"When I lived in Tokyo, my apartment was in Sendagaya, a few streets from the National Noh Theater. Kabuki and Noh were very important to me during those years and I tended to make woodblock prints of Kabuki and oil paintings of Noh, and in fact the Noh group ended up being my most long-running series at over 80 pieces. This was number 34 in that long list, the play itself concerning the Lady of Akashi, shown here, one of the many lovers of Prince Genji in the world’s first novel, The Tale of Genji, written in the 11th century by Murasaki Shikibu. Many plays were adapted from this novel over the centuries, over fifteen of them still in the current repertoire, and this play is a poetic evocation of the character of the Akashi Lady, whom Genji meets far from the capital. The costume and mask represent a noblewoman of the Heian era, when the play is set." Binnie, June 2023
