21. The god of the Kazuraki Mountains, ordered by a wizard to build a stone bridge from one mountain range to another, refused to work in daylight and so never quite finished.
22. Tō no Chūjō.
23. They talk to their mistress as equals, but the children sometimes begin to address her in honorific language.
24. Dressed so as to conceal his rank, and in this case apparently also his face.
25. In the myth of Mount Miwa, for example, a young woman is visited every night by an invisible lover. At last she ties a thread to his clothing, follows it, and finds that he is the serpent deity of the mountain.
26. The great full moon night of the year. In the lunar calendar this date is in autumn.
27. Perhaps the speaker would normally be buying rice in the country to sell in town.
28. It is probably polishing rice.
29. These sounds, unlike the earlier noises, are poetically evocative. Shirotae no (“snowy”) is a noble epithet for koromo (“robe”). The sound of a robe being beaten on a fulling block (kinuta), to clean it and restore its luster, meant autumn and the waning of the year, and perhaps a woman under the moon calling to her lost love; the motif is originally Chinese. The cries of migrating geese, too, told of autumn and farewell.
30. He is “touching his forehead to the ground,” that is, doing repeated, full-length prostrations. The pilgrimage to Mitake (now Sanjō-ga-take, 5,676 feet, in the Ōmine range) required strict purification and attracted both nobles and commoners. The mountain was then particularly sacred to Miroku, the future Buddha.
31. Namo tōrai dōshi, the invocation to Miroku, who will descend into a transfigured world many eons from now. The pilgrim prayed to be born into his age and to hear his teaching.
32. Excessively obvious allusions to “The Song of Unending Sorrow,” where, in the Hall of Long Life, the lovers swear that in the hereafter they will be like trees with shared branches or birds that share a wing.
33. Reminiscent of Kawara no In (“Riverside”), built by Minamoto no Tōru (822–95) and later imperial property. Kawara no In was the scene of a famous ghost story, and its location matches the tale's description.
34. The “mountains' rim” (where the moon sets) is Genji; the moon is the woman, who does not know how far Genji's intentions toward her go.
35. Around the veranda: a makeshift arrangement, since carriage shafts normally rested on a “shaft bench” (shiji).
36. The steward ranks too low to address Genji directly; his earlier speech, too, must be indirect.
37. In Man'yōshū 4482, by Umanofuhito Kunihito, the poet assures his lady that he will love her even if the Okinaga River stops flowing. This name, which can be taken to mean “long breath,” is linked in the poem to the grebe (nio), which holds its breath to feed underwater.
38. Genji plays at being afraid that she is a fox.
39. Wakan rōei shū 722 (also Shinkokinshū 1703), a reply to a gentleman's advances: “No home have I of my own, for I, a diver's daughter, live beside white-breaking waves upon the ocean shore.”
40. Genji's reply acknowledges “I am a diver's daughter” with a wordplay on warekara: “my fault” but also the name of a creature alleged to live in seaweed.
41. Those between the aisle and the veranda.
42. A youth described earlier as “a single page whose face those in the house could not know.”
43. To repel the baleful spirit.
44. An all-purpose warning cry.
45. At the hour of the Boar (circa 9 P.M.), the privy gentlemen, reporting for duty in the privy chamber, announced their names to the official in charge. Then the guards reporting for the watch likewise announced their names.
46. To conceal himself and the lady from the man with the light.
47. As an exorcist.
48. In legend the Chancellor Tadahira was passing the Emperor's seat in the Shishinden late one night when a demon seized the tip of his scabbard and threatened him. Tadahira drew his sword and cried, “How dare you interfere with His Majesty's emissary?” The demon fled.
49. He still seems to believe that she is somehow alive.
50. Genji, Ukon, and the lady seem to be in the aisle with a folding screen between them and the chamber.
51. Mount Hiei.
52. The legs of the gathered trousers were usually tied at the ankles with a cord, but for ease of movement Koremitsu brings the cord up to just below his knees.
53. He has accepted the inconvenience of contact with death and the embarrassment of being seen to walk when a man of his standing should ride.
54. Genji's brothers-in-law.
55. Genji is in the chamber, where the blinds are still down. Tō no Chūjō, if Genji had allowed him to sit, would have incurred the same pollution (from contact with death) as Genji, and he would have passed it on to his family, the palace, and so on.
56. This (fictitious) death means that both Genji and the household are defiled. Genji must stay at home in a sort of quarantine for thirty days until halfway through the ninth month, one particularly busy with Shinto rites. Moreover, the imperial envoy to an important rite at Ise (the Kanname-sai) left on the eleventh of the month, and for the occasion Buddhist priests and persons in mourning were banned from the palace.
57. Kurodo no Ben, a younger brother of Tō no Chūjō. Genji may suspect Tō no Chūjō, who does not believe him, and want to make sure that his message gets through properly.
58. For a funeral, according to the almanac.
59. A gentlewoman, probably Koremitsu's sister.
60. A moon two days past the full.
61. The runners who go before him with torches.
62. Genji is riding south down the Kamo River, bound for the southern end of the Eastern Hills. In the distance, to his left (eastward), he sees the burning ground of Toribeno, where Yūgao will be cremated.
63. The nenbutsu, the formula for calling the name of Amida, was usually voiced, but not for a funeral. The Buddha Amida welcomes souls into his paradise.
64. Away from the body, which has been laid out for the wake.
65. “Dew” means tears.
66. Koremitsu can probably still see Kiyomizudera to the east. The temple is dedicated to a form of Kannon, the bodhisattva of compassion and a savior from peril.
67. The buddhas (hotoke) invoked by Genji could be one or many. He, too, may have the Kannon of Kiyomizu in mind.
68. She would normally have worn light gray, but her intimacy with Yūgao called for a darker shade.
69. Rites to guide the soul toward a fortunate rebirth were held every seven days during the first forty-nine days after death and at widening intervals thereafter. New paintings of the Buddhist divinities involved were made for each service during the initial forty-nine-day period.
70. Sanmi no Chūjō. He had held the third court rank (sanmi) and the office of Captain in the Palace Guards. This combination was unusual because a Captain normally held only the fourth rank. Still, since a man of the third rank was a senior noble, Yūgao had in theory been born into the upper class discussed by the young men on that rainy night.
71. A Lieutenant in the Palace Guards. He appears briefly with this title in “The Paulownia Pavilion”
72. Tō no Chūjō explains in “The Broom Tree” that these were sent to her by his wife (Shi no Kimi), the fourth daughter of the Minister of the Right, who still lives in her father's residence.
73. Probably a “great obstacle” (ōfutagari) resulting from the movements of a deity known as Taishōgun Maō Tennō.
74. From a poem by Bai Juyi on the grief of a wife who beats a fulling block while longing for her absent husband (Hakushi monjū 1287).
75. Shūishū 894, a reproach to a cruel lover: “Not you, who claim to be suffering so, but I am the one who now has nothing to live for.”
76. He was presumably surprised to find that he was not his wife's first lover.
77. The “little knot around the reed” is the lovers' si
ngle night together, and it may also allude to the knot of the girl's trouser cord, seen in the lamplight. From this poem comes her traditional name of Nokiba no Ogi (“reed by the eaves”).
78. “I was glad to receive your message after so long a silence, but it cannot relieve my sadness, especially now that I am married and no longer my own mistress.”
79. After Yūgao's death.
80. Hokkedō, dedicated to rites centered on the all-important Lotus Sutra.
81. Ganmon, a formal document in Chinese, normally composed by a specialist.
82. It was customary to offer clothing and other belongings of the deceased to the temple, but since at her death she had nothing but what she wore, Genji had had a new set of clothes made as an offering.
83. For the first forty-nine days the spirit wandered in a “transitional state” (chūu), then went to rebirth according to its karma. “What path” means which of the six realms of transmigration: the realms of celestial beings, humans, warring demons, beasts, starving ghosts, or hell.
84. Earlier described as the wife of one Honorary Deputy Governor.
85. Variously colored cloth streamers (nusa) to offer the gods of the road (sae no kami), who protect travelers.
86. Utsusemi.
5: WAKAMURASAKI
1. “Spells” (majinai) are healing magic performed by specialists from the Office of Medicine; “healing rites” (kaji) are Buddhist rites done by monks.
2. Roughly early May in the solar calendar.
3. Slips of paper inscribed with the Sanskrit seed syllables of the appropriate deities.
4. An ecclestiastic of high rank and a nobleman himself, hence not someone by whom Genji would wish to be seen improperly dressed. The text avoids naming him.
5. They seem to be placing holy water (aka) on a simple offering shelf (akadana), which would normally have stood just beyond the veranda of the house. The “flowers” are probably the customary star anise (shikimi).
6. Probably Mount Asama, also in central Honshu.
7. He is a Novice (Nyūdō): someone who has taken preliminary vows, wears Buddhist robes, and leads a life of religious devotion at home.
8. He had resigned a lower-fourth-rank post to take up one rated at upper fifth.
9. For rebirth in the paradise of the Buddha Amida.
10. The fifth rank, lower grade. In the “Suma” chapter he appears as Yoshikiyo.
11. Genji's remark plays, as do many poems, on the syllables mirume, which refer both to seaweed and to a lovers' meeting. The girl's fate will be gloomy if she ends up drowned among the seaweed, and she must be gloomy if that is what she thinks about.
12. Jibutsu, a buddha image that is the focus of a person's private devotions.
13. Kyōsoku, a common item of furniture used here as a reading desk.
14. Her hair is probably cut not far below her shoulders (ama-sogi), as was the custom for a nun who remained at home.
15. Yamabuki, of which the top layer is ocher (usu kuchiba) and the lining yellow.
16. A makeshift cage, since it is actually a fusego, a sort of frame that went over an incense burner and on which a robe could then be laid to be perfumed.
17. The Buddhist sin of capturing and imprisoning a living being.
18. “How could you die before you know what will become of your granddaughter?” The “little plant” (wakakusa) image recalls Ise monogatari 90, section 49.
19. Through Koremitsu.
20. A stock description of a humble dwelling, hence a stock expression of modesty.
21. A cresset (kagaribi) is a wood fire contained in an iron cage, used for illuminating a garden at night; a lantern (tōrō), containing an oil lamp, was made of wood, bamboo, or metal and hung from the eaves.
22. The “front” of the house, normally used for guests.
23. His love for Fujitsubo.
24. Probably a gentlewoman in the service of the girl and her mother.
25. Fujitsubo's older brother.
26. Fujitsubo.
27. Soya, a regular service that lasted from about 6:00 to 10:00 P.M.
28. They seem to be on the west side of the house, while Genji (in the aisle) is on the south. They seem to be separated only by folding screens.
29. “Do not compare the tears of a brief visitor to these mountains with those shed by one whose whole life is spent among them.” She ignores the romantic connotations of the dew (the pining lovers’ tears) in Genji's own poem.
30. “The dream of the passions that obscures insight into the truth.” Genji is paying a compliment to his host.
31. The protective rite was centered, like many others, on the chanting of a darani, a mystically powerful utterance voiced in the Japanese pronunciation of a Chinese transliteration from Sanskrit.
32. The udumbara flower blooms once in three thousand years, when a perfected ruler appears and unites all the world in the Buddha's truth.
33. The modest pine door contrasts evergreen constancy with the flower's passing beauty.
34. Toko, an esoteric Buddhist ritual implement and a symbol of supreme insight. Other variants of it have three, five, or more points or prongs.
35. The Buddha reached enlightenment under a bo tree, the seeds of which were valued as rosary beads. Prince Shōtoku (574–622) established Buddhism in Japan after its official introduction from Kudara (an ancient Korean kingdom). The medicine jars (associated with Yakushi, the Buddha of Healing) are made of ruri, in theory lapis lazuli (a blue stone) but in practice, at least in Japan, more often glass.
36. “Now that I have seen the little girl, I do not wish to be parted from her by her guardians' objections.”
37. From a felicitous saibara song entitled “Kazuraki.”
38. Tō no Chūjō, known for his mastery of the transverse flute (fue), presumably made sure that he traveled with suitable accompanists. The hichiriki is a small reed instrument made of bamboo; the shō is a cluster of fine bamboo pipes rising from a single air chest into which the player blows.
39. A seven-stringed instrument of the koto family. Highly respected in China, it was prized in Japan, too, in the early tenth century, and Genji's taste for it figures prominently in such chapters as “Suma” and “Akashi.” However, it seems not to have been played much in the author's own time.
40. The “latter days” of the Buddhist teaching and mutsukashiki hi no moto, “miserable little Japan.”
41. The poem Aoi quotes has not been identified. Perhaps Genji responds with disapproval because the poem had to do with illicit lovers, not a married couple.
42. “Why does the girl look so much like Fujitsubo? Probably because His Highness of War and Fujitsubo are the children of the same Empress.” The girl is Fujitsubo's niece.
43. A playful courting note for the girl. This sort of letter (musubi bumi) was written on a piece of paper, then folded up very thin and knotted.
44. Shūshū 29, by Prince Motoyoshi: “Before dawn I rose to see my plum blossoms, worried about what the night winds might have done.” Genji fears that “night winds” may scatter the blossoms' petals, that is, take the girl away somewhere beyond his reach.
45. There seem to be several older nuns, presumably former gentlewomen, around the little girl's grand-mother.
46. The letters of the phonetic syllabary, with which writing lessons began.
47. She is still writing the kana letters separately instead of running them together.
48. The little girl must know the poem to which Genji's alludes, since any child learning to write had to copy it out. Both play on the place-name Asaka-yama (“Mount Asaka”) and on asashi (“shallow”). The original poem (Man'yōshū 3829, also cited in the Japanese preface to the Kokinshū) was spoken in ancient times by a pretty court lady to an ill-humored lord from the north: “Mount Asaka, shallow the spring that now mirrors your face, but not this heart of mine in desire.” Her declaration brightened the visitor's mood.
49. “I cannot believe you are serious, and I
cannot give you my granddaughter.” Kokin rokujō 987: “Alas that I should have begun to draw water from a mountain spring so shallow that it only wets my sleeves.”
50. The regular intermediary between Genji and Fujitsubo. The initial Ō element shows that she was of imperial blood. Myōbu was a title borne by middle-ranking women in palace service.
51. The original expression contains the verb miru (“see”), which implies sexual intimacy. The passage is studiously understated because of Fujitsubo's exalted position. The “last, most unfortunate incident” mentioned just below does not otherwise appear in the tale.
52. The original speaks of Kurabu no Yama, a place-name that sounds as though it means “Dark Mountain” and that appears in poetry for that reason.
53. By causing an illness that diverted attention from the symptoms of pregnancy. In the roughly contemporary historical work Eiga monogatari (A Tale of Flowering Fortunes), a gentlewoman may watch her mistress's periods, count days, and report to the man concerned. The Emperor would normally have had a clear idea of when Fujitsubo got pregnant and of when to expect the child.
54. These are streets. Locations in the City were designated in terms of the nearest intersection.
55. Genji seems to have been received not in the main house but in one of the wings, but the precise meaning of the passage is uncertain.
56. The path to rebirth in paradise.
57. She is speaking to her women, including the one through whom she is talking to Genji.
58. If she had received him in person, she could have seen him through her curtains.
59. Genji's progress is impeded by the nun's resistance. In Kokinshū 732 the lover protests that his “little boat” will always return to the same love.
The Tale of Genji: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) (Junichiro Breakdown of Genji) Page 148
