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Written in the 11th century by female poet Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari) has generated an extremely rich iconography, influencing even modern-day manga artists.
The first part of the exhibition transports visitors to Ancient Imperial Japan where they can discover the Heian period (794-1185) and its court art. This was an era of prolific artistic production and when women enjoyed a great deal of freedom, it notably saw the emergence of women’s literature for the first time in Japanese history.
Written in the 11th century by female poet Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji is the most well-known of these texts and is today considered the most representative work of classic Japanese literature. By subtly evoking the intricacies of the imperial court, The Tale of Genji set the stage for exceptional pictorial art and creativity, and inspired an extremely rich iconography, as attested by the lacquerware, prints, textiles, kimonos, sculptures, paintings and precious objects from the Guimet Museum’s own collection as well as from other French and Japanese collections. Even Marie-Antoinette herself collected Japanese lacquer boxes depicting Genji scenes…
The novel, which played an important role in the formation of Japanese culture, has inspired numerous artists and artisans throughout the centuries. It continues to be influential even among contemporary forms of art, notably manga, whose authors have been incredibly inventive in their interpretation and illustration of the pictorial codes, themes and scenes of the Genji story. The most famous of these is Asaki yume mishi by Waki Yamato (born in 1948). To this day, this ancient masterpiece continues to be adapted, as evidenced by the recent Tale of Genji by Sean Michael Wilson, with illustrations by Inko Ai Takita, which covers the floor and walls in one part of the exhibition.
Murasaki Shikibu, Cent poètes célèbres du Japon, manuscrit illustré, milieu du 19e siècle (détail) Paris, Musée Guimet, BG3566 © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée Guimet, Paris) / Thierry Ollivier
The second part of the exhibition focuses on Itaro Yamaguchi (1901-2007), a master weaver from the Nishijin district of Kyoto, who wove and donated to the Guimet Museum four exquisite scrolls illustrating The Tale of Genji, representing the culmination of a lifetime dedicated to weaving. Based on painted scrolls from the Heian period, and created using a hybridised technique — Western mechanical Jacquard and its digital avatar — these four woven scrolls will be exhibited for the first time ever together and fully unrolled.
Curation: Aurélie Samuel, heritage curator, external curator
