Murasaki Shikibu at Ishiyamadera

This painting imagines the autumn night at the Buddhist temple Ishiyamadera when Murasaki Shikibu is said to have begun writing The Tale of Genji. Sitting on a veranda overlooking the lake, she gazes at a misty moon. The soft pink outer robe she wears in the painting is decorated with an overall pattern of blooming eulalia grasses, whose feathery seed spikes turn silver in autumn and are closely associated in Japan with moon viewing.