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The Prints

Print 5-1. Prince Mitsuuji Spying on the Go Players

Oban triptych by Kunisada (signing as Toyokuni III), published by Ebisuya, 1849-50.

From a series titled Wakamurasaki Nenju Gyoji (Events Through the Year of Young Murasaki), but apparently only this and one other triptych of the series were issued. Mitsuuji is shown here with his hair dressed in an unusual style called `shrimp's tail'. This style seems to have been created by Kunisada and was adopted by Danjuro VIII when he played the part on the stage in 1851.

Print 5-2. Prince Mitsuuji and the Go Players

Oban print by Kunisada (signing as Toyokuni III), published by Izumiya Ichibei, 1851-52.

From a series titled Sono Sugata Yukari no Utsushi-e (That Figure Depicted in Its Splendor). The picture on the screen behind which Mitsuuji is concealing himself is signed by Kunisada's pupil Kunimasa.

Print 5-3. Prince Mitsuuji and the Go Players

Oban triptych by Kunisada (signing as Toyokuni III), published by Yamaguchiya Tobei in 1852.

Appearing on the banner in the right panel, the title reads Sato no Ume Yukari no Haya-saku (The Village Plum Tree in Early Blossom) -- a poetic allusion to the Rustic Genji himself in his splendid costume.

Print 5-4. Courtesan Standing by a Go Board

Chuban print by Kunisada (signing as Toyokuni III), published by Hamadaya Tokubei in 1852.

One of Kunisada's illustrations of an episode from A Sham of Murasaki's Rustic Genji. Not easily visible in the illustration is the background, embossed with `Genji clouds' and a `Genji crest', seen at the upper right of the cartouche. The former are a stylistic convention much used by screen painters of the Tosa school, while the latter are ancient traditional patterns associated with individual chapters of the Tale of Genji. These patterns were often used in the design of kimono.

Print 5-5. Young Woman with a Love Letter

Oban print by Kunisada (signing as Toyokuni III), published by Sanoya Kihei in 1844.

The cartouche above depicts the 10th century poet, Provisional Middle Councilor Sadayori, along side of his best-known poem (number 64 in the Hyakunin Isshu collection):

As dawn breaks
the mist becomes thin,
here and there
revealing the wicker traps
that span the Uji River.

The allusion is to a visit paid by Prince Genji to the village of Uji, where he had a brief love affair.

Print 5-6. Young Woman Thinking About Her Lover

Oban print by Kunisada, published by Tsuruya Kiuemon ca. 1830-44.

Here, Kunisada illustrates an episode from A Sham of Murasaki's Rustic Genji. Note the similarity between this depiction and Print 5-5. Just as in the preceding two pictures, the go board is accurately rendered as 19x19.

Print 5-7. Two Women About to Play Go

Chuban print by Kunisada (signing as Toyokuni III), published by Sanoya Kihei in 1853.

The poem quoted in this print refers to an incident in Chapter Three of Lady Murasaki's Tale of Genji where one of the women the prince has been observing at go, and whom he had later approached with amorous intentions, temporarily escaped by slipping away into the darkness of her bedchamber, leaving her outer garment behind like the abandoned shell of a cicada -- the classic poetic symbol of mutability.

When I cast off my shell
and entered this uncertain world,
so charming were his ways
that I was dazzled
as if by the sun.

Print 5-8. Woman with a Love Letter

Oban print by Kunisada (signing as Toyokuni III), published by Uoya Eikichi in 1857.

From a series titled Genji Gojuyo-jo (The 54 Amorous Chapters of Genji), subtitled Chapter Four.

Print 5-9. Prince Mitsuuji at a Spa

Oban triptych by Kunisada (signing as Toyokuni III), published by Kagaya Kichiemon in 1861.

This design is titled Mitsuuji Onsen Asobi Oku no Zu (Interior View of Amusements of the Hikaru Family at a Spa). Hikaru was Prince Genji's personal name, but it is Mitsuuji who is depicted here as we can tell by the `shrimp's tail' headdress adopted by the actor who played the part on stage. He is holding a bamboo flute and waiting for the attendant with the samisen to tune her instrument. The towel behind the go board and the kimono worn by the three bathers below display a water-wheel pattern, probably the trademark of a well-known hot-spring inn of the period.

Print 5-10. Scene from the Noh Play Go

Oban print with metallic pigments by Tsukioka Kogyo, published by Matsuki Heikichi in 1897.

From a series of prints depicting scenes from Noh plays. Illustrated here is one of several episodes that occur in the first part of the Tale of Genji. It concerns the unhappy spirits of two court ladies, Utsusemi and Nokiba no Ogi, who recollect their brief relationship with Prince Genji, and in so doing find peace. These two are the women Prince Genji spies on in the passage quoted at the beginning of this chapter. The play was composed relatively late and is not now included in the standard Noh repertory. It has never been translated into English, yet it contains passages of considerable evocative power that are of interest in showing how Taoist ideas about go were assimilated in Japan and enriched within a Buddhist context:

When playing go resentments must clear away and thoughts
become like the moon arising at night . . .
They are in the ocean of endless births and deaths,
and the go stones are like the numberless grains of sand upon the beach.
Even though they struggle, their hearts remain gentle . . .
In the game their hands reveal benevolence.
The mantra Aum reverberates in the sound of the pieces striking the board.
Before our eyes the boundaries of life and death become visible,
the pattern of Nirvana itself.
The white and black of the pieces are the colors of day and night.
The star points are the nine lights of heaven
and the three hundred and sixty intersections are the numbers of the days of the year . . .

Imagine attending a performance of this drama and hearing such passages chanted against a background of flutes and drums as the two masked and gorgeously robed dancers slowly put stone after stone upon the go board! One's ideas about go would never be quite the same.

Print 5-11. Prince Genji and the Go Players

An album leaf painted in watercolors and gold dust by Sumiyoshi Koen. Published around 1660. Publisher unknown.

Prince Genji spying on two court ladies playing go.