The Tale of Genji: Legends and Paintings. Miyeko Murase

[Betty]

The Tale of Genji: Legends and Paintings:

A nicely illustrated book of the fifty-four miniatures of the seventeenth-century Burke albums to which chapter summaries from The Tale of Genji have been added. The Introduction by Miyeko Murase talks about the Genji novel, which a court woman of Heian Japan wrote at the request of the Empress and which has remained very popular since its publication in 1008 abouts. There's also a history of Genji iconography, i.e. how the story's episodes have been depicted from the twelfth century until the present.

[Betty]

After the Introduction, there comes the fifty-four chapter summaries, each of them accompanied by its Burke illustration. I found that the summaries refreshed and clarified the Genji story and described each illustration's highlights.

There's a lot of multi-named characters and understated action in the full Genji narrative of three Heian generations from a thousand years ago. This briefer, simpler, illustrated guide clearly identified who is who and to which other characters they are connected.

After the illustrated summaries is a descriptive, alphabetical listing of the characters mentioned.