The Tale of Genji- A Visual Companion

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The Tale of Genji- A Visual Companion Page 26

by Melissa McCormick


  to remain in her thoughts this way is in keeping with

  cians situated in the bottom third of the painting.

  the description of their tension-fi lled relationship, in

  Through raised bamboo blinds, we see the newly

  which Genji insists on professing his attraction to his

  created moor, full of autumn grasses and fl owers,

  young tonsured wife. The elaborate transformation

  which are home to the bell crickets whose chirping

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  Just as the gathering is at its peak, a message

  f rom retired Emperor Reizei arrives with a poem

  that laments Genji’s absence on this moonlit night:

  Kumo no ue o

  Once above the clouds,

  Kakehanaretaru

  Now my dwelling is far off ,

  Sumika ni mo

  But even this abode

  Monowasure senu

  Receives unforgotten the splendor

  Aki no yo no tsuki

  Of the moon on an autumn night.

  cranston, p. 880

  It is the third time Reizei has written to his father

  wishing to be with him. The previous instances

  were in Chapter Eighteen of the album, where

  Genji was shown occupied with his men in Katsura,

  and in Chapter Twenty-Nine, where Genji decides

  is said to mingle with the music. Visible beyond the

  against participating in Reizei’s royal excursion.

  blinds are the veranda, a walkway, and the adjacent

  The single poem included in the album’s calligra-

  wing of the southeastern residence, perhaps an allu-

  phy for this chapter is Genji’s response to the above

  sion to the hidden presence of the Third Princess.

  poem in which he honors Reizei’s reign and mod-

  She is said to be just behind a blind, within earshot

  estly alludes to his own waning glory, but instead of

  of Genji’s words and the musical concert put on in

  avoiding an encounter with his son this time, Genji

  her name. Only the koto is mentioned in this passage

  subsequently makes an impromptu visit, taking

  in the tale, but the album leaf depicts a variety of

  along with him the musical entourage depicted in

  instruments in detail, beginning with the striking

  the painting.

  koto in Genji’s lap. It has thirteen golden strings tied

  Only after Genji achieves the status of Retired

  and looped at the end, ten wooden bridges, and a

  Emperor (Chapter Thirty-Three) does the narrative

  pattern to suggest the grain of its paulownia wood.

  describe him visiting his son, the Emperor. To do so

  Yūgiri is most likely the fi gure on the transverse fl ute

  beforehand would have necessitated placing Genji in

  ( yokobue), while one of Tō no Chūjō’s sons plays the

  an inferior position. Instead, the one grand imperial

  small oboe ( hichiriki). On the far left a fi gure plays the

  visitation in the tale, which takes place in Chapter

  mouth organ ( shō), consisting of seventeen vertical

  Thirty-Three, presents Retired Emperor Suzaku and

  bamboo pipes, which rounds out the wind instru-

  Emperor Reizei paying Genji the highest show of

  ments. To Genji’s left, a fi gure, most likely his half

  respect by visiting him at the Rokujō Estate. When

  brother Sochimomiya (Prince Hotaru), strums with

  Genji fi nally does visit Reizei in the scene following

  his plectrum a four-stringed biwa with a painting of

  the one depicted in this album painting, the visit is

  a mountain landscape and gold clouds on its f ront.

  marked by informality; the men do not wear formal

  The inclusion of so many instruments is unique

  cloaks, but simply add trains to their regular robes,

  among renditions of this scene, and it complements

  as if Murasaki Shikibu is wary of presenting Genji,

  the emphasis on sound in this short chapter, f rom the

  the symbolic Retired Emperor, as beneath his son.

  intoning of sutras, to the chirping of crickets, to the

  The meeting on this moonlit night will in fact be the

  courtly music.

  last one between Genji and Reizei.

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  As the cold wintry wind blew, deer

  golden stalks of grain, calling out

  were standing stock-still near the

  plaintively for his mate.

  brushwood fence and would not

  washburn, p. 832, modified

  scare despite the sharp reports of

  wooden clappers intended to drive

  them away f rom the fi elds. A stag

  was belling in a rice fi eld amidst dark

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  39

  Evening

  Mist

  Yūgiri

  Kogarashi no fukimayoitaru ni,

  shika wa tada magaki no moto

  ni tatazumite, yamada no hita

  ni mo odorokazu, iro koki ine

  domo no naka ni majirite naku

  mo urēgao nari.

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  Yūgiri’s romantic pursuit of Kashiwagi’s widow, of the rice fi elds ( ine) where the deer ( shika) stand Ochiba, Suzaku’s Second Princess, starts up again

  “stock-still.” The rice stalks are depicted with a com-

  in Chapter Thirty-Nine, and the location of action

  bination of red and brown pigments to delineate the

  shifts to the village of Ono, where the Princess and

  long stems of the grasses and the oblong spikelets

  her mother are now residing. Ochiba’s mother has

  containing their grains, all against a yellow ground

  been suff ering f rom an illness that seems attribut-

  that lends the entire image a subtle glow. The album

  able to a malignant spirit and has sought the help of

  text describes the deer as indiff erent to the sound

  a priest f rom Mount Hiei to perform healing rites

  of clappers ( hita), not depicted in the image, but

  and incantations. The villa at Ono, at the base of the

  that would have been suspended on strings across

  famous mountain, is remote for Yūgiri, but he visits

  the fi elds and sounded to scare them off . Instead,

  several times in this chapter, providing the pretense

  the stag and doe seem preoccupied, looking “for-

  for passages dense with descriptions of desolate lorn” ( urēgao) as described in the album excerpt. In autumn scenery and allusions to classical poetry.

  a subsequent poem (quoting K
okinshū 582 and 505)

  His character’s nickname derives f rom the thick to Ochiba’s lady-in-waiting, Yūgiri likens himself to

  “evening mist” ( yūgiri) that blankets the Ono foot-

  the stag, whose call in Heian poetry is a metaphor

  hills, which he uses in this chapter as an excuse to

  for the plaintive cries of a lover:

  stay the night at the villa and to declare his roman-

  Sato tōmi

  Far f rom the homes of men,

  tic intentions to Ochiba. Refl ecting this allusiveness,

  Ono no shinohara

  Over the Ono bamboo fi elds,

  the painting in the album is like a primer of autum-

  Wakete kite

  I have made my way,

  nal poetic motifs, visualizing several keywords Ware mo shika koso For I too, O dear one, thus found in the accompanying prose excerpt. The cal-

  Koe mo oshimane

  Cannot restrain my call.

  ligraphic text (on red paper that complements the

  cranston, p. 885

  autumn colors) begins with the word for “chilly

  wind” ( kogarashi), the wind that rustles through the

  By the time of the visit depicted in the painting,

  remaining leaves on the trees, harbinger of the win-

  Ochiba’s mother has passed away and all at the

  ter to come. The brushwood fence ( magaki), which

  house are grieving, which prompts the attendant

  zigzags through the center of the image, signals

  to reply on her lady’s behalf with a poem about

  the rusticity of the site and marks the boundary

  the Princess’s deep gray “mourning robes” ( fujig-

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  oromo). The word is evocative of the “mistfl ower”

  to fi gures like the hirsute Blackbeard, the husband

  ( fujibakama), which can be seen in the image grow-

  of Tamakazura we met in Chapter Thirty-One. In

  ing around the veranda. Also growing at the foot

  Yūgiri’s case, his identity as a student of Chinese

  of the house are blue autumn bellfl owers, gentians

  learning and court bureaucracy aligned him with

  ( rindō), which were mentioned in Sei Shōnagon’s

  ideas of conventional masculinity, and it distanced

  Pillow Book, for the way their “brilliant color perse-

  him from the gender ideal achieved by his father.

  veres when the other fl owers have withered in the

  Genji’s ability to transcend the societal boundaries

  autumn f rost.” Besides the cry of the deer, motifs in

  associated with masculinity and femininity, and to

  the album painting help us imagine the other sounds

  fi gure in the romantic imaginations of both men

  mentioned in the tale, such as the faint chirping of

  and women, set him apart with a spiritually suf-

  the crickets f rom beneath the clumps of grass and

  fused physicality reserved for those in the imperial

  the roar of a waterfall that pierces the silence, loud

  line. Yūgiri, though admired, and called handsome

  enough to “bring anyone lost in sorrowful thoughts

  by many an onlooker, never exuded such gender-am-

  back to themselves” (Washburn p. 833).

  biguous radiance until now. The characterization

  Standing on the narrow veranda of Ochiba’s refl ects Yūgiri’s transition to a romantic protago-villa, Yūgiri is conspicuously large as he gazes out

  nist in this chapter, in pursuit of a Princess, as Genji

  over the landscape. The fence and deer are within

  prepares to exit the narrative. And yet his attempts

  Yūgiri’s fi eld of vision, but their small scale suggests

  to emulate the polygamous behavior of his father

  that they stand at some distance from the villa. The

  rarely succeed, and if they do, result in complica-

  landscape representation is not contiguous but struc-

  tions. Playing out simultaneously with his pursuit

  tured according to poetic and semantic emphases.

  of Ochiba is an ongoing domestic drama occurring

  The gold clouds, which compartmentalize the com-

  with his primary wife, Kumoinokari. As his love and

  position, provide cover for spatial elisions between

  companion since childhood, daughter of the pow-

  the motifs, while the image of the sun helps unify

  erful Tō no Chūjō, and mother to seven of Yūgiri’s

  the composition. It is a golden orb outlined in a circle

  twelve children, Kumoinokari speaks her mind and

  of red pigment to indicate twilight ( yūhi), which casts

  rebels against her husband’s desire for another wife.

  a warm glow over the entire golden-toned painting.

  To be clear, Yūgiri also has six children by a daughter

  But while the poignant autumnal atmosphere is pre-

  of Koremitsu, Genji’s loyal retainer. But as a woman

  sented from Yūgiri’s point of view in the painting,

  of lower status, she posed no existential threat to

  the perspective in the tale suddenly shifts to that of

  Kumoinokari. In her opposition to Yūgiri’s marriage

  the women inside the residence. They watch Yūgiri

  to Ochiba, Kumoinokari off ers the most fully artic-

  on the veranda as he nonchalantly raises a fan to his

  ulated objection to polygamy in the tale. Ochiba’s

  face to shade his eyes from the rays of the setting

  own sincere attempts to reject Yūgiri’s advances epit-

  sun. He gazes in the direction of the sun, moving

  omize how the relationships in this chapter are far

  the fan with a fl ourish in such a way that it does not

  from any romantic ideal. Even Murasaki makes an

  hide him but, as in the painting, shows off his face.

  appearance and gives voice to the plight of women

  To the ladies observing inside, the gesture recalls

  while in conversation with Genji about Ochiba’s dif-

  that of a woman coyly attempting to conceal herself.

  fi cult situation as a vulnerable widow. By the end of

  They concede, however, that even a woman may not

  Chapter Thirty-Nine, Yūgiri has relocated Ochiba to

  have executed the gesture so well. The painting thus

  the capital, but his relationship with Kumoinokari is

  captures a moment of rare stylishness for the usu-

  on the brink of dissolution. Yūgiri never comfortably

  ally stilted Yūgiri, as he strikes a pose, framed by the

  occupies the persona of his father and fails to pro-

  wooden doors, standing tall in his courtier’s costume.

  duce the kind of amity between his own wives and

  In previous chapters Yūgiri had been character-

  lovers that apparently existed between the women at

  ized as “masculine” ( ooshi), an adjective also applied

  Genji’s Rokujō estate.

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  To cut fi rewood —r />
  Only today has it begun,

  Your new resolve,

  And the Dharma is distant

  That we pray for in this world.

  cranston, p. 890

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  40

  Rites of the

  Sacred Law

  Minori

  Takigi koru

  Omoi wa kyō o

  Hajime nite

  Kono yo ni negau

  Nori zo harukeki

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  It is spring and the cherry blossoms are at their peak

  Inspired by the line, Murasaki sends a poem to the

  at the start of Chapter Forty, a chapter famous for

  Akashi Lady, also in attendance at the event:

  recounting the death of Lady Murasaki. The setting

  Oshikaranu

  Nothing to regret

  is the Nijō villa, the residence Murasaki considers to

  Kono mi nagara mo I am only this, and this

  be her true home, and where she was last seen in the

  Kagiri tote

  Must reach an end;

  album with Genji, gazing on the paradisal lotus blos-

  Takigi tsukinan

  And yet there is a sadness when

  soms in the garden pond (Chapter Thirty-Five). She

  Koto no kanashisa

  The fi rewood at last burns out.

  narrowly escapes death in that chapter and lives on

  cranston, p. 890

  to raise two of the Akashi daughter’s children, but

  she never fully recovers. Realizing that her illness

  Murasaki’s poignant verse puts herself in the posi-

  has advanced and that her life is actually drawing

  tion of the Buddha-king subservient to the Dharma;

  to a close, she asks again to receive the full tonsure

  her good works and dedications of the Lotus Sutra,

  of a nun that she has long desired in order to ease

  akin to gathering fi rewood, have now sadly come to

  her way in the afterlife, but Genji refuses. She takes

 

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