The Diary of Lady Murasaki - Emakimono

Emakimono

In the 13th century a handscroll of the diary was produced, The Murasaki Shikibu Nikki Emaki. The scroll, meant to be read from left to right, consists of calligraphy illustrated with paintings. Writing in "The House-bound Heart", Japanese scholar Penelope Mason explains that in an emakimono or emaki a narrative reaches its full potential through the combination of the writer's and the painter's art. About 20 percent of the scroll has survived; based on the existing fragments, the images would have closely followed the text of the diary.

The illustrations in the emaki follow the late-Heian and early Kamakura period convention of Hikime-kagibana (line-eye and hook-nose) in which individual facial expressions are omitted. Also typical of the period is the style of fukimuki yatai (blown off roof) depictions of interiors which seem to be visualized from above looking downward into a space. According Mason, the interior scenes of human figures are juxtaposed against empty exterior gardens—the characters are "house-bound".

In the diary Murasaki wrote of human emotions such as love, hate, and loneliness, feelings which make the illustrations powerful explains Mason, who considers the Murasaki Shikibu Nikki emaki to be the "finest extant examples of prose-poetry narrative illustrations from the period". The illustration in which two young courtiers try to open the lattice blinds to enter the women's quarters is particularly poignant because Murasaki can be seen holding the lattice shut against their advances. In the distance, to the right of the scroll, is a lovely garden, from which she is separated by the architecture and the men.

The scroll was discovered in 1920 in a five segment piece, by Morikawa Kanichirō (森川勘一郎). The Gotoh Museum holds segments one, two and four; the Tokyo National Museum holds the third segment; the fifth remains in a private collection. The portion of the emakimono held at the Gotoh museum have been designated as National Treasures of Japan.