Chapter 24 (廿四), Kochō - 胡蝶 ('Butterflies'), from the series <i>Lady Murasaki's Genji Cards</i> (<i>Murasaki Shikibu Genji karuta</i> - 紫式部げんじかるた)

Utagawa Kunisada II (二代歌川国貞) (artist 1823 – 1880)

Chapter 24 (廿四), Kochō - 胡蝶 ('Butterflies'), from the series Lady Murasaki's Genji Cards (Murasaki Shikibu Genji karuta - 紫式部げんじかるた)

Print


10/1857
9.625 in x 14.375 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Baichōrō Kunisada ga
梅蝶楼国貞画
Publisher: Tsutaya Kichizō
(Marks 556 - seal 03-004)
Censor's seal: aratame
Date: 10/1857
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Tokyo Metropolitan Library
National Diet Library
Staatsbibliothek, Berlin
National Museums Scotland
Mead Art Museum, Amherst
A chart of Genji mon
Staatsbibliothek Berlin - #28
Lyon Collection - another print from this series
Art and Design Library, Edinburgh
National Museum of Japanese History (via Ritsumeikan)
The Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts, Budapest
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde, Leiden) via Ritsumeikan University Two figures in a butterfly dance. The whitish shell cartouche in the upper right corner gives the title of this series: 紫式部げんじかるた. (if you click on this print and enlarge it, you will notice that the white on the inside of the shell is embossed.) The red shell cartouche gives the Genji mon and the corresponding chapter number.

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Royall Tyler in his introductory comments to Chapter 24 of The Tale of Genji: "The chapter title, which means "butterfly" or "butterflies," comes from an exchange of poems between Murasaki and Akikonomu:

"Will you look askance, O pine cricket in the grass, longing for autumn, even at these butterflies from my own flower garden?"

and

"Come, they seemed to say, and your butterflies might well have lured me away, if between us did not grow bank on bank of kerria rose."

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Before the two poems cited above there is a passage describing the scene: "The lady of spring graciously sent an offering of flowers. Eight page girls dressed as birds or butterflies appeared (she had made sure they were especially pretty ones), the birds bearing cherry blossoms in silver vases, the butterflies kerria roses in vases of gold, and the flowers were the most glowingly perfect of their kind."

Note that the shubbery in the background of this print is that of the kerria rose or yamabuki.

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This print is listed in Genji's World by Andreas Marks, 2012, but not illustrated.
Tsutaya Kichizō (蔦屋吉蔵) (publisher)
Genji related prints (Genji-e - 源氏絵) (genre)