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Secondary sourcePaintingEdo period

Hyakunin Isshu Playing Card Showing Murasaki Shikibu

Edo period

An Edo-period illustrated playing card portraying Murasaki Shikibu for the poem-matching game Hyakunin Isshu.

This playing card honors Murasaki Shikibu as a poet whose verse was included in the famous Hyakunin Isshu anthology.

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Japanese illustrated playing card with a painted court woman in a purple robe with yellow and red trim, reclining at lower left beside white bedding. Black brush calligraphy in vertical columns fills the upper area on a cream background.
Anonymous, Hyakunin Isshu playing card showing Murasaki Shikibu, Edo period.

About this source

What it is

This is an uta-garuta playing card created during the Edo period, part of a set used for the Hyakunin Isshu poetry card game. It shows a court woman in a purple robe reclining beside white bedding, with calligraphy filling the upper portion of the card.

Why it matters

Hyakunin Isshu is a classic anthology of one hundred poems by one hundred poets, and Murasaki Shikibu's inclusion shows how her poetry, alongside her prose, remained celebrated long after her death. Playing cards like this spread her image and work into everyday culture and games.

Look closer

  • Why would a poet be remembered through a game rather than just through books?
  • What does the clothing and pose suggest about how court women were imagined?
  • What can the calligraphy on the card tell us, even if we cannot read it?

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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