Scenes from The Tale of Genji [right of a pair]

Pictures and short passages of text brushed on 108 small squares of paper arranged on the surface of these screens represent the entirety of The Tale of Genji, with a text-image pairing for each of the Tale’s 54 chapters. Reading the passages of classical Japanese written in elegant calligraphy, or identifying a specific scene from the Tale and recalling the characters and dramas involved, could provide hours of fun for the screens’ owners and guests. But the screens could just as easily serve simply as a luxurious gold-and-silver backdrop for a gathering.