The Genji scroll is rather unusual in its format; most Japanese
picture scrolls were almost all picture with just a bit of text at beginning
and end. But here the text is longer than the illustration, and the two
seem quite separate. But don't exaggerate this separation. Text and picture
were very closely linked, in ways that challenge out instinct to separate
literary and visual art. The picture was carefully read from right to left,
like a text, and the text was appreciated as a picture, as we can see in
this next detail.