genji illustrations. Also typical is the aerial view into interior spaces, as if they had no roofs.

In the right-hand screen, the novel’s protagonist, Prince Genji, wears chrysanthemums in his hair as he performs an autumn dance with a friend in a palace courtyard. At the lower right, they are watched from behind a window screen by a female admirer. At the top right of the left-hand screen, Genji (in red) catches sight of a young girl—Murasaki, whom he will marry one day—as she runs out on a veranda in pursuit of a bird. At the upper left of this screen, Genji (this time in blue gray) spies on a different woman as she plays the board game go.
MEDIUM Pair of six-fold screens, ink and colors on gold leaf
GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATIONS
DATES early 17th century
PERIOD Edo Period
DIMENSIONS 45 1/2 x 68 1/2 in. (115.6 x 174 cm) Image (outer panel): 61 3/4 x 21 3/4 in. (156.8 x 55.2 cm) Image (inner panel): 61 3/4 x 24 1/4 in. (156.8 x 61.6 cm)  (show scale)
COLLECTIONS Asian Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 77.140a-b
CREDIT LINE Anonymous gift
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Scenes from the Tale of Genji, early 17th century. Pair of six-fold screens, ink and colors on gold leaf, 45 1/2 x 68 1/2 in. (115.6 x 174 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Anonymous gift, 77.140a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 77.140a_bw.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 77.140a_bw.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
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<em>Scenes from the Tale of Genji</em>, early 17th century. Pair of six-fold screens, ink and colors on gold leaf, 45 1/2 x 68 1/2 in. (115.6 x 174 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Anonymous gift, 77.140a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 77.140a_bw.jpg)

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