r.

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 illustrations of the
"Long Regrets," or representations 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.

It was about the tenth of February, and the face of Nature began to
smile with the approach of spring, making the hearts and tempers of
people more calm and cheerful; besides, it was just the time when the
Court was unoccupied with the keeping of any festival. There could be
no better chance than this for such an exhibition of pictures to
attract the attention of people enjoying leisure. Genji, therefore,
sent his collection of pictures to the Palace in behalf of the lady of
the plum-chamber.

This soon created a sensation in the Palace. Most of the pictures that
were in the possession of the lady of the plum-chamber were from old
romances, and the pictures themselves were of ancient date, being
rare, while those of Kokiden were more modern subjects and by living
artists. Thus each of them had their special merits, so that it became
difficult to say which were more excellent. Talking of these pictures
became quite a fashionable subject of conversation of the courtiers of
the day. The Imperial-mother happened to be at Court, and when she saw
these pictures and heard different persons at Court discussing their
relative merits, she suggested that they should divide themselves into
two parties, right and left, and regularly to give their judgment.
This was accordingly done: Hei-Naishi-no-Ske, Jijiu-no-Naishi, and
Shioshio-no-Miobu took the left, on the side of the lady of the
plum-chamber; while Daini-no-Naishi-no-Ske, Chiujio-no-Miobu, and
Hioye-no-Miobu took the right, on the side of the Kokiden.

The first picture selected was the illustration of the "Bamboo
Cutter,"[125] by the left, as it was the most appropriate to come