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Secondary sourcePaintingearly 1720s

A Stylish Suma: Lady Murasaki Shikibu

Okumura Masanobu · early 1720s

An early 1720s woodblock print by Okumura Masanobu showing Lady Murasaki Shikibu seated on a veranda, gazing outward.

A later print imagining Murasaki Shikibu in a setting tied to her own novel, showing her lasting literary image.

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Black-and-white woodblock print of a woman in a patterned kimono seated on a wooden veranda, resting her chin on her hand and gazing outward. A small table holds an inkstone box, papers, and a flowering branch in a vase. Beyond the veranda, a boat and waves, and in the upper right, figures and a hillside with pine trees appear within a cartouche with calligraphy and a signature seal.
Okumura Masanobu, A Stylish Suma: Lady Murasaki Shikibu, early 1720s. James Michener Collection, Honolulu Museum of Art.

About this source

What it is

This is a black-and-white woodblock print made in the early 1720s by the Edo-period artist Okumura Masanobu, now part of the James Michener Collection at the Honolulu Museum of Art. It shows a woman in a patterned kimono seated on a veranda, resting her chin on her hand, with an inkstone box, papers, and a flowering branch nearby, and a boat and hillside in the distance.

Why it matters

The title links the image to Suma, a place associated with Murasaki Shikibu's novel The Tale of Genji. It shows how print artists of the 1700s continued to picture her as a thoughtful, literary figure, blending her image with scenes from her own writing.

Look closer

  • What in the pose and setting suggests quiet thought or longing?
  • How does the print connect Murasaki herself to the world of her novel?
  • What does the inclusion of writing tools tell us about how she was remembered?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Murasaki Shikibu on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Fragment of a decorated handscroll page with black calligraphic Japanese script running in vertical columns on gold-flecked paper with dark green and gold scattered patches and faint grass-like brushstrokes. A printed caption in the lower right reads in Japanese.Book

Primary source

The Tale of Genji

Murasaki Shikibu · c. 1010

Open double-page spread of a Japanese manuscript with gold and silver flecks scattered on brown-orange and dark mauve paper. Black cursive kana calligraphy runs in vertical columns on both pages.Book

Primary source

Kokin Wakashū

Ki no Tsurayuki and compilers · c. 905-920

Diary entry

Primary source

The Diary of Lady Murasaki

Murasaki Shikibu · c. 1008–1010

Scan of a page of handwritten Japanese cursive calligraphy in brown ink on pale paper, written in vertical columns. This is the final part of the Tosa Nikki diary, copied by Fujiwara no Teika in the 13th century.Diary entry

Primary source

Tosa Nikki

Ki no Tsurayuki · 935 (copy 13th century)

Photograph of the front cover of a Japanese book bound in pale green-grey paper. A vertical cream label on the cover bears brush-written Japanese characters and a small seal-like stamp appears at lower left. A color calibration chart and a metric ruler are along the edges of the image.Book

Secondary source

Eiri Genji Monogatari

Yamamoto Shunshō · 1650

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