The Tale of Genji- A Visual Companion

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The Tale of Genji- A Visual Companion Page 14

by Melissa McCormick


  ing the image of the overgrown garden depicted in

  In early summer, Genji decides to visit the the painting to its left. Genji makes his way toward woman at the “village of scattering blossoms,” the house, its dilapidation conveyed by the exposed 82 | The Tale of Genji

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  wattle of its white plastered wall, while Koremitsu

  the Princess’s current squalor into splendor, the

  clears away the dew-drenched grasses for his lord.

  ladies-in-waiting “looked up to the sky, and facing

  Clumps of green, weed-like plants cover the ground

  in the direction of Genji’s residence, off ered joyful

  while fl ecks of silver on the painting simulate the

  prayers of thankgivings” (Washburn, p. 354), as if in

  glistening eff ect of the dew said to drench the cuff s

  gratitude to a Buddha or deity.

  of the men’s trousers. A slender tree f rames the

  Suetsumuhana, on the other hand, is presented

  trio on the left edge of the composition, but con-

  as an anti-Buddhist fi gure, a woman who spurns

  spicuously absent is the intertwined wisteria and

  Buddhist practice and the chanting of sutras, who

  pine found in nearly every rendition of this popu-

  off ers an ironic retort when she hears Genji cele-

  lar scene, including the oldest extant version in the

  brated in Buddhistic terms, and who perhaps puts

  twelfth-century Genji Scrolls.

  more faith in the rightness of the lifestyle of a

  The umbrella does call to mind, however, the

  Confucian Chinese recluse than that of a Buddhist

  same motif found in the Genji Scrolls version of

  renunciate. Suetsumuhana thus seems particularly

  this scene, perhaps evoking the parasol that hovers

  unredeemable; as observed earlier, Chapter Six even

  above the Buddha in traditional painting and sculp-

  described her in inhuman terms, with a nose as long

  ture. While Genji is likened to a Buddha elsewhere

  and deformed as the Bodhisattva Fugen’s elephant

  in the tale, Misumi Yōichi has argued that this chap-

  mount. In much the same way that the Buddha’s

  ter in particular structures its events according to a

  compassion has the capacity to redeem even the

  story of redemption in which Genji’s eventual res-

  nonhuman, Genji’s ability to accept Suetsumuhana

  cue of Suetsumuhana is akin to Buddhist salvation.

  despite her appearance contains shades of bodhi-

  Genji is said to appear “unexpectedly, like a god or

  sattva-like mercy. As expressed in Genji’s poem, he

  the Buddha,” to bestow his gracious attention on

  sees within Suetsumuhana the virtue of her devoted,

  the Princess, and is later described as a bosatsu, and

  “unchanged heart” ( moto no kokoro), even though

  “the very incarnation of the Buddha,” leaving peo-

  the (religious) “path may be hidden” ( michi mo naku).

  ple to wonder how “he came to be born into this

  He thus spreads his radiance like the Buddha, whose

  world of corruption.” Meanwhile, the “Rite of the

  indiscriminate compassion, the Lotus Sutra says,

  Eight Lectures” commissioned by Genji takes place

  touches all like the spring rain. In this way, Murasaki

  at his residence, which is said to “equal in every

  Shikibu frames Genji’s relationship with the Hitachi

  way the sublime beauty ( shōgon) of the Pure Land

  Princess in terms of a central motif and belief found

  of Supreme Bliss ( gokuraku jōdo).” And when Genji

  in Buddhist literature, and so hints at layers of possible

  begins his acts of compassion, which will transform

  meanings behind the tale’s romantic redemptions.

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  It was the end of the ninth month,

  past the barrier gate, they looked

  and the autumn foliage was a blaze

  ever so appealing in the harmonious

  of color. Clumps of grass withered

  embroidery and resist dyed cloth

  by the f rost — some darker in hue,

  of their colorful robes.

  some lighter — stretched out delight-

  washburn, p. 357, modified

  fully all around as far as the eye

  could see. As the fi gures in their

  traveling outfi ts came streaming

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  16

  The Barrier

  Gate

  Sekiya

  Nagatsuki tsugomori nareba,

  momiji no iroiro kokimaze,

  shimogare no kusa muramura

  okashiu miewataru ni, Sekiya yori

  sato kuzureidetaru tabisugatadomo

  no, iroiro no ao no tsukizukishiki

  nuimono, kukurizome no sama mo

  saru kata ni okashiu miyu.

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  Twelve years have passed since the seventeen-year-old

  Genji’s aff air with the married woman Utsusemi, his

  “lady of the discarded locust shell.” In Chapter Sixteen

  they happen upon each other again, as their traveling

  processions pass, heading in diff erent directions, the

  gatehouse ( sekiya) at Ōsaka, the famous place in Ōmi

  Province the name of which literally means the “slope

  of meeting” ( ausaka). Having accompanied her hus-

  band, now the Governor of Hitachi Province, to his

  post in the eastern provinces, Utsusemi is returning

  to the capital after a four-year absence and is making

  her way westward. Her party has heard that Genji

  will pass through the same barrier gate on a pilgrim-

  The album’s calligraphy is brushed on crimson

  age to the temple of Ishiyamadera, and they cede the

  colored paper as if to suit the autumnal “ninth

  busy road to him, taking seats along the embank-

  month” ( nagatsuki), a word that is featured in the

  ment. Their resting carriages are depicted with their

  text and highlighted by its central location on the

  shafts touching the ground, a thick, red rope coiled

  sheet, complementing the tinted fall leaves and red

  around the ends of one connoting unhitched oxen.

  motifs in the adjacent painting. The text also focuses

  The tale describes a substantial group of ten women’s

  on the embroidered and dyed travel robes ( tabi

  carriages, and in the album the diagonal placement

  sugata), which in this painting are worn by members

&
nbsp; of the vehicles and the obfuscating gold clouds imply

  of Utsusemi’s entourage. Rather than Heian-period

  a larger retinue beyond the border of the picture.

  robes, however, Mitsunobu painted the fabrics of

  Members of the traveling party seated on the slope

  his day, refl ecting the range of patterns and dye-

  include two women with their white, conical travel

  ing techniques popular at the time of the album’s

  hats on the ground beside them as they watch the

  creation in the early sixteenth century. The robes

  procession of Genji’s carriages below.

  include those with a crosshatched pattern in blue

  and white, or red and brown, and a resist-dyed robe

  of blue triangles. One man, seated between the two

  parked carriages, wears a light blue robe decorated

  with black and white carriage wheels. The garment

  on the woman behind him is equally striking, with

  alternating bands of red and brown, a diff erent pat-

  tern and color on each shoulder. Floral roundels of

  diff ering sizes appear within the bands, with traces

  of a purplish color delineating the center and petals

  of the blossoms. Conspicuous garments appear on

  women below this couple as well. One worn by a

  fi gure with a light blue cloth draped across her chest

  bears a complicated pattern of painted fl owers and

  leaves recalling the decorative technique known as

  “fl owers at the crossroads” ( tsujigahana). The robe

  on the other, on the far right, is decorated with a stri-

  ated red ground on the right shoulder and a band of

  green with minute brown strokes. This last woman

  is the only one in the group with features typical of

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  aristocratic fi gures in Mitsunobu’s paintings, and

  although custom dictates that Utsusemi not emerge

  f rom her carriage, it is tempting to interpret her as a

  stand-in for Genji’s regretful paramour. Her partic-

  ularly intense focus on the spectacle below evokes a

  poem composed by Utsusemi to herself at precisely

  this moment:

  Yuku to ku to

  Going and coming

  Sekitomegataki

  There has been no barrier

  Namida o ya

  For these my tears;

  Taenu Shimizu to

  Do others look upon them

  Hito wa miruramu

  As water f rom fl owing wells?

  cranston, p. 786

  The sense of movement within this poem — the back

  sister to Hitachi rather than loyally following Genji

  and forth through the barrier gate, the downward

  into exile, as others had done, who at this point in

  torrent of the woman’s tears — resembles the visual

  the story are being rewarded.

  dynamics of the painting, with its zigzagging com-

  Taken together, Chapter Sixteen, and Fifteen

  position and precipitous diagonal leading the eye to

  before it, starkly juxtapose the life choices of Utsu-

  the focal point of the scene: Genji’s interaction with

  semi and Suetsumuhana. Sakamoto Tomonobu has

  Utsusemi’s younger brother Kogimi.

  suggested that Utsusemi’s father, a Middle Counselor

  Genji’s carriage has just passed through the of high rank, was likely a son of the emperor who barrier gate, which is rendered with unique detail,

  reigned before Genji’s father. Although Utsusemi is

  including the wheel at its base that allows it to swing

  presented as a woman of middle rank, as she has

  open. Only the rear of the carriage is visible, and

  married a provincial governor, her bloodline could

  there Genji leans out f rom behind the hanging be identical to that of Suetsumuhana, whose father, blinds to hand a message to Kogimi. The young

  Prince Hitachi, was a son of the same emperor.

  boy who arranged his sister’s liaison with Genji Both women thus exemplify contrasting paths; one in Chapters Two and Three, and who became the

  chose immediate stability, while the other refused to

  nobleman’s nocturnal companion when Genji’s settle and instead decided to wait for Genji. Utsuse-overtures to his sister failed, is now an Assistant

  mi’s pangs of regret over a lowering marriage to an

  Commander in the Right Gate Guard. Despite the

  uncouth man become understandable if we con-

  damage to the white pigment of his face, his elegant

  sider that her family pedigree would have enabled

  features are still discernible, and his importance in

  her to enter court service or to become Genji’s wife.

  the scene is marked by his full and stately represen-

  Her decisions continue to haunt her later on in the

  tation in courtly hat, pink and red robe, pantaloons,

  chapter when her husband’s death brings untold

  and black lacquered slippers, which stand out amid

  “hardships,” implying acts of sexual aggression

  the plain robes of Genji’s retainers. Kogimi’s prom-

  by her dead husband’s son. Her only option is to

  inence suggests that the drama of this scene occurs

  become a nun, which she does by the end of the

  not only between Genji and Utsusemi but also chapter, but her relationship with Genji continues between these two men, whose relationship is not

  when she joins Suetsumuhana under Genji’s roof in

  without tension. The young man accompanied his

  Chapter Twenty-Three.

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  Narihira [Zai chūjō]’s fame cannot

  be sullied,” argued Fujitsubo,

  composing:

  To the casual eye

  The bay with its burden of seaweed

  May seem an old story,

  Yet shall we so easily scuttle

  The Ise fi sher’s ancient fame?

  cranston, pp. 789–90

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  17

  A Contest

  of

  Illustrations

  Eawase

  “Zaigochūjō no na o ba ekutasaji”

  to notamawasete, Miya,

  Mirume koso

  Ura furinurame

  Toshi henishi

  Iseo no ama no

  Na o ya shizumen

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  The “contest of illustrations” in Chapter Seventeen

  pulls a long rake across the space in the foreground,

  consists of two matches: one among the ladies-in-

  while behind him distinctive shore pines and the

  waiting at the palace,
presided over by Fujitsubo, and

  gray roofs of distant huts peek out between blue

  a more formal event before Emperor Reizei. The

  horizontal mist bands. The motifs in this “paint-

  matches take place after Tō no Chūjō commissions

  ing-within-a-painting” correspond to poetic tropes

  modish new narrative illustrations for his daughter,

  associated with the Suma shore that predate The Tale

  the new Kokiden Consort, in order to entice young

  of Genji: fi sherfolk ( ama), seaweed ( mirume, ukime, Emperor Reizei—who is fascinated with tales and

  moshio), salt burning and brine ( shio), and pines

  paintings. Genji and Fujitsubo, who are supporting

  ( matsu) on the bay ( ura). These same word-motifs

  the Umetsubo Consort (daughter of the deceased

  saturate the numerous poems f rom the Suma chap-

  Lady Rokujō) and aim to help her win the favor of

  ter composed by Genji and his women back in the

  Reizei , their secret son, soon learn of Tō no Chūjō’s

  capital, many of them functioning as homophones

  scheme and set out to thwart it. Genji inspects his

  for expressions of isolation, passionate longing, and

  collection of illustrated scrolls in order to supply the

  regret. This scroll surely represents one of the picto-

  Umetsubo Consort with her own arsenal of amus-

  rial diaries that Genji made during his exile at Suma.

  ing tales, and he consults Murasaki in the process.

  Genji’s sketches are singled out for the highest

  The scene in the album depicts Genji and praise by the narrator; they not only capture picto-Murasaki examining his library for this purpose,

  rially the desolate and exotic landscape of his place

  having pulled several scrolls f rom the black lac-

  of exile but also his innermost thoughts through

  quered box in the foreground, which is decorated

  the poems in kana that are interspersed among the

  with a gold butterfl y design and fi lled with numer-

  pictures. As Ii Haruki has discussed, Genji created

  ous works yet to be unrolled. Genji occupies the

  the scrolls originally with the intention of one day

  center of the composition, a gold cloud hovering

  showing them to Murasaki, envisioning her add-

  overhead emphasizing his presence, as he contem-

  ing her own poems to his, and deliberately leaving

 

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