Takaya Miou
Brilliance, p. 11
Japan, 2000

Drawing (genga), ink and screen-tone on Kent paper
Collection of the artist (L.2016-16.38–39)
© Takaya Miou, 2000

The following is an English translation of the Japanese text that appears in the published form of these pages.

The guards brought Consort Hai to the imperial family’s tomb and interred her there. Her face was so beautiful that the Emperor could not bear to shut the coffin. There she lay, in the Realm of the Dead, beneath an eternally blue sky.
After the visitors bade their farewells, it is said that a smell of flowers lingered in the air.