From romantic entanglements to twists of fate, Toyokuni III's series The Color Print Contest of a Modern Genji (c.1853) explores a fresh take on a literary classic. In the early 19th century, Tanehiko Ryutei's serial novel A Rustic Genji by a Fraudulent Murasaki transposed the shining prince of 11th-century Tale of Genji to the charismatic playboy Mitsuuji. The novel was an enormous success and sparked a craze for anything Genji. As both the original illustrator and a leading ukiyo-e artist of the time, Toyokuni III heavily influenced this genre. Many of the prints in this chuban-sized series are embellished with embossing or metallic powder.