Back to Tale of Genji!! The only man in the story whom it is mandatory to draw with facial hair. Higekuro (literally “Black Beard”) is Tamakazura’s husband, the surprising winner amongst her gajillion suitors. He’s generally depicted as a respectable man of good standing, notwithstanding the implied-but-never-actually-shown-nor-explained-very-likely-unconsensual-start-to-the-relationship with Tamakazura. Aside from that, he’s primarily remembered as the guy whose angry existing wife, upon hearing the news about Tamakazura, dumps a cauldron of hot ashes on him and then leaves with the kids to move back in with her parents. One more thing that I don’t really see people mention (because, again, there are so many characters to keep track of) - he’s actually the uncle of the final Emperor in the story, Kinjo (Suzaku’s son). Kinjo’s mother is Suzaku’s Shokyoden Consort, Higekuro’s sister.
I’ve been debating making an art deck with all these Genjimonogatari illustrations once I have enough characters completed to my satisfaction! I really enjoyed making the Inktober Lenormand deck last time, so I’d love to do a full colour one this time around (ironically I’m saying this on probably the only black and white illustration in the series lol). But knowing that not everyone is familiar with Tale of Genji, I think it’ll be fun to turn them into a simple card game and an oracle/symbols type system, which will be relatively easy since there are so many relationships and character symbols! Anyways, just a thought...
