The Tale of Genji – Colors of the fifty-four chapters

What kinds of costumes did the characters in “The Tale of Genji” wear, and what shifting emotions were conveyed through the layers of their colors? A supplementary reader to enjoy “The Tale of Genji” with its rich colors.

The full text is provided alongside the English translation.

This revised and newly edited version of the book includes all fifty-four color illustrations meticulously focused on by Yoshioka Sachio. The text is a compilation mainly of explanations on dyeing and color materials, re-edited into a beautiful compact size. Quotes from “The Tale of Genji” feature the famous translation “The Tale of Genji” (The Tale of Genji English version translated by Edward Seidensticker).

In “The Tale of Genji,” from the first chapter “Kiritsubo” to the fifty-fourth chapter “Yume no Ukihashi,” Murasaki Shikibu describes the beauty and diversity of Japan’s four seasons through the perspectives of various characters, both female and male, who compete in wearing beautiful layered costumes known as “kasane no irome” (layered colors). The late dyeing artist Yoshioka Sachio, in “The Color Dictionary of The Tale of Genji” (published in 2008), meticulously analyzed all fifty-four chapters of “The Tale of Genji,” focusing on the colors and costumes mentioned in the story. At the same time, he deciphered descriptions of dyeing and plant dyes recorded in the law collection “Engishiki,” which compiled religious and administrative regulations of temples, shrines, and the imperial court during the Heian period, and reproduced the “kasane no irome” of the Heian court using the original dyeing methods of that time.

*This book is a restructured and re-edited version based on the first edition of “The Color Dictionary of ‘The Tale of Genji'” (authored by Yoshioka Sachio, published by Shikosha in 2008), quoting some of the dyeing illustrations, part of the text, and materials.