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time, and successive competitions would be made by pairing two of them at a time, one on the left and one on the right, the competitors producing their verses and submitting them to competent critics, who would judge which side of the pair was the better, and when one pair’s work was finished with, that of the next pair went through the same scrutiny. The pairings of pictures were no doubt an imitation of the pairings of poems. The performance of the pairings of pictures appears rather quaint, but it will give a very good idea of the society of the time, so I give below a full account of it from my own translation of the ‘Genji Monogatari’:

‘The Emperor was very fond of pictures, and painted with considerable ability. Lady Plum, too, as it happened, possessed the same taste as the Emperor, and used often to amuse herself by painting. If, therefore, he liked ordinary courtiers who exhibited a taste for painting, it was no matter of surprise that he liked to see the delicate hands of the lady occupied in carefully laying on colours. This similarity of taste gradually drew his attention to her, and led to frequent visits to the “Plum chamber.” When Gon-Chiunagon was informed of these circumstances, he took the matter into his own hands. He himself determined to excite a spirit of rivalry. He contrived means to counteract the influence of painting, and commissioned several famous artists of the time to execute some elaborate pictures. Most of these were subjects taken from old romances, as he conceived that these were always more attractive than mere fanciful pictures. He also caused to be painted a representation of every month of the year, which would also be likely, he thought, to interest the Emperor. When these pictures were finished he took them to Court, and submitted them to his inspection; but he would not agree that he should take any of them to the Plum chamber, and they were all deposited in the chamber of his daughter.

‘Genji, when he heard of this, said of his brother-in-law: “He is young; he never could be behind others.” He was, however, unable to pass the matter over unnoticed. He told the Emperor that he would present him with some old pictures, and, returning to his mansion at Nijio, he opened his picture cabinet, where numbers of old and new pictures were kept. From these, with the assistance of Violet, he made a selection of the best. But such pictures as the illustration of the “Long Regrets” or the representation of “O-Shio-Kun” were reserved, because the terminations of these stories were not happy ones. He also took out of his cabinet the sketches which he had made while in Suma and Akashi, and showed them for the first time to Violet, who was a little angry at his not having shown them to her sooner.