A single woman fills a vertical scroll, her body bent forward in a tight curve against a quiet, gray-beige ground. Her face is a pale, porcelain-toned complexion with heavy-lidded eyes cast downward, and a small mouth half-hidden by her own hair. One hand rises to her lips as she bites and tugs at a thick, disheveled lock like an anxious, self-soothing gesture that reads as pain. Her very long straight black hair pours over her shoulder like ink, contrasting with the light kimono that wraps her figure. Across the garment, delicate spiderweb lines spread and snag, while wisteria blossoms bloom in clusters of dense, tangled, and uneasy beauty. The robe’s patterns and the curve of her spine echo each other, making her torment feel physical, not abstract. A white ribbon loops above her head, and the collar opens to a dark, cool inner layer of greens and blues that feel like a shadow under the white cloth. Her sleeve hangs heavy, its edge lined with gold and muted color, while a small foot peeks from beneath the hem, grounding this supernatural story in a real body. All motion is contained in the sweep of hair and the tightening spiral of her stance. This is Lady Rokujō (六条御息所 / Rokujō no Miyasudokoro), a court woman from The Tale of Genji (源氏物語), imagined at the moment jealousy overwhelms her. Kyoto-born artist Uemura Shōen (上村松園) was celebrated for bijinga within nihonga, so this subject is a departure. The museum calls Rokujō “driven mad with jealousy,” and Shōen makes it bodily with a spine that folds and hair that becomes a tether. “Flames” are emotion inside the body like envy and grief compressing into silence. Spiderwebs suggest entrapment and wisteria, refinement turned invasive. In The Tale of Genji, Rokujō’s jealousy is said to manifest as a living spirit that harms a rival and here she remains dignified even as she unravels. Painted in 1918, it is among Shōen’s most psychologically intense works asking us to witness complicated emotion without moralizing it.
“焔 (Flames)” by Uemura Shōen / 上村松園 (Japanese) - Color on silk / 1918 - Tokyo National Museum (Japan) #WomenInArt #WomensArt #WomanArtist #WomenArtists #ShoenUemura #上村松園 #Uemura #TokyoNationalMuseum #東京国立博物館 #Nihonga #日本画 #TaleOfGenji #JapaneseArt #art #artText #JapaneseArtist #WomenPaintingWomen
