The Tale of Genji: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) (Junichiro Breakdown of Genji)

by Murasaki Shikibu

  Festival, the—See Kamo Festival.

  fire altar dan—An altar that included an earthen hearth for the sacred goma fire.

  first reading fumi-hajime—A ceremony in which a Prince, Heir Apparent, or young Emperor gave a first formal reading from the Chinese classics.

  fishing pavilion tsuridono—A pavilion built on stilts over the garden lake of a Heian dwelling and joined to one of the wings (tai) by an open gallery. It was used for relaxing pastimes.

  Five Altar Rite Godan Mizuhō—See Great Rite.

  Five Classics—The Book of Changes (Yiching), The Book of Songs (Shijing), The Book of Documents (Shujing), The Spring and Autumn Annals (Chungiu), and The Book of Rites (Liji).

  five-color cakes fuzuku—Cakes in the five recognized Buddhist colors (red, white, black, yellow, and blue or green), made of five different grains pounded to a paste with sweetvine (amazuru) syrup.

  Five Precepts, the Itsutsu no Imashime, Gokai—The Buddhist prohibitions against killing, stealing, fornication, deceit, and drunkenness. These simple rules of conduct could be upheld by a layman or a novice (nyūdō), but for fully ordained monks and nuns there were many more.

  floating bridge ukihashi—A temporary bridge (boards laid across boats or rafts) over a river.

  floral circles kemonryō—Circles containing a floral motif on a plain, light ground.

  flute yokobue—A transverse seven-holed flute.

  folding paper tatōgami, futokorogami—A kind of general-purpose paper often kept, folded up, in the front fold of one's robe. It could be used when necessary instead of letter paper.

  forty-nine days—A period after death during which rites were performed every seven days, in order to guide the deceased through various intermediate states to a fortunate rebirth. See also memorial rites.

  foundation examination ryōshi—The entry-level Academy examination in the letters (kiden) line of study. It covered Chinese history as contained in the Shiji (see Records of the Historian, The) and the Hanshu. Passing three of its five parts gave the student “provisional candidate” (gimonjō) status; that is, qualified him to become (after a further Ceremonial Bureau examination [Shikibu no Tsukasa no kokoromi]) a regular candidate (monjōshō) for the Academy's first full degree.

  fox kitsune—A supernatural creature associated with the image of the commonplace fox. In Japan as in China the magic fox was believed to be a shape-changer that particularly favored the shape of a beautiful young woman.

  fragrant chest kō no ōn karabitsu—Either a chest containing incense wood to perfume its contents or a chest actually made of incense wood.

  fringed basket higeko—A basket or box woven of bamboo, with the edges left untrimmed. It was used for fruit or flowers.

  fruit basket komono—A basket lined with thin paper and containing five kinds of fruit and nuts (tangerines [kōji], oranges [tachibana], chestnuts, persimmons, and nashi or Japanese pear), together with decorative sprigs of pine.

  Fudō—A Buddhist deity whose name means “the Unmoving.” Fudō sits or stands on a rock, surrounded by flames. Usually blue-black in color, he holds an upraised sword in his right hand to cut down the demons of craving and a noose in his left to bind them. The principal deity of mountain ascetic rites, he was also the central deity of the Great Rite.

  Fugen—A bodhisattva representing the teaching and practice of the Buddha and closely associated with the Lotus Sutra. Fugen's canonical mount is a white elephant.

  Fujitsubo—One of the pavilions in the palace compound that was reserved for a Consort or an Empress, north of the Emperor's residence (Seiryōden) and west of the Kokiden. It had wisteria (fuji) growing in its garden.

  Fujiwara—The surname of the dominant nonimperial clan in the author's time and for centuries on either side of it. The author herself was a minor Fujiwara. In the tale the Minister of the Left (Genji's father-in-law), hence Aoi and her brother Tō no Chūjō, belong to this clan, and so do the Minister of the Right and his family, as well as many other figures.

  gagaku—The repertoire of music known and performed at the Heian court, including not only the music of the bugaku (dance) repertoire but also saibara and rōei songs.

  gallery rō—Of various forms, these covered passageways provided access to the different structures of a large dwelling complex, extending from the main house (shinden) or wings (tai) to and beyond gates, to supplementary buildings and subsidiary residences. There could be rooms opening off them.

  garden court tsubo senzai—The garden space between the Emperor's residence (Seiryōden) and the Kōrōden, immediately to the west.

  “Garden of Flowers and Willows” “Ryūkaen”—A “Chinese” bugaku piece last known to have been performed in 960.

  Gate Watch—See glossary of “Offices and Titles.”

  Genji—“A member of the Minamoto (gen) clan (ji).” A first-generation Genji, or Minamoto, was a man who, like the Genji of the tale, had been excluded from the imperial family by having been given a surname and so made a commoner; and, by extension in the tale's usage, a non-Fujiwara (especially an imperial) aspirant to a position normally considered the prerogative of the Fujiwara. The surname Minamoto was first conferred by the Emperor in 814, and many surplus imperial brothers, sons, and grandsons received it thereafter.

  gentian ryūtan—Gentiaea scabra, in modern Japanese rindō.

  gentlewoman nyōbō—A woman of good family who serves a higher-ranking lord or lady. Murasaki Shikibu was a gentlewoman in an Empress's service. In some cases the woman could be of considerable rank; for example, in “The Mayfly” a Princess becomes a gentle-woman to the Empress.

  gentlewomen's sitting room daibandokoro, saburai—The room at the northwest of a great personage's residence where the gentlewomen waited.

  gift knot kokoroba—A kind of decorative knot, a paper flower, or a cluster of paper leaves or pine needles, attached to a gift.

  gillyflower tokonatsu—A flower of the dianthus family, the same one as the “pink” (nadeshiko). The two terms are distinguished by their use in the tale. Partly because of an established pun on the lovers' “sleeping place” (toko), tokonatsu refers to lovers and nadeshiko to a child.

  Go—A board game of great complexity and sophistication, played on a board with small black and white stones.

  godchild amagatsu—A doll that for a child served a purpose similar to that of a purification doll. Up to about his or her third year the child was to transfer any harmful influences into the godchild.

  Gokurakuji—A funerary temple for the senior Fujiwara nobility.

  Gosechi (Festival, dancer)—A festival that accompanied the Enthronement Festival (Daijōsai) in the year of a new Emperor's accession, or the First Fruits Festival (Niinamesai) in other years; it took place on the middle days of the Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, and Dragon in the eleventh month. In the former case there were five dancers and in the latter four; of these, in a Niinamesai year, two came from among the senior nobles and two (three in a Daijōsai year) from among the privy gentlemen or provincial Governors. On the day of the Ox the dancers and their escort of gentlewomen entered the Gosechi chamber in the Jōneiden. On the last day (that of the Dragon) there was the great court banquet known as Warmth of Wine (Toyo no Akari), and on this occasion the Gosechi dancers danced the dance of the heavenly maidens. On the day of the Rabbit the page girls (warawa) were viewed by the Emperor.

  grasses of forgetting wasuregusa—The flower called yabukanzō in modern Japanese, an orange daylily.

  grasses of remembering shinobu—A kind of fern that grows readily in roofs of bark or thatch. The word is homophonous with one that means “to dwell fondly in memory on the past.”

  Great Hall of State Daigokuden—The hall used for the enthronement ceremony and for other major functions presided over by the Emperor.

  “Great Peace” “Taiheiraku”—A “Chinese” bugaku piece, martial in spirit, for four dancers.

  Great Rite Mizuhō—A protective rite to ward off misfortune an
d promote vital force, and often intended to encourage safe childbirth. More formally known as Godan Mizuhō, the “Five Altar Rite,” it was performed by five Officiants before altars to the deity Fudō and his four directional protector deities. In grave cases it could be performed in the palace.

  grebe nio, niodori—A diving bird that was reputed to pair for life and that gave Nio no Umi (Lake of Grebes), the modern Lake Biwa, its name.

  “Green Willow” “Aoyagi” —A saibara song that evokes a warbler (uguisu) weaving a garland of spring flowers with weeping willow fronds.

  guessing rhymes in futagi—A game that involved guessing the rhyme words in a Chinese poem unknown to the contestant.

  hagi—An autumn plant with long, graceful fronds and deep pink, violet, or white flowers. Although hagi is often translated “bush clover,” no such plant actually exists.

  hairdressing chest kakage no hako—A chest of implements for dressing the hair.

  hairpin kōgai—A hairdressing implement shaped something like a chopstick and made of silver or some other precious material.

  half-panel shutter hajitomi—See lattice shutter.

  Hall of the Sacred Mirror Naishidokoro—A room in the Unmeiden where the sacred mirror (yata no kagami, one of the three imperial regalia) was kept.

  hand carriage teguruma—A sort of palanquin on two wheels for use within the palace grounds. Its use required imperial permission and was normally restricted to personages of the highest dignity. A new Consort always arrived at the palace in one.

  hand torch shisoku—A slip of pinewood with one end dipped in oil; the other end, held by the bearer, was wrapped in paper.

  hare mallet uzuchi—A rectangular block of peachwood roughly four inches long, with a tassel of five-colored threads hanging from it, used in the palace and in the great houses to drive out demons on the first day of the Hare in the first month.

  Harima—A province corresponding to a part of modern Hyōgo Prefecture, on the Inland Sea.

  Hatsuse—The place-name associated with Hasedera, a temple in the mountains roughly east of Nara. Hasedera is dedicated to Eleven-Headed Kannon (Jūichimen Kannon), and its sacred image is particularly revered. It was a major pilgrimage center.

  healing rites kaji—Rites performed for healing by Buddhist monks. They involved calling on the power of specific deities.

  heart-to-heart aoi—A small plant (Asarum caulescens), known more precisely as futaba aoi (“twin-leaf aoi”) and sacred to the Kamo Shrine. A forest plant, it consists of a symmetrically opposed pair of broad, heart-shaped leaves, with which people decorated their headdresses and carriages for the Kamo Festival (as they did also with laurel [katsura]). Aoi in its Heian spelling (afuhi) can be read to mean “day of (lovers‘) meeting” and this double meaning is often exploited in poetry.

  Heichū—A stock comic hero of Heian court folklore.

  herbal balls kusudama—See Sweet Flag Festival.

  Herdboy Star Hikoboshi—See Tanabata.

  hichiriki—A small but loud reed pipe made of bamboo. The “greater hichiriki” mentioned in “The Safflower,” a larger version of the standard instrument, was not normally played by ranking nobles, and its use had died out by the author's time.

  Hiei, Mount—A mountain (2,799 feet) just northeast of the City, the site of a large temple complex that was the center of Tendai Buddhism.

  Higo—Roughly the present Kumamoto Prefecture in southwest Kyushu.

  Hitachi—A province in the Azuma region (now the Kanto), corresponding to the northern part of Ibaraki Prefecture.

  Hizen—A province in Kyushu, now divided between the modern prefectures of Saga and Naga.

  holy man hijiri—A common word for a Buddhist monk who lives removed from the world and whose practice is conducive to the accumulation of spiritual power.

  Holy Mountain Mitake (now Sanjō-ga-take, 5,676 feet)—A mountain in the Ōmine range, south of Nara. The Mitake cult was addressed to Miroku, the Buddha of the Future.

  holy-water shelf akadana—A shelf for offerings of holy water and flowers, set up just outside the veranda of a house.

  Hōrai—A fabulous mountain in the middle of the sea, inhabited by immortal beings. In “The Song of Unending Sorrow,” by Bai Juyi, the grieving Emperor sends a wizard there to find his beloved Yang Guifei.

  “Hosoroguseri”—One section of the music for a bugaku dance called “Chōhōraku”. The syllable sequence in the name sounds strange in Japanese.

  Hosshōji—A temple built by Fujiwara no Tadahira in 925 on the site of the present Tōfukuji, east of the Kamo River and a little south of the City. It was on the way from Kyoto to Uji.

  hour of the (Rat, Ox, etc.)—The hours of the day-night cycle and the days of the month were named according to the succession of the twelve zodiacal signs: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Bird, Dog, and Boar. The daily cycle began with the hour of the Rat (starting roughly at midnight) and ended with the hour of the Boar (starting roughly at 10 P.M.). Since the number of zodiacal signs and the number of days in a month (twenty-eight) did not match, the zodiacal designations for the days shifted from month to month.

  household office mandokoro, saburai—The office out of which household affairs were run, including in some cases estates and other, larger interests.

  humulus mugura—Humulus japonicus, a member of the hemp family and related to the hop (Humulus lupulus); a plant with fairly large, five- or seven-lobed leaves. It appears in the tale as a typical weed.

  hyōjō mode—One of the six gagaku modes.

  ichikotsu mode—One of the gakaku modes.

  “I Love Him So” “Sōfuren”—A gagaku piece. The characters properly used to write its title mean something like “The Lotus in the Minister's Garden,” but the Japanese preferred to use others (homophones) that suggest this romantic meaning.

  “Immortal in the Mist” “Senyūka”—A gagaku piece. Its title as used in the tale alludes to Genji's status as the Honorary Retired Emperor, since a Retired Emperor was commonly imagined as a Taoist Immortal and inhabited a Sentō Gosho (“Palace of the Cave of the Immortal”). Immortals (sennin) were supposed to sport among the mists of mountain peaks and to need no other food.

  “Immortal of the Deep” “Kaisenraku”—A gagaku piece in the ōshiki mode.

  Imperial Granary Kokusōin—The storehouse for rice and cash collected from the Inner Provinces (Kinai).

  Imperial Kitchen Mizushidokoro—Responsible for preparing the Emperor's meals.

  Imperial Stores Osamedono—An office of the Emperor's household responsible for his personal treasure.

  Ishiyama—A temple at the southern end of Lake Biwa, and a popular pilgrimage goal for residents of the City. Legend has it that Murasaki Shikibu conceived her tale there. The temple is dedicated to Kannon.

  ivy yadorigi—A word that now means “mistletoe,” but that in the tale clearly means “ivy” and perhaps other kinds of tree-climbing vines.

  Iyo—A province on the island of Shikoku, corresponding to the present Ehime Prefecture.

  Iyo blind Iyo su—A rough sort of blind, suitable for the country, made of woven bamboo (shinotake).

  Jōneiden—A residential pavilion in the palace compound, suitable for an Empress or a Consort. It also contained a room used by the Gosechi dancers.

  “Joy of Spring” “Kishunraku”—A bugaku piece for which neither the music nor the dance survives.

  jubilee—A great personage's fortieth or fiftieth year, for which a celebration or series of celebrations (ga) could be held.

  kagura—Music and dance offered at a shrine to a Shinto divinity.

  Kaguya-hime—The heroine of The Old Bamboo Cutter (see entry), a radiant baby discovered by an old bamboo cutter in a joint of bamboo. Her name means something like “Lady Light.” Kaguya-hime grows up to be dazzlingly beautiful; is courted by many suitors, culminating in the Emperor himself; and at the end of the tale returns to her real home, the moon.

&nb
sp; Kamo Festival Kamo no Matsuri—The annual festival of the two Kamo Shrines (Upper Kamo and Lower Kamo) along the Kamo River, to the north of the City. It was held on the middle day of the Bird in the fourth month. On that day a grand procession went from the palace to call at both shrines, providing a brilliant spectacle for the people at large. It was also known as the Aoi Festival because for the occasion people decked their headdresses, carriages, and so on with aoi leaves, sacred to Kamo. There was in addition a Special Kamo Festival (Kamo no Rinji Matsuri) on the last day of the Bird in the eleventh month; some of the Eastern Dances were performed for the deity by the palace musicians, and the rehearsal was held in the palace.

  kana—The letters of the phonetic syllabary, as opposed to Chinese characters.

  Kannon—The bodhisattva of compassion, particularly prominent in the tale in connection with Hatsuse and Ishiyama.

  karmic impediments gōshō—The Buddhist term for all karmic factors that impede progress toward enlightenment; chief among them are greed, anger, and stupidity.

  Kasuga Shrine—In Nara, the ancestral shrine of the Fujiwara.

  Katano Lieutenant Katano no Shōshō—An amorous hero whose story has not survived.

  “Kazuraki”—A saibara song.

  Kazuraki Mountains—A range of mountains south of present Ōsaka. Kazuraki was known for wizards and wonder-workers, since En no Gyōja (late seventh century), the half-legendary founder of the mountain ascetic tradition in Japan, came from there. In modern Japanese the name is read Katsuragi.

  kickball kemari—A game in which the players stood in a circle and kicked a ball (mari) high in the air. The point of the game was to keep the ball in the air so that it never fell to the ground.

  Kii—An ancient province corresponding roughly to Wakayama Prefecture.

  kin—A seven-stringed, unfretted koto (see entry) from China. It was popular during the first half of the ninth century and was played as part of an aristocrat's normal accomplishments up to the mid-tenth (the present of the tale). By the end of the century it had been all but abandoned.

  Kiritsubo—A residence with a paulownia tree (kiri) in its garden in the far northeast corner of the inner palace compound. It was assigned to a lower-ranking imperial wife. To reach the Emperor's residence from it meant walking through areas immediately adjacent to the living quarters of other imperial wives. Shigeisha or Shigeisa was another, Chinese, name of the same residence.