“Channel Markers” (Miotsukushi) and “The Barrier Gate” (Sekiya)

This pair of screens has long been considered a masterpiece within the history of Japanese art. Most notably, they reveal an artist freely reinterpreting the tradition of Genji painting, not merely by adapting miniature-style painting to large-format screens but also by transforming the visual language of Genji illustration through simplification, clear-cut geometry, and an emphasis on materiality. Each episode represents a chance encounter between Genji and a former lover, and both scenes employ gates related to travel and pilgrimage, which perhaps led to their pairing here. Recent research shows that the screens were made in 1631; as one of only two securely dated works by Tawaraya Sōtatsu, they are crucial for understanding the artist’s still relatively enigmatic biography.

Genji writes to the Akashi Lady:
みをつくし恋ふるしるしにここまでも
めぐりあひけるえにはふかしな

The channel markers show
how far love has taken us,
and how I’ve given fully of myself
since fate brought us together
because of our deep karmic ties.