About This Print
This print from a series of twelve prints titled Twelve Months of the Floating World, said to be Ogata's first complete series of prints, depicts perhaps the most famous scene from The Tale of Genji. In this scene, from Chapter 51, A Boat Upon the Waters, Prince Niou has carried Ukifune away to a boat on the Uji River and is taking her to the Islet of Oranges, Tachibana-no-kojima. It is a mid-winter eve, the moon is full, and a heavy snow has fallen.
Written in the eleventh century by Murasaki Shikibu, an aristocratic lady of the late Heian court, the Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji) is considered one of the world's great literary works. It became a source not only for poets but also for artists, who illustrated scenes from the story in many mediums — including books, handscrolls, and screens — from the twelfth century into modern times. The final ten chapters are often distinguished from the rest of the narrative as the "Uji jūjō" (The Ten Chapters at Uji).
Excerpt from Chapter 51 - The Scene in the Print
Source: The Tale of Genji 源氏物語 [Genji Monogatari], Murasaki Shikibu, translated by Edward G. Seidensticker, The University of Adelaide, https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/m/murasaki-shikibu/tale-of-genji/chapter51.html
Without a word, he took Ukifune up in his arms and carried her off. Jijū followed after and Ukon was left to watch the house. Soon they were aboard one of the boats that had seemed so fragile out on the river. As they rowed into the stream, she clung to Niou, frightened as an exile to some hopelessly distant shore. He was delighted. The moon in the early-morning sky shone cloudless upon the waters. They were at the Islet of the Oranges said the boatman, pulling up at a large rock over which ever-greens trailed long branches.
“See,” said Niou, “they are fragile pines, no more, but their green is so rich and deep that it lasts a thousand years.
“A thousand years may pass, it will not waver,
This vow I make in the lee of the Islet of Oranges.”
What a very strange place to be, thought the girl.
“The colors remain, here on the Islet of Oranges.
But where go I, a boat upon the waters?”
The time was right, and so was the girl, and so was her poem: for him, at least, things could not have been more pleasingly arranged.
Transcription of the cartouches in the upper right
浮世十二ヶ月
十二月 浮舟宇治十帖内 橘の小島は色もかはらじを此浮舟ぞゆくゑしられぬ
Print Details
| IHL Catalog | #1813 |
| Title or Description | December, The Ten Chapters from Uji 十二月 浮舟宇治十帖内 Ukifune Ujijūjō no uchi |
| Series | Twelve Months of the Floating World 浮世十二ヶ月 Ukiyo Jūnikagetsu |
| Artist | Ogata Gekkō (1859-1920) |
| Signature |  |
| Seal | 尾形 Ogata (see above) |
| Publication Date | 1890 (Meiji 23) 明治廿三 印刷 出版 |
| Publisher |  |
| Carver | 治刀  |
| Impression | excellent |
| Colors | excellent |
| Condition | good - soiling; vertical center fold |
| Genre | ukiyo-e |
| Miscellaneous | |
| Format | horizontal oban |
| H x W Paper | 9 9/16 x 13 1/2 in. (24.3 x 34.3 cm) |
| H x W Image | 9 1/8 x 13 1/16 in. (23.2 x 33.2 cm) |
| Literature | |
| Collections This Print | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 2016.958 |
12/16/2020
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