FuryÅ« Genji: Akashi (Hiroshige landscape, Kunisada [main] figures) Possibly 1835

Curator: Let's turn our attention to this intriguing print from the Harvard Art Museums, titled Furyū Genji: Akashi, a collaboration between Utagawa Hiroshige, the landscape artist who lived from 1797 to 1858, and Kunisada who designed the figures. Editor: It feels like a secret glimpse. Those two figures walking into a field of reeds, lanterns guiding their way... there's a quiet intimacy, almost voyeuristic, wouldn't you say? Curator: The print draws from the Tale of Genji, embedding it within the floating world culture of the time. Hiroshige's landscape grounds Kunisada's figures within a recognizable, contemporary setting. Editor: It's a brilliant juxtaposition. The landscape has that classic Hiroshige wistfulness, but with a theatrical element introduced by the figures. They seem to be enacting a drama within a larger, indifferent natural world. Curator: Precisely. The choice of Akashi is interesting, it being a chapter of exile and reflection. It suggests the viewers were meant to reflect on their own roles and positions in society. Editor: I love the blue hues, too. It creates such a tranquil, melancholy mood. It lingers, this image, long after you've seen it. Curator: A perfect blending of the poetic and the political, I think. Editor: Absolutely, a quiet masterpiece of suggestion.