Genji goshū yojō (源氏後集余情)

Among Utagawa Kunisada’s many illustrated series, Lasting impressions of a late Genji collection (Genji goshū yojō) stands as one of his most ambitious and luxurious projects. Produced between 1857 and 1861, the series comprises thirty-eight large-format diptychs together with a frontispiece showing Murasaki Shikibu at Ishiyama Temple, traditionally regarded as the place where The Tale of Genji was conceived.

Rather than illustrating the classical tale directly, the designs draw heavily upon Ryūtei Tanehiko’s immensely popular nineteenth-century adaptation Nise Murasaki Inaka Genji (A Rustic Genji) and its sequel Sono Yukari Hina no Omokage. As a result, the numbered cartouches found on the prints correspond primarily to chapters of these later novels rather than to the fifty-four chapters of the original Genji.

The series was issued over a period of more than three years by an unusual consortium of four Edo publishers—Hayashiya Shōgorō, Sakanaya Eikichi, Ebisuya Shoshichi, and Wakasaya Yoichi—whose businesses were located in different districts of the city. This collaborative arrangement appears to have broadened the market for the series and helped sustain one of the largest diptych projects of Kunisada’s career.

The prints were produced to a particularly high standard. Many impressions incorporate deluxe printing techniques including blind-printing (karazuri), textile-pattern embossing (nunomezuri), burnishing (shōmenzuri), and subtle colour gradations (bokashi). Decorative patterns imitating scattered fragments of gold and silver leaf further enhance the surfaces, reflecting the luxurious appearance of the serial novels from which the imagery was derived.

The prints have a red series title cartouche with an attached square cartouche containing the print title and print number (exception being print ’17’ which lacks the print number and series title cartouche). They will have a signature cartouche (Toyokuni ga) and a publishers seal and on some there will be a block cutters seal – either Yokogawa Takejiro or Sugawa Sennosuke. They will have an oval date seal and or a circular Aratame seal (litterally means examined).

Today, Genji goshū yojō is regarded as one of Kunisada’s most important late Genji series, combining literary sophistication, technical refinement, and ambitious publication history into a remarkable visual reimagining of Japan’s most celebrated narrative tradition.

Nise Murasaki Inaka Genji

The imagery of Lasting Impressions of a Late Genji Collection (Genji goshū yojō) did not emerge in isolation. Many of its figures and compositions trace their origins to Kunisada’s earlier illustrations for Ryūtei Tanehiko’s novel mentioned above (Nise Murasaki Inaka Genji). First published in the 1820s and continuing for many years, the novel became one of the most popular literary works of the late Edo period.

As principal illustrator, Kunisada developed a rich visual language for the story, presenting its heroes and heroines in contemporary costume amid sumptuous interiors and fashionable surroundings. These designs proved enormously influential and were repeatedly adapted into paintings and single-sheet prints. The Genji goshū yojō series represents the culmination of this process, revisiting many of the characters, scenes, and visual motifs that Kunisada had helped establish decades earlier while transforming them into some of the most luxurious and refined Genji prints of his career.

The bushidoboutique collection of Genji goshū yojō prints