About This Print
In this scene from chapter 54, the last chapter in Genji, Kokimi, the younger brother of Ukifune, is leaving after his fruitless visit to her at the nunnery in Ono. He has come away without an answer to Kaoru's letter he was carrying.
Source: The Tale of Genji, Lady Murasaki, Dead Authors Society, 2018
[Kaoru instructs the boy Kokimi] "You remember your dead sister well enough to recognize her, I suppose? Well, I had resigned myself to the fact that she was no longer among us, but now it seems quite clear that I was wrong.
Very young and impressionable, the boy had continued to grieve for his sister...
"Yes, my lord," he answered gruffly, trying not to weep.
[Kokimi arrives at the nunnery and a nun receives him]
A very handsome and well-groomed boy came forward. Offered a cushion, he knelt deferentially beside the blind.
[Speaking to the nun] "There is another letter I'd like to give her... [H]e told me I had to put the letter in her hands and no one else's, and so I have to."
[Kaoru's letter reads:] "Out of deference to the bishop, I shall excuse the rash step [becoming a cloistered nun] you have taken. Of that I shall speak no further. For my own part, I am seized with so intense a longing to speak to you of those nightmarish events that I can scarcely myself accept it as real. I cannot imagine how it might seem to others.... Have you forgotten this boy? I keep him here beside me in memory of one who disappeared."
[Ukifune in a dreamlike state refuses to answer] Nothing more was to be done, clearly, and the boy feared that he was beginning to look ridiculous. Saddened and chagrined at his failure to exchange even a word with his so grievously lamented sister, he started for the city.
For an excellent introduction to The Tale of Genji see Penguin's "Short Summary of the Tale" at https://www.penguin.com/static/packages/us/taleofgenji/introduction3.php
About The Album
For information about the album please go to Hahakigi (chapter 2) from the album Illustrations for Genji monogatari in Fifty-Four Wood-Cut Prints on this site.
Print Details
| IHL Catalog | #2444 |
| Title or Description |  also variously translated as The Floating Bridge of Dreams, A Floating Bridge in a Dream |
| Series | Illustrations for Genji monogatari in Fifty-Four Wood-Cut Prints 木版画源氏五十四帖 Mokuhanga Genji gojūyonjō |
| Artist | Ebina Masao (1913-1980) |
| Signature | not signed |
| Seal | 正夫 Masao |
| Publication Date | 1953 or after (originally issued 1953; multiple editions are known) |
| Publisher | Yamada Shoin 山田書院 |
| Carver | carving supervised by Yoshio Kawamo [Kawatsura Yoshio 川面義雄 (1880-1963)] |
| Printer | |
| Impression | excellent |
| Colors | excellent |
| Condition | excellent |
| Genre | genji-e |
| Miscellaneous | |
| Format | ōban |
| H x W Paper | 8 11/16 x 12 7/16 in. (22.1 x 31.6 cm) |
| H x W Image | 8 5/16 x 12 in. (21.1 x 30.5 cm) |
| Collections This Print | Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Scripps College 2014.1.17; University of Kansas Libraries KU Bib ID: 4123242 (entire portfolio; images not shown); National Diet Library Call Number 913.36-E17g-K (entire portfolio dated 1958; images not shown) |
| Reference Literature | |
3/25/2021 created
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