Yoshitoshi 芳年 : Rustic Genji 田舎源氏 (Lovers on the Moors) (Sold)

Artist: Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892) Title: Rustic Genji 田舎源氏 (Inaka Genji) Date: 1885 Scene from the Inaka Genji, the Genji-based novel by Ryutei Tanehiko  that was published in serialized form in 1829-1842 and took Edo culture by storm. Yoshitoshi here shows the protagonist Mitsuuji (the updated Genji) and his lover Tasogare as they flee her mother’s supervision to spend the night together in an old temple. Mitsuuji has wrapped a bamboo blind around them to aid their escape; both look out nervously as the wind whips her clothes and kerchief. They are isolated on the desolate moor, surrounded by plume-grass. Their feet form a circle, echoing the circle of the blind; here they must be disoriented as they search for the light of the temple in the distance. According to the Smithsonian website, “The implicit eroticism of this vertical diptych by Yoshitoshi led to a judgment by Meiji government censors that it was injurious to public morals. One of the objections was that one of Mitsuu