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Cool Bookish Things: Agameishi’sIllustrations of THE TALE OF GENJI
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By the Purifying Wind, 600 Scenes of Genji, Scene 234, 1997Acrylic & Gouache on Paper over Wood35.5″ x 47″ x 0.5″
The Tale of Genji (http://click.linksynergy.com/fsbin/click?id=96j4LynEKBY&subid=&offerid=314164.1&type=10&tmpid=9310&RD_PARM1=http%3A%2F%2Fstore.kobobooks.com%2FenUS%2Febook%2Fthetaleofgenji6) is no stranger to visual interpretation–it’sconsidered the longest and oldest illustrated scroll in the world. But no matter if you’refamiliar with Genji or just like laying your eyeballs on some amazing and gorgeous images,the illustrations of Agameishi are like nothing you’ve ever seen before. By combiningancient painting and calligraphy styles with a modern use of perspective and a graphicdesign sensibility, Agameishi makes The Tale of Genji feel as current as the latest mangacraze.
Most people are familiar with the Japanese art form Ukiyoe, a painting style thatoriginated in the Edo period (17th through the 19th centuries) as an expression of thecommon people. Likewise, most know what a Haiku is: a short poem of 17 syllablesarranged in a 575 meter. Like Ukiyoe, Haiku originated in the Edo period and was usedby the average citizen.
BY TASHA BRANDSTATTER (HTTP://BOOKRIOT.COM/AUTHOR/TBRANDSTATTER/)DEC 18, 2014
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Determined, 600 Scenes of Genji, Scene 566, 2008Acrylic & Gouache on Paper over Wood27.5″ x 35.5″
Part of what makes Agameishi’s paintings so unique is that she DOESN’T look to thesefamiliar art forms in her work. Instead, she paints in the much more ancient style of Kasene, used by nobility during the Heian period (late 8th century through late 12th).
Kasene combines painting, poetry, and calligraphy into a single unified image. In fact,Kasene is very similar to modern manga in the way it uses pictures and text to tell a story.Its overriding focus is on conveying the emotions of the characters portrayed: love, hate,longing, fear, sadness. The poetry that accompanies Kasene is called Waka, which has31 syllables in a 57577 meter. This is the poetry that makes up The Tale of Genji.
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Fate and Illusion, 600 Scenes of Genji, Scene 114, 1994Acrylic & Gouache on Paper over Wood35.5″ x 47″
A trained calligrapher, Agameishi also favors an unusual style of Japanese writing calledKana. In the early history of Japan, writing styles were dictated by gender: men wrote inKanji, an adaptation of Chinese ideographs. Kana, on the other hand, was uniquelyJapanese and used only by women. The characters are phonetic, not ideographic, andAgameishi describes the calligraphic style of Kana beautifully: “It flows like a stream ofwater, a fascinating cascading line that feels as if it were alive.” This is the style of writingthe author of Genji, Murasaki Shikibu, employed over 1000 years ago.
The process of creating each scene in the The Tale of Genji was timeconsuming andlaborious. Agameishi usually took up to two weeks to paint each illustration, using hercalligraphy brush, which added touching sensitivity to every line. There was an importantlink between calligraphy and her visual work:
My style not only contains the calligraphic rendering of ancient Japanese (Waka)short poems, the entire picture is set in the way calligraphers endeavor to put writtencharacters to life–and harmony–on paper… In my paintings, calligraphy characterscombine like persons and the person characters appear like calligraphy.
Then came the crucial moment: the writing of the poem. While painting the illustration mayhave taken weeks, Agameishi completed the poems in a minute or less.
It is an incredibly intense moment… Not only due to the fact that the painting wouldbe lost if my calligraphy turned out poor or contained a mistake. It is also theculmination of my relationship with the subject matter.
The intensity of that final act of completing the work is infused into every scene Agameishicreates.
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Known to the Moon Alone, 600 Scenes of Genji, Scene 578, 2008Acrylic & Gouache on Paper over Wood35.5″ x 47″ x 0.5″
Not only does she use historically accurate illustration and calligraphic techniques,Agameishi also extensively researched the architecture, clothing, and material culture ofthe early 11th century Japanese nobility so that every scene would be authentic to theHeian period. The flowing robes of the female characters, for example, look completelyfantastical in a beautiful, artistically expressive way. But in fact they’re an ancient style ofcourt dress called JuNiHitoe, or 12layer robes. A former dressmaker, Agameishi sewedher own 12layer robe out of a kimono and sheets and modeled it in a mirror for use in herillustrations.
Agameishi set out to illustrate every Waka poem in The Tale of Genji–that’s 795 scenes–in1986, and only completed it in 2008, more than thirty years later. She’s crazy dedicated toher craft, even going so far as to teach herself to use her left hand for everything butcalligraphy after her right hand started going numb from overwork.
But the real question is why–why dedicate so much time and personal energy tocomprehensively illustrating this massive novel? First of all, Agameishi loves the book:
It is about society, about obligations, about political order, about ambitions, aboutpower and about love. But although the story describes how people of at the apex ofsociety struggle together or against one another, there is no violence, no word aboutmilitary campaigns, no glorification of cruelty, no conquests. It is… a model for theattitude [of] Japan (or any country)… to be eager to learn from others and to blendforeign arts with its own culture and diversity.
In this setting of peace, the focus is on individuals’ relationship to one another. Thisis how each person’s sentiments appear clearly, without being blurred by anoverarching dramatic plot. So although The Tale of Genji was written 1000 yearsago, it continues to be an incredibly modern novel.
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Let Us Just Be Friends (Ⅱ), 600 Scenes of Genji,Scene 543, 2006Acrylic & Gouache on Paper over Wood
35.5″ x 27.5″
Yet what most people don’t know is that the Kana writing in The Tale of Genji is nearlyincomprehensible to all but a very few people in Japan. Modern translations containanachronisms, annotations, and lose some of the meaning of the original manuscript.Although the Kana in Agameishi’s paintings is not necessarily any more comprehensible–especially to people who don’t read Japanese–her illustrations speak more loudly thanwords. By turning the perspective of the scenes into a more traditional Western view andusing bright, graphic colors, Agameishi puts the viewer into the middle of a modern scenethat feels cinematic. In fact, she describes the Waka poems as, “…like as many scenic orcloseup views in a movie. Each depicts a key moment.” Her focus on the emotionalcontent of every scene makes the 1,000plus yearold characters of this complex tome feela close to us any character in a contemporary novel.
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Evening Glow, 600 Scenes of Genji, Scene 68, 1993Acrylic & Gouache on Paper over Wood35.5″ x 47″ x 0.5″
All images used with permission from Agora Gallery (http://www.agoragallery.com/).Check out Agameishi’s ArtMine page (http://www.artmine.com/artistpage/agameishi.aspx) or website(http://homepage2.nifty.com/genjimonogatari) for more information!
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