The Japanese Genji Scrolls - Coursework Example

The Japanese Genji Scrolls The assignment is to choose a narrative work and discuss the storytelling techniques used by the respective artist for thework. This paper talks about the Japanese Genji Scrolls and explores into details the main techniques used by the artist to effectively communicate the story through the art work as well as the narrative. Introduction: The Genji Scrolls or Genji Monogatari Emaki(1120-1150) are based on the ‘The Tale of Genji,’ written by Lady Murasaki Shikibu, one of the most famous Japanese female figures, during the Heian period in the 12th century. The scrolls, considered as a “National Treasure,” were created with an aim to visually depict scenes from the story in order to provide further explanation as well as better perspective into the written work (Jakucho 7). During the time Shikibu wrote the story on manuscripts, due to the “absence of printing press,” the people interested borrowed it from her and returned after making copies for themselves (Jakucho 7). Some of them made paintings in scenes which they found immensely moving, while some sought professionals to transform the words into illustrations that captured every emotion and feeling Shikibu evokes in the respective scene. However, the Genji Monogatari Emaki filled with “brilliant colors and graced with superb calligraphy,” believed to be a work of Fujiwara Takayoshi, proves to be the finest illustration of the Genji tale (Keene 11). The Genji Monogatari consists of twenty scrolls with “hundreds of illustrations and thousands of sheets of calligraphy” that depict aesthetic beauty, peace as well as elegance and resonate every detail of the particular scenes it depicts from the story (Cavallaro 151). The calligraphic text totals to “fifty four chapters” and all illustrations in the scroll are of the dimensions “8 1/2 * 19” (Brodsky 9). The visual art presented in the scrolls are not just to boast of the skills of the artist but also to precisely cater to the sensitivity of the readers. The illustrations aim to emphasize the emotions and feelings the characters went through during the exact time of the scene and the artists have successfully been able to do just this. The style followed in the Genji Monogatari Emaki is called tsukuri-e, which translates to manufactured painting. “Tsukuri-e” is a technique in which “dense, flat colors are applied over the undersketch” and then later the outlines are redone with fine black ink (Brodsky 9). The artist uses varied colors and highlights the prominent hues with the fine ink, thus creating an overall magical effect. The highlighted singularities go deep and thrust the intensity of the emotions the characters go through and thus, the ultimate feelings of the characters are exposed and conveyed to the viewers. The artist uses pastel colors to indicate the deep contemplation, longing as well as yearning that the characters are experiencing. This technique thus enables the readers of the Genji tales get more insight into the actual scene of the story with an increased realistic feel and then they can make comparisons with the scenes they had in mind when they read the story. The two main techniques used in the illustrations are the Fukinuki Yatai meaning “blown away roof” and Hikimi Kagibama meaning “line for an eye, hook for a nose” (Brodsky 9) The former relates with the background of the scenes and it depicts the interiors having “neither ceiling nor roof,” which makes the “upper sides of ceiling beams” visible, thus enabling the viewer to see things from a bird’s perspective (Brodsky 9). That is, the viewer of the picture can see the whole scene including the background and every detail it portrays. The latter relates with people and the main characters in the scene, which have been presented “in a very unconventional manner” (Brodsky 9). This technique is used to depict the facial expressions of the characters in which their faces appear to be “mask-like” and devoid of “obvious sexual differentiation” (Brodsky 9). The following image depicts the mask like face the characters are given and this can be compared to the ‘Noh.’ http://www.columbia.edu/~hds2/genji/21s.jpg This technique has been employed by the artist so that he can give a clear idea to the viewer that the characters are not of a real world. It is an unreal, imaginative world that evokes mythical and aesthetic attributes compared to the real world and thus the artist employs this technique to make the characters appear unfamiliar, since the prominent figures in the story are not everyday characters. However, on the other hand, the architecture depicted in the scrolls is very similar to the one in the real world. This helps the viewers to relate to the story, the culture it expresses as well as the values that it depicts. The faces of the central characters are painted in a distant unfamiliar way so as to maintain the perception that the readers already had about these characters. The artist does not want to influence or change those valued perception of the viewers and thus he makes the characters faces identical and mask like, so as to maintain the integrity of the reader’s perspectives. Another feature that can be noticed in the illustrations, such as in the one given below, is that “both” the men and women in the pictures “wear voluminous robes” that “conceals” their sex. http://www.tnm.jp/gallery/search/images/300/C0010639.jpg This again shows there is no sexual differentiation and it opens a new door of thought. Maybe the artists harbored a feeling of equality among the males and females and that might be a reason as to why there are no obvious implications of sex. Through the Genji tales, Lady Murasaki takes a very feministic approach and the artists have kept maintained the same approach in their execution of the illustrations. The feministic attributes also imply that females be given more significance and what better way to do this than not making them appear identical to men. As an example to understand how the artists effectively communicate the narrative aspects of the Genji tales, consider the image given below. http://davidcollblanco.photoshelter.com/image/I0000Za1k.6PF8Cw Here, both characters are depicted with their eyes closed. The angle of their eyes as well as the tilt of their heads have been depicted so as to bring the effect that they are looking down on something, as the lady is concentrating on her calligraphy, whereas the man’s eyes might be closed due to the contempt and happiness he feels in seeing her beautiful calligraphy. The floral design in the dress of the woman suggests that it is the spring season and the big round yellow dots on the man’s dress may suggest that it is a sunny day. The curtains and dresses are made with subtle flowing lines, whereas the definite brush strokes are used to define the table, the sliding screen and so on. The purpose of the “sliding screen or room divider” is to emphasize the “internal turbulence” of a particular scene. Conclusion: The illustrators of the Genji Monogatari Emaki employed various techniques to enhance the art of storytelling as well as to emphasize the narrative accounts provided by Lady Murasaki Shikibu. It transpires that these techniques were greatly successful in representing key words, emotions, feelings etc as well as transforming them into pictures to enhance the viewer’s imagination. The aesthetic beauty of the illustrations along with enigmatic figures portrayed in them, make the art immensely successful in providing visual account to the written story. The narrative has thus been communicated really well and effectively that it influenced the Japanese society of that period to the brim. The court culture depicted vividly in the illustrations resonates nostalgic as well as melancholic feelings that existed both in the characters of the story as well as the people who lived during the Heian period. . Reference List Jakucho, Setouchi. Painting and The Tale of Genji. Japan: Miyata Masayuki and Kodansha International Ltd. 2001. Web. 23 March 2013. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=MRT-Wf9x_qQC&pg=PR3&lpg=PR4&dq=when+were+the+genji+scrolls+made+and+by+whom#v=onepage&q=brilliant%20colors%20and%20graced%20with%20superb%20calligraphy&f=false Keene, Donald. Depictions of The Tale of Genji. Japan: Miyata Masayuki and Kodansha International Ltd. 2001. Web. 23 March 2013. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=MRT-Wf9x_qQC&pg=PR3&lpg=PR4&dq=when+were+the+genji+scrolls+made+and+by+whom#v=onepage&q=brilliant%20colors%20and%20graced%20with%20superb%20calligraphy&f=false Cavallaro, Dani. Anime and the Art of Adaptation: Eight Famous Works from Page to Screen. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc, Publishers. 2010. Web. 23 March 2013. Brodsky, Vladimir. The World Created in the Image of Man: The Conflict Between Pictorial Form and Space in Defiance of the Law of Temporality. New York: Lang Publishing, Inc. 2010. Web. 23 March 2013. Read More