This scene illustrates a celebrated chapter in The Tale of Genji, “Evening Faces (Yūgao).” Genji stops to inquire after his old nurse and glimpses pretty foreheads in the humble house next to the nurse’s home. He looks up at white “evening faces,” flowers over the wall of the house, and asks his attendant Koremitsu to break one off. A pretty little girl comes out and hands him a heavily scented white fan, saying, “Put it on this. It is not much of a fan, but it is not much of a flower either.” Genji then begins his ephemeral and tragic affair with Yūgao. Shortly thereafter, Yūgao dies as a result of the jealousy of Rokujō Lady.
