''‘Lady of the Evening Faces’ (Yūgao): Yazama’s Wife Orie (Yazama-shi no shitsu Orie),” from the series Scenes amid Genji Clouds Matched with Ukiyo-e Pictures (Genji-gumo ukiyo e-awase)
Utagawa Kuniyoshi Japanese
Not on view
This print from a set of sixty intriguingly combines references from The Tale of Genji’s Chapter 4, “The Lady of the Evening Faces,” with a seemingly unrelated scene from Kabuki theater—a culmination of Edo-period experimentation with parodic imagery. What does a streetwalker with a dog on a snowy night have to do with Genji? The woman is Orie, estranged wife of one of the “Forty-Seven Rōnin” featured in numerous Kabuki and puppet plays. Here she is conflated with the tragic heroine Yūgao, invoked by the yūgao (moonflower) blossom and Genji poem on the scroll above. Like Yūgao, who was killed by an angry spirit, Orie will meet a violent demise before the night is through
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