TOSA SCHOOL Scenes from Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji) Edo period (1615-1868), 17th centuryProperty from a Bay Area architect, and thence by descentTOSA SCHOOLScenes from Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji) Edo period (1615-1868), 17th centuryA six-panel screen painted in ink, colors, gold, and gold leaf on paper mounted on a wood lattice and with lacquered wood frames and metal fittings, depicting five scenes from Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji), as described in detail below, with clouds separating the scenes 61 1/2 x 140in (156.2 x 355.6cm)As demonstrated by the panoramic exhibition "The Tale of Genji: A Japanese Classic Illuminated," held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2019 and featuring numerous masterpieces of Genji-related art, the Tale has occupied a central position in Japanese culture for a millennium, rising to a mid-term peak during the during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The same period witnessed the rise of the folding screen pair as one of the most important formats for Japanese painting and their large scale made them especially well-suited for compositions featuring several episodes from a single Genji chapter or, as in this case, episodes from multiple chapters; for an example featuring every single chapter of the Tale, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (formerly Burke Collection), see John T. Carpenter and Melissa McCormick, The Tale of Genji: A Japanese Classic Illuminated, exhibition catalogue, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, March 5-June 16, 2019, cat. no.59 and Appendix Two.In the current lot, the rightmost panels feature scenes from Chapters 20: Asagao above (Genji and Murasaki look out from the veranda at a group of young girls who enthusiastically play around an enormous snowball in the garden), and 15: Yomogiu below (Genji coming to visit the Safflower Lady at her dilapidated mansion while his servant Koremitsu clears a path through the overgrown garden); the central panels contain Chapters 5: Wakamurasaki above (peeping through brushwood fence, Genji catches his first glimpse of Wakamurasaki, aged ten), and 24: Kochō below (people watch little girls dancing, dressed as butterflies, holding cherry blossoms and yellow yamabuki Japanese roses); the leftmost panels are painted with scenes from Chapters 23: Hatsune above (New Year's Day celebrations at Genji's Rokujō estate) and the continuation from the central panels of Kochō below (dragon and phoenix boats on a garden pond and more courtiers watching little girls dancing in butterfly costumes).ProvenanceProperty of a noted San Francisco Bay Area architect, and thence by descentThis screen is the mate to a six-panel screen sold in our San Francisco rooms, Butterfield and Butterfield, November 2, 1990, lot 2813.