page_title: Genji Monogatari Emaki
section_title: Emotional aspects of the characters
hierarchical_section_title: Genji Monogatari Emaki / Emotional aspects of the characters
caption_attribution_description: 日本語: 紙本著色／一面　平安時代後期・12世紀　　縦21.8cm　横48.3cm　　五島美術館蔵 『源氏物語』第４０帖「御法」。光源氏の最愛の妻紫上が重病にふし、源氏と明石中宮に最後の別れを告げる場面。命のはかなさを、庭に咲く萩に付いた露にたとえて和歌を詠み交わす。画面左の風に吹かれる秋草が、三人の悲しい心情を象徴。
context_page_description: The Genji Monogatari Emaki, also called The Tale of Genji Scroll, is a famous illustrated hand scroll of the Japanese literature classic The Tale of Genji is from the 12th century, perhaps c. 1120–1140. The surviving sections, now broken up and mounted for conservation reasons, represent only a small portion of the original work and are now divided between two museums in Japan, Tokugawa Art Museum and the Gotoh Museum, where they are only briefly exhibited, again for conservation reasons. Both groups are National Treasures of Japan. It is the earliest text of the work and the earliest surviving work in the Yamato-e tradition of narrative illustrated scrolls, which has continued to impact Japanese art, arguably up to the present day. The painted images in the scroll show a tradition and distinctive conventions that are already well developed, and may well have been several centuries in the making.
context_section_description: Although the technique of hikime kagibana was used for the drawing of the figure's faces, there was still a great amount of emotion that could be discerned from them. One way that the artists showed individual emotions in the figure's faces is through the placement and size of their facial features; such as the thickness of the eyebrows or lips, the angle of the eyebrows or eyes, and the space between the eyes and brows.
  For example, in chapters 37 and 39 the depiction of Lady Kumoi is of a strong-willed young woman who has become prey to overwhelming jealousy. This depiction is done by making her eyebrows a bit stronger, tiny pupils that are a little lower, eyes slightly cast down, and her upper lip being just a little thicker.
  Another way that the artists showed emotion in the characters was by the tilt of their faces. This was done by making the characters faces look away, or covering their faces by placing them in their hands, almost completely covering them, or showing them looking away. The artists also portrayed individual expressions and emotions to the characters by using inanimate elements. Some examples that were used throughout the scroll were autumn grasses and raindrops. The autumn grasses were used as a symbol of human emotion.
caption: A scene from the "Minori" chapter depicting the death of Lady Murasaki
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