Screen painting of a poet with the full moon and snowy plums

Ume ga ka to The scent of the plum blossomsTsuki no kaori no And fragrance of the plumNakazora ni Combine in mid-airMajieru iro ya In the colorKasumu murasaki Of misting purple—Shozanro ShigemiHisakata no The fragrance of theTsuki no kaori mo Everlasting moonUme ga ka mo And the scent of the plumMushiro hedatenu Not so differentHaru no utabito For the poet in springtime—Seikaitei KamendoThe identification of the poet depicted has not been absolutely determined. One possibility is that he represents Prince Genji in exile in Suma, wistfully looking at the moon over the sea. There are multiple poems in the Tale of Genji concerning the moon and longing for home, while the mention of murasaki in the first verse hints at both the author of the Tale of Genji, Murasaki Shikibu, and the character Murasaki, for whom Genji most longs in these chapters. (“Moon,” curated by Ellen Avril and presented at the Johnson Museum August 25, 2018-January 13, 2019)