Scenes from court literature

This pair of screens illustrates typical scenes derived from literature created at the Heian period (794–1185) court, such as The Tales of Ise (Ise monogatari) and The Tale of Genji (Genji monogtari). On the right a nobleman, hidden behind a hedge, is trying to get a good look at an aristocratic lady seated inside an elegant villa. In Heian novels, courtship between young nobles often begins like this: a man would hear about a woman’s beauty, her high birth, and her excellent ability in poetry writing, and then, to confirm her beauty, he would spy on her. If he decided to pursue her, he would write poems to her and have someone deliver them; if he was lucky, she would respond with verses of her own. The left screen is more ambiguous: three courtiers are shown in a remote setting with only a few fisherman’s huts and boats, some on the water with others anchored near bushes. They may be stopping to exchange poems while on the course of a journey.