夜の庭 Garden at nightよるのにわ

解説

Scene about the adventures of Prince Genji according to the version by Ryūtei Tanehiko (1783-1842), who completely rewrote The Tale of Genji as a gōkan (popular literature published in bound volumes) in thirty-eight chapters. The protagonist is Mitsuuji, who lives in the fifteenth century, and his love affairs take place in pleasure quarters. Much of the stimulus for the late-Edo Genji imagery (Genji-e) was due to Ryūtei Tanehiko and his book, the first Japanese book to sell more than ten thousand copies.In a Japanese water garden Prince Genji stands on the deck of a house, in front of him his concubine holds a hand lantern illuminating the night sky. This colaboration by Hiroshige I and Toyokuni III comes from the magnificent series of 4 triptychs jointly designed with Kunisada drawing the figures and Hiroshige designing the landscape background. This series is reminiscent of Hiroshige's 'Snow, moon and flowers' triptychs, this design being moon light. https://ukiyo-e.org/image/jaodb/Hiroshige_1_and_Kunisada_1-No_Series-Triptych_Prince_Genji_at_Night-00030886-020515-F06