Scenes from The Tale of Genji

Formal competitions in composing poetry and painting, as illustrated in this scene from the eleventh-century narrative The Tale of Genji, provided amusement and allowed audiences to admire and critique the creations of fellow aristocrats. Contests had established rules, thematic restrictions, and judges. In the left panel of this folding screen, teams of the Left and Right, representing the court ladies Akikonomu and Kokiden, sit on opposite sides of the room and present the boxes of scrolls they have selected for the contest. The room is shown from above, as if the roof has been removed, a common artistic device in Japanese painting. After debates lasting well into the night, Prince Genji's own painting, based on his long exile at Suma and accompanied by poems that convey his troubled emotions, won decisively over a presentation of older paintings of classical subjects. The moonlit evening ends with courtiers performing a concert.