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Details
Anonymous, Sumiyoshi Monogatari Emaki (Narrative picture scroll of the tale of Sumiyoshi), [Japan, 18th century]
1313.2 x 32.385cm. Handscroll; ink, colour, gold and gold leaf on paper, illustrating six scenes from the tale interspersed with text, ivory scroll ends.
The Sumiyoshi Monogatari is a story of a young girl, the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman who has two daughters by his own wife. When she is around eight years old her mother dies and her father takes her to live in his house, which causes her stepmother to become jealous and treat her cruelly. A young nobleman falls in love with her after hearing of her beauty, making the stepmother even more jealous and cruel. As a result of an evil plot by the stepmother, the princess runs away and takes refuge in Sumiyoshi. Not knowing where she is, the young nobleman is desperate and vows to become a hermit, however the girl's location is revealed to him in a dream and he goes and finds her, returning with her to Kyoto where they happily marry. The stepmother however gets her comeuppance and dies in misery.
The scenes are as follows:
A noble presenting a letter to a lady on a balcony of a house, inside which is a party of ladies
Ladies enjoying a picnic with attendants, their uchi-guruma [ox carriages] in which they travel
Ladies reading a letter, probably from the noble depicted in the courtyard
A lady on her deathbed, with two attendants
A noble reading a poem to a lady
A noble and lady, and a priest in the courtyard
There are a number of versions of this scroll in museum collections including a Kamakura period (13th-century) example in the Tokyo National Museum (see www.emuseum.jp museum no [A-17]), and a Muromachi period (16th-century) example in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, 1985.426.
1313.2 x 32.385cm. Handscroll; ink, colour, gold and gold leaf on paper, illustrating six scenes from the tale interspersed with text, ivory scroll ends.
The Sumiyoshi Monogatari is a story of a young girl, the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman who has two daughters by his own wife. When she is around eight years old her mother dies and her father takes her to live in his house, which causes her stepmother to become jealous and treat her cruelly. A young nobleman falls in love with her after hearing of her beauty, making the stepmother even more jealous and cruel. As a result of an evil plot by the stepmother, the princess runs away and takes refuge in Sumiyoshi. Not knowing where she is, the young nobleman is desperate and vows to become a hermit, however the girl's location is revealed to him in a dream and he goes and finds her, returning with her to Kyoto where they happily marry. The stepmother however gets her comeuppance and dies in misery.
The scenes are as follows:
A noble presenting a letter to a lady on a balcony of a house, inside which is a party of ladies
Ladies enjoying a picnic with attendants, their uchi-guruma [ox carriages] in which they travel
Ladies reading a letter, probably from the noble depicted in the courtyard
A lady on her deathbed, with two attendants
A noble reading a poem to a lady
A noble and lady, and a priest in the courtyard
There are a number of versions of this scroll in museum collections including a Kamakura period (13th-century) example in the Tokyo National Museum (see www.emuseum.jp museum no [A-17]), and a Muromachi period (16th-century) example in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, 1985.426.
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