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The Tale of Genji- A Visual Companion

Page 13

by Melissa McCormick


  political success by becoming the grandfather of an

  night, to fi lter through the slats of the bamboo

  emperor. The Akashi family experiences the most

  blinds. When Genji reaches the Lady’s villa, he

  dramatic elevation of all, by moving from a for-

  remarks on the beauty of its surroundings amid

  gotten household in the distant provinces to being

  the pines, the roots of which cling to craggy rocks,

  fi rmly ensconced in the imperial line.

  and he notes the chirping of insects in the garden.

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  hall with an imposing gabled roof of gray tiles and

  an adjacent red and white bell tower. This cluster

  of buildings represents the Sanmaidō, a type of hall

  for performing Lotus Sutra samādhi meditative prac-

  tice, which Genji fi rst saw when coming to shore in

  Akashi. He noted its magnifi cence and its secluded

  site next to a stream fl owing down f rom the hills,

  perfect for concentrating the mind on the next

  world. Here it is depicted beneath a low hanging

  autumn moon rendered in silver paint that has oxi-

  dized since the album was produced. The woman’s

  villa on the right, and the meditation hall with the

  moon on the left, occupy distinct space cells in the

  album leaf, cordoned off by gold clouds, but they

  are interconnected by the sound of the bell and the

  light of the moon. Both structures are devoid of

  fi gures, but they act metonymically as the absent

  presences of the Lady and the Novitiate, each emit-

  ting a distinct sound heard by Genji: the ringing of

  the bell and the sound of the woman’s koto. In the

  Touches of white, pink, and green pigment near the

  latter case, Genji hears strains f rom the instrument

  veranda connote the autumn fl owers and grasses,

  played not by the Lady but by the tassels of a curtain

  which in turn suggest the sound of the chirping

  that accidentally brush across the strings. Indeed, it

  insects among them. As Genji surveys the touching

  will be nearly a year before Genji actually hears her

  isolation of the scene, he ponders the sadness of life

  play, later in this chapter. By then Genji has been

  and hears the sound of a temple bell reverberating

  pardoned by the Suzaku Emperor and summoned

  on the wind.

  back, the Akashi Lady is pregnant with his child and

  The source of that sound appears in the upper

  experiencing morning sickness, and Genji is vowing

  left corner of the painting, a large Buddhist temple

  to bring her and their child to the capital.

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  Our old sorrows come

  “Truly,” thought Genji,

  With the fi rst glimpse of the pines

  remembering . . . .

  Of Sumiyoshi,

  In the rush of waves

  As in the rush of memory

  We lived, lost in such tempest

  I think of the Age of the Gods.

  As the god alone

  Could calm — Sumiyoshi,

  Shall I ever forgive thee?

  cranston, p. 782

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  14

  Channel

  Markers

  Miotsukushi

  Sumiyoshi no

  Ge ni to oboshiidete

  Matsu koso mono wa

  Arakarishi

  Kanashikere

  Nami no mayoi ni

  Kamiyo no koto o

  Sumiyoshi no

  Kakete omoeba

  Kami o ba kakete

  Wasure ya wa suru

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  Exonerated f rom any wrongdoing and now on the

  fl owers and maple leaves, hinting at the colorful

  path to political supremacy back in the capital with

  display the Lady is said to witness. A fi fth page boy

  his own (secret) son on the throne after Emperor

  follows behind, holding Genji’s long, orange-col-

  Suzaku’s abdication, Genji decides to honor the ored train, which is decorated with a pattern of gods for his good fortune and makes a pilgrimage to

  autumn leaves fl oating in a stream painted in gold.

  Sumiyoshi. The Channel Markers chapter, the title

  Genji is depicted in one of his most formal ensem-

  of which refers to wooden posts that warn seafar-

  bles anywhere in the album: the courtly costume of

  ers of shallow water, describes a painfully poignant

  civil offi

  cials ( sokutai), consisting of a belted black

  encounter between the Akashi Lady and Genji’s robe, a crown-style courtier’s hat ( kanmuri), and a entourage at the Sumiyoshi Shrine. In the album

  wooden baton ( shaku). His high rank places him in

  painting, her miniature fi gure, barely visible in the

  an exalted group, the members of which are, like

  boat at the top of the painting, appears f ramed

  military offi

  cials of the court, allowed to wear a

  between the edge of the vessel and the bamboo

  sword, which here extends f rom his left side.

  blinds hanging f rom its wooden roof. She wears a

  The formality of Genji’s costume and the

  white robe and faces the direction of the shore, par-

  solemnity of his pose refl ect the awe in which the

  tially revealing her face and long tresses. A female

  Sumiyoshi deity was held but also underscore the

  attendant in a red robe with gold accents accompa-

  importance of its role throughout the tale. Just

  nies her, sitting outside the roofed shelter of the boat

  prior to his visit to the Shrine, Genji comes to the

  and facing her mistress. From this seaward vantage

  realization that his fate has been guided all along

  point, the Akashi Lady gazes across rippling blue

  by the gods of Sumiyoshi. They are the deities to

  waves to view something entirely unexpected — the

  whom the Akashi Novitiate has long prayed, and

  magnifi cent procession of Genji, newly elevated whom Genji entreated in his darkest hours amid the to the position of palace minister ( naidaijin), on

  storm at Suma. The catalyst for Genji’s realization

  his visit to Sumiyoshi. The spectacle gives her a

  is not only his dramatic change in political fortune

  glimpse of Genji’s glorious life at court, as she sees

  but also his recollection of a prophecy he received

  several men familiar f rom their time in exile, now<
br />
  in childhood. Genji was told that he would one day

  donning fi ne robes of various hues appropriate to

  their recent promotions. Locals have gathered for a

  glimpse of Genji, but the Akashi Lady, uninformed

  of his visit and unrecognized as his wife, can only

  lurk on the surrounding waters. Although she has

  just given birth to Genji’s daughter, she has not yet

  been brought to the city as he promised and must

  regard him f rom afar as if he were a mere stranger.

  A lengthy passage in the tale describes the spec-

  tacle of Genji at Sumiyoshi through the eyes of the

  Akashi Lady, which the painting manages to con-

  vey in detail. A row of dark green shore pines and

  a torii shrine gate mark the sacred precinct of the

  Sumiyoshi shrine. Genji occupies the center of the

  painting, processing directly toward the gate led by

  four page boys with hair tied up in loops, dressed

  identically in white pants with a red and gold stripe,

  and carrying bows and arrows. Their dark upper

  garments, with red undersleeves, are festooned with

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  father three children: a son who would become sov-

  and his loyal attendant Koremitsu that highlight

  ereign of the realm (Emperor Reizei), another who

  the debt owed to the Sumiyoshi gods. Koremitsu

  would reach the position of Chancellor (Yūgiri),

  had followed Genji into exile, leaving everything

  and a daughter who would bring him his great-

  behind in the capital to serve his lord in Suma and

  est glory by becoming an imperial consort, giving

  Akashi. Here he off ers a verse reminding Genji of

  birth to a crown prince, and thus making Genji the

  their time in isolation, a time he refers to as the

  grandfather of an emperor. In the Channel Markers

  “age of the gods,” suggesting their dependence

  chapter, when the Akashi Lady gives birth to Genji’s

  on the deity as well as the primeval, transcendent

  only biological daughter, Genji’s fate appears to be

  time evoked by the Sumiyoshi pines. Genji’s reply

  following the prophecy. Although the focus of the

  recalls the storms they endured while explaining

  painting seems to be on Genji and his entourage,

  his pilgrimage by asking rhetorically, “How could I

  the Akashi Lady hovers above the scene as if in rec-

  forsake the god now?” The calligraphy in the album

  ognition of her role in this predetermined series of

  highlights the incantatory power of the poem;

  events. The horizontal beams of the shrine gate are

  as if attempting to conjure the presence of the

  positioned as if to point upward in her direction, and

  Sumiyoshi deity, it begins in the upper right corner

  she in turn directs her gaze toward Genji, linking

  with darkly inked characters reading “Sumiyoshi

  the two characters and suggesting the intervention

  no” (

  ), while the word for “deity” appears at

  of the gods in this fateful relationship. Against this

  the top of the next line in the compound for “age

  backdrop of predestination, however, the author of

  of the gods” (kami yo

  ). The name is invoked

  the tale emphasizes the Akashi Lady’s painful long-

  again in the penultimate column of verse, where

  ing and humility, which become the twin hallmarks

  “sumiyoshi no kami” (

  ) constitutes a

  of her character.

  vertical column of kana that visually completes

  In place of the poetic exchange between Genji

  the shrine gate and marks the presence of the god,

  and the Akashi Lady that eventually occurs in this

  imbricating word and image into a powerful pre-

  chapter, the album includes two poems by Genji

  sentation of the deity.

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  Let me be the one,

  He recited this to himself as he

  Then, to worm my way in

  stepped down f rom the carriage.

  To this deep wormwood,

  Koremitsu walked in f ront, brushing

  That I may call and fi nd again

  away the dew with a riding crop

  The unchanged heart of the grove.

  as his lord entered. The drops of

  cranston, p. 785

  rain falling f rom the trees above felt

  like a cold autumn shower. “I have

  an umbrella.”

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  15

  A Ruined

  Villa of

  Tangled

  Gardens

  Yomogiu

  Tazunete mo

  Ware koso towame

  Michi mo naku

  Fukaki yomogi no

  Moto no kokoro o

  to hitorigochite nao oritamaeba,

  onsaki no tsuyu o muma no buchi

  shite haraitsutsu iretatematsuru. Ama

  sosogi mo, nao aki no shigure mekite

  uchisosogeba, “Mikasa saburau.”

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  The detailed description of the physical appearance

  of Suetsumuhana earlier in the tale fi nds a coun-

  terpart in several passages in Chapter Fifteen that

  vividly evoke the ruinous state of disrepair into

  which the lady’s estate has fallen during Genji’s

  exile. The princess’s residence, inherited f rom her

  deceased father, the Hitachi Prince, is described as

  completely dilapidated: wooden roof planks over

  the servants’ quarters have fallen away, while the

  garden outside has become wild and overgrown.

  Teeming vines threaten to overcome the house, and

  waist-high satin-tail grasses and tangles of mugwort,

  or “wormwood” ( yomogi), obscure any sign of the

  paths and gardens that were once artfully main-

  tained. Amid this dereliction, markers of order and

  propriety are transgressed; parts of the earthen wall

  surrounding the property have crumbled, allowing

  Hanachirusato, but fate intervenes when along the

  horses and oxen to trample through the garden way he notices a distinctive grove of trees and is and graze. The lack of human activity has embold-struck by the scent of wisteria fl owers, which he sees

  ened foxes and screech owls as well as, the narrator

  hanging f rom a large pine. The wisteria-wrapped

  tells us, tree spirits, which roam the grounds. This

&n
bsp; pine, a long-standing auspicious motif associated

  f rightening, gothic description is also paired with

  with regal lineages, seems to have a magical eff ect on

  imagery that evokes the hermitage of the classic

  Genji and spurs him into action. Koremitsu confi rms

  Chinese poet-scholar, through allusion to poems that this is indeed the Hitachi Villa, unrecognizable by Bai Juyi and Du Fu (712–770). Other descriptive

  as it is, and Genji alights f rom his carriage to venture

  phrases make the house and gardens metaphors into the dense thicket. Meanwhile, Suetsumuhana for the abandoned, aging woman. Indeed, as the

  experiences her own magical intervention when a

  younger attendants begin to depart, seeing no hope

  daytime slumber brings a dream of her father, which

  of Genji’s return, Suetsumuhana is left alone with

  inspires her to have her surroundings cleaned, and

  a handful of women described as ancient, gravelly

  to soliloquize about the absence of her father:

  voiced, and unkempt. In contrast to the house’s wild

  Naki hito o

  Sleeves of my yearning

  exterior, however, there are hints of lost grandeur

  Kouru tamoto no

  For the one who is no more

  inside, in the furnishings and valuable possessions

  Hima naki ni

  Have no time to dry,

  handed down f rom the Hitachi Prince, but these

  Aretaru noki no

  And now are added the drippings

  too are described as dusty and old, and associate the

  Shizuku sae sou

  That leak f rom my broken eaves.

  Princess by extension with musty obsolescence. And

  cranston, p. 785

  yet through a combination of obstinacy, pride, and

  loyalty to her father, the Princess perseveres against

  As if in response, Genji recites to himself his

  a torrent of mounting pressure to abandon her own poem as he emerges f rom his carriage, the home. The situation reaches a nadir when even her

  verse inscribed on the album leaf. The character

  longtime attendant Jijū leaves, and Suetsumuhana

  for “wormwood” ( yomogi

  ) occupies the center

  spends a lonely winter and spring enduring months

  of the green colored poetry sheet, complement-

  alone in a gloomy house.

 

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