Summary

Woodblock print on paper, depicting Prince Genji and a female attendant on the shore of Enoshima Island, with the Izu Peninsula in the background, produced by the Japanese woodblock artist Toyohara Kunichika (1835-1900), carved by Mi no and published by Kiya Sojiro in Tokyo, Japan, in October 1863. It is the central panel of an original triptych; a work of art comprised of three distinct panels, titled 'Genji excursion to Enoshima Island' (Genji no kimi Enoshima Yuran no Zu).

Although works by this artist are not listed in the official catalogue, it was possibly exhibited by a retailer at the Japanese court at the 1880 Melbourne International Exhibition where it was bought by John Twycross.

Woodblock prints like one could have been exhibited under two categories: Class 22, Printed Paperhangings, or Class 42, Toys.

In Printed Paperhangings, G. Inouye from Osaka exhibited 'Printed Paperhangings', Kiriu-Kosho Kuwaisha (now spelt Kiriu-Kosho Kaisha) and T. Akiyama of Tokyo exhibited 'Paperhangings and artistic papers' and M. Tani, Osaka, exhibited 'Printed Paperhangings'. Printed paperhangings, as a nineteenth century term, often referred to wall papers.

In Class 42, Toys, Kiriu-Kosho Kuwaisha and T. Akiyama of Tokyo are listed as having exhibited 'Dolls, Playing Balls, Painted Pictures, &c'. It is more likely that artistic wood block prints such as this one would have been exhibited in this category because of the vivid, graphic subject matter, that so clearly tells a story.

The scene is a Genji-e or Mitate-e; a paraody illustration of the original Genji story. A popular subject for many Japanese print - or Ukiyo-e - artists in the nineteenth century, 'The Tale of Genji', the classical Japanese novel by Lady Murasaki Shikibu of the late Heian period (794-1185 AD), detailed the lengthy, often complex love adventures of the novel's central character, Prince Genji. The story spawned many parodies, illustrations of which were also prevalent and often termed mitate-e.

In this image, Genji and a female courtesan are seen standing at the edge of the bay, about to embark on their excusion to Enoshima Island (Kanagawa prefecture) with attendants. In this image, the Izu peninsula (Shizuoka Prefecture) is just visible in the background on the right print, but is more fully illustrated in the right panel of the original triptych.

To many in the Melbourne Exhibition's largely western audience, the flattened pictorial form and composition of Japanese prints remained puzzling, and often misunderstood. 'The Japanese pictures were very curious, some of the figures being made to rise considerably above the background', the official catalogue to the exhibition observed, while the Argus newspaper - quoted in the official catalogue - commented on the display of porcelain figures that although 'Stamped with character...the human figure more often than otherwise [is] grotesque in position and humorous in expression.'

Physical Description

Signed Japanese coloured wood block print on paper depicting Prince Genji and a richly dressed female attendant on the shore of Enoshima Island, with the Izu Peninsula in the background.

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