Japanese Woodblock Print, 2002, 1st edition from the series "Elegance of the Heian Period", self-published by the artist, sealed, pencil signed, dated, titled and numbered 36/150 in the bottom margin. Number of blocks: 26 Printed in 31 passes.

dai-oban, 12.375 x 17.25 inches

COMMENTS: Shusui Taki prints are very rare and seldom come to market.

THE ROKUJO LADY, a fictional character in the novel "Tales of Genji" by Lady Murasaki (thought to be the first novel ever written), is one of Genji's first lovers, though she doesn't appear until midway through the novel. She had been a consort of the emperor before the Emperor and is therefore a number of years older than Genji (though this is never specified in this translation). Though Genji sees the Rokujo Lady with relative frequency, he's often neglectful of her. This makes the Rokujo Lady feel extremely jealous. Her jealousy is so great that her spirit actually leaves her body and kills two of Genji's other lovers: the Lady of the Evening Faces and Aoi, Genji's wife. Though the Rokujo Lady recognizes her jealousy, she does feel bad and ashamed of what her jealousy is capable of doing. The lady is also very concerned about what might happen if the truth of the ladies' deaths gets out; her primary concern is her reputation, which she believes would be irreparably damaged. (The narrator, however, insists that this isn't true.) To escape all of this, the Rokujo Lady decides to accompany her daughter Akikonomu to the Ise shrine, where the latter will act as high priestess. This is unprecedented, but the Rokujo Lady believes it's the only way to escape Genji and preserve her reputation. She returns from the shrine near the end of the novel when Reizei becomes emperor, though she promptly becomes ill and dies. On her deathbed, she asks for Genji to care for Akikonomu but specifies that she doesn't want him to take her daughter as a lover. This shows that the Rokujo Lady understands that becoming involved with Genji brings major risks with it, and she'd like to save her daughter from suffering at Genji's hands as she did.

SHUSUI TAKI (b. 1938) was born in Nahoya, but did not embark on his artistic career until after the age of 40 in the 1980s. He was inspired by the ukiyo-e beauties of Keisai Eisen (1790-1848), and he started his career spectacularly with a series of large woodblock prints tiitled "Young Maidens - Twelve Months". By the 1990s he had already won several prizes, and his next major series was a series of women with tattoos, not unlike Paul Binnie's tattooed beauties of a decade later. His work is in the British Museum, and he is sometimes referred to as the "Utamaro of the 20th century". Today his prints are in great demand as they were issued in small editions (usually 150), have never been reprinted, and are only seldomly offered for sale.

VG, minor flaws as shown, minor tape residue on verso, otherwise fine