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

by Murasaki Shikibu

  80. Ada is too ill-omened to use at the time of a marriage.

  81. “Third-night cakes” were served on silver dishes, with silver chopsticks, silver chopstick rests in the shape of cranes, etc.

  82. As to marry Murasaki relatively formally.

  83. Oborozukiyo and Kokiden (Ima Kisaki, “the new Empress”), Oborozukiyo's elder sister and Genji's implacable foe.

  10: SAKAKI

  1. They were temporary, for the shrine was rebuilt as needed at a new spot.

  2. The gateway to a Shinto shrine, normally made of finished wood; this one emphasizes the shrine's temporary character.

  3. Probably as a warning at Genji's approach.

  4. Perhaps where the food offerings were prepared.

  5. Where Rokujō lives. Her daughter occupies the main house.

  6. A blind still separates them, but Genji sees her silhouette through it.

  7. At the house rather than at the sanctuary proper.

  8. That of the evergreen sakaki and of Genji's own constant heart.

  9. “Why have you come and why are you giving me this sakaki branch when I have no wish to respond?” From Kokinshū 982, attributed to the Miwa deity, to whom the cedar (sugi) is sacred: “My humble dwelling is below Miwa Mountain: come, if you love me, to the gate where the cedars stand.”

  10. “Shrine maiden” (otomego) seems to mean Rokujō herself, though it would better suit her daughter. It is an engo (“associated word”) of sakaki. The poem draws on Shūishū 1210, by Kakinomoto Hitomaro, and Shūishū 577.

  11. West of Kyoto.

  12. A party of four nobles, headed by a Counselor or a Consultant, that accompanied the Priestess to Ise on the Emperor's behalf.

  13. A streamer cut in zigzag pattern from mulberry-bark cloth, used in Shinto rites.

  14. Kakemakumo, a formula of respect used in Shinto prayers.

  15. Kokinshū 701 protests that even the fearsome thunder god refrains from severing the relations between lovers.

  16. The priestess's farewell to the Emperor and her formal departure.

  17. Roughly 3:00 to 5:00 P.M.

  18. She had last come to the palace in a palanquin as a future Empress.

  19. This age disagrees with the chronology for the other characters in the tale. If with her history she is now thirty, Genji is only fourteen.

  20. When a Priestess set out, the Emperor put the “comb of parting” in her hair with the words “Set not your face toward the City again.” She will remain at Ise until the Emperor abdicates.

  21. Idashiguruma, carriages under the blinds of which gentlewomen allowed their sleeves to hang in a brilliant display of color.

  22. These ladies will accompany the Priestess to Ise, and some have lovers who will not see them again for a long time. The Eight Bureaus (Hasshō), a compound housing the offices of the eight major government bureaus, was continuous with the Great Hall of State, the major ceremonial building in the palace precincts.

  23. “You will soon be weeping with regret at having left me.” The Suzuka River had to be crossed on the way to Ise.

  24. The Ōsaka Barrier, a low pass with a tollgate at the summit, just outside the City on the main road toward the east. Its name suggests au saka, “hill of meeting.”

  25. He is now five.

  26. To leave the world.

  27. The “lower needles” are the members of Genji's father's household, who are dispersing.

  28. Jimoku, the list of appointments (generally to regional posts) and promotions announced in the first month. Candidates once flocked to Genji for his favor.

  29. Oborozukiyo rose to Naishi no Kami. In principle, the incumbent supervised female palace staff, palace ceremonies, and the transmission of petitions and decrees. In practice, she was a somewhat junior consort.

  30. The pavilion north of the Kokiden, hence farther from the Emperor and less advantageous.

  31. During the first half of the night the Left Palace Guards were on duty, to be followed in the second half by those of the Right. This guardsman, jokingly sent to report to his superior officer (apparently occupied like Genji), would have announced his name as well. Genji, who commands the Right Palace Guards, knows him and for a moment fears that the man has been sent to him.

  32. Roughly 3:00 A.M.

  33. Her poem, like Genji's reply, plays on aku, “[day] dawns” and “be weary of.”

  34. The identities of this Consort and her brother are unclear. However, she may conceivably be the mother of the Emperor who marries Genji's daughter, and he may be Higekuro.

  35. Nurigome, a completely walled room, continuous with the chamber, with hinged, double doors. It could serve as a sleeping room or for storage.

  36. He has probably not seen her in daylight since before coming of age.

  37. Fruit and nuts were often served in a writing box lid.

  38. Lady Qi (Japanese Seki) was loved by the Han dynastic founder, Emperor Gaozu. She and her son were killed by Gaozu's jealous Empress after his death.

  39. By sending retainers and members of his household to help Fujitsubo.

  40. In the palace she is treated with disdain, and she fears plots to depose her son. An early commentary cites the Han dynasty story of an Empress who poisoned the Heir Apparent while the Emperor was out hunting.

  41. In a nun's short hair and sober habit.

  42. Presumably an aged gentlewoman.

  43. Yoi no sō: priests who performed rites during the night for the Emperor's health.

  44. His mouth looks as though his teeth have been blackened like a girl's.

  45. A temple north of the City. Originally an imperial villa, it was favored by devout residents of the City.

  46. Risshi, the first rung on the ladder of ranks held by the highest class of Buddhist priests. The title means “Master of the Vinaya,” the body of monastic discipline.

  47. Formal debates were common in monastic life.

  48. A passage in Chinese from the Kanmuryōju-kyō (Sutra on the Contemplation of Eternal Life), referring to Amida's vow to save all who call his Name.

  49. A thick white paper of fiber from spindle-tree (mayumi) bark. Genji probably found this rustic paper more in keeping with his setting than the thinner, colored torinoko paper commonly used for such letters.

  50. “I who have only you, with all your shifting moods and loves, cannot feel secure.”

  51. Asagao. The wind figuratively carries messages, and Urin'in was near Kamo.

  52. The gentlewoman through whom Genji corresponds with Asagao.

  53. Genji seems to refer to a moment between himself and Asagao that the reader does not otherwise know about. “Raiment” conveys yūdasuki: cords of mulberry-bark fiber with which those in shrine service tied back their sleeves so as to busy themselves with the rites.

  54. Ise monogatari 65, which expresses the wish to “spin” (as one spins thread) the past into the present.

  55. Sō, cursive Chinese characters used for phonetic value in the man'yōgana writing style.

  56. “Bluebell” (asagao) refers to the flowers that he once sent her and suggests, in context, that he then saw her plainly, hence that they were lovers.

  57. The canon of doctrinal writings favored by the Tendai school of Buddhism.

  58. The main image of Urin'in.

  59. For his father.

  60. Autumn leaves are reddened by cold dews and rains (tears), so that especially bright leaves evoke intense, unhappy love. Genji thinks of Fujitsubo.

  61. Kokinshū 297, by Ki no Tsurayuki: “Autumn leaves that fall in the mountains, with no one to see them, are like brocade in the dark of night.”

  62. That is, talking about their love affairs.

  63. On this night in the ninth lunar month the moon rises at about 10:00 P.M.

  64. An imperial consort, a niece of Kokiden and Oborozukiyo, and a granddaughter of the Minister of the Right.

  65. This Shiji passage insinuates that Genji, the Heir Apparent's protector, is plo
tting rebellion but will fail. A certain loyal subject plotted to assassinate the First Emperor of Qin on behalf of the Crown Prince of Yen, but Heaven revealed his plan by displaying a white rainbow that crossed the sun. (The sun stands for the Emperor, the white rainbow for weapons or warriors.) The Prince of Yen then feared that the plot would fail, as it did.

  66. “Ninefold mists” are those of ill will who come between the speaker and the Emperor (the moon).

  67. In an otherwise unknown poem cited by an early commentary (Genji monogatari kochūshakusho in'yō waka 464), the speaker compares the mists that hide a distant cherry tree to the cruel heart of one who keeps lover from beloved.

  68. Gosenshū 1260: “While I who hardly count only suffer on, it has been so long that even I am missed.”

  69. Mi-hakō, a four-day rite celebrating the Lotus Sutra. Each day a formal debate, held in morning and afternoon sessions, developed the content of two of the sutra's eight scrolls.

  70. A key scroll, expounded during the morning session on the third day.

  71. Offense to the Kokiden Consort and to the Minister of the Right.

  72. The Lecturer (Kōji) was central to each day's debate. The sutra's “Devadatta” chapter describes how the Buddha served his teacher by picking fruit, drawing water, and gathering firewood, until he received the Lotus Sutra teaching.

  73. The assembly probably moved in procession around the garden lake (assimilating it to the lake in paradise) while bearing bundles of firewood, buckets of water, and offerings attached to artificial gold or silver branches.

  74. To just past shoulder length.

  75. Kurobō, a blend of six incenses used to scent clothing, especially in winter.

  76. Both Genji and Fujitsubo (below) allude by a discreet wordplay to their child, the Heir Apparent.

  77. Miyazukasa: members of the Empress's household staff (chūgū shiki) with a personal tie to Fujitsubo or her family.

  78. On the seventh of the first month, twenty-one horses, the sight of which was held to ward off misfortune, were led before the Emperor, then before the Retired Emperor, the senior imperial ladies, and the Heir Apparent. The custom was originally Chinese. They were blue roans up to Murakami's reign (946–67), which corresponds to the present in the tale, but after that they were white. This was the only New Year observance retained when an Emperor was in mourning, which is probably why the horses went to Fujitsubo's residence, too, even though she was now a nun.

  79. That of the Minister of the Right, across Nijō (Second Avenue).

  80. Blue-gray (aonibi) was normal for a nun; other possibilities were gray (usunibi) or yellow (kuchinashi), worn here by gentlewomen who had taken vows with their mistress.

  81. “Indeed, she shows the same discerning taste as that imperial nun of old.” Gosenshū 1093, by Sosei: “Today I see with my own eyes the celebrated Isle of Pines and, indeed, find dwelling here a most discerning ama.” Ama in this poem and the next means both “shore-dweller” and “nun.” The Isle of Pines (Matsu no Urashima) was in Shiogama Bay in northern Honshu. Sosei wrote his poem on pine bark from the artificial island in the garden lake of an Empress who had just become a nun.

  82. “Sea-tangle sorrows” are nagame, “sorrow” and also a kind of seaweed.

  83. The “wave” is her visitor, Genji.

  84. A prerogative involving benefices that accrued to persons of Fujitsubo's standing through provincial sinecures awarded to their retainers.

  85. An Empress normally enjoyed production and labor imposts from fifteen hundred households.

  86. Tō no Chūjō.

  87. In the palace and the great houses, solemn readings of the Daihannya-kyō were a regular spring and autumn event, but Genji seems to have added other, similar events of his own.

  88. “Doctors” are the scholars of the Academy for young men of the aristocracy. “Guessing rhymes” (in futagi) involved guessing the rhyme words in a Chinese poem unknown to the contestant.

  89. The procedure for contests of all kinds (poetry, paintings, incense, and so on).

  90. This phrase recalls two poems by Bai Juyi (Hakushi monjū 0850, 1055) and evokes the mood of Chinese poetry. The steps led down to the garden from the main building of the Minister of the Left's residence.

  91. A saibara folk song in which a lover addresses a passionate appeal to his beloved.

  92. A gesture of special appreciation. Genji has given the boy a gown, worn under the dress cloak.

  93. Tō no Chūjō's poem quotes the song that his son has sung and even alludes to the roses described as “then just coming into bloom.”

  94. No such injunction survives in the works of the early-tenth-century man of letters Ki no Tsurayuki.

  95. The Duke of Zhou declares in the Shiji, “The son of King Wen [Japanese, Bun] I am, King Wu's [Japanese, Bu] younger brother, and uncle to King Cheng [Japanese, Sei]. In this realm I am not to be despised.” These figures are all sage rulers of Chinese antiquity. King Wen apparently corresponds to the Kiritsubo Emperor, King Wu to his son Suzaku, and the Duke of Zhou to Genji. If so, King Cheng matches the Heir Apparent, who is actually Genji's own son.

  96. The Empress Mother is in the main house and Oborozukiyo in the chamber of one of the wings. The Minister comes straight across the aisle room to the blinds hanging between it and the chamber.

  97. The Captain is one of the Minister's sons; the Deputy (Miya no Suke) is the second-ranking officer in charge of the Empress Mother's personal staff.

  98. As a son-in-law.

  99. In pursuing Asagao, Genji violated a religious prohibition and so perhaps endangered the realm, for the Kamo Shrine protected the City, and the deity's displeasure might cause disaster.

  11: HANACHIRUSATO

  1. She was named after the palace pavilion where she lived, one suitable for a Consort.

  2. Participants in the festival wore heart-to-heart (aoi) and laurel (katsura) leaves in their headdresses; the leaves of both are heart-shaped.

  3. Kataraishi (“he sang…”) applies more often to people and means “speak together”; it commonly refers to what lovers do together in private.

  4. “I must have the wrong house.” An early commentary cites this poem (Genji monogatari kochūshakusho in'yō waka 639): “So thick the leaves, in the garden where all the cherry petals have fallen, that one mistakes the hedge planted long ago.”

  5. She may have taken another lover since Genji's visit.

  6. This daughter of an official assigned to Tsukushi (Kyushu) appears briefly in the next chapter. She had been a dancer for the Gosechi Festival.

  7. Kokin rokujō 2804: “While we talked of the past, a cuckoo (how did it know?) called in the voice that we heard long ago.”

  8. This poem draws on Kokinshū 139 (“The perfume of orange blossoms awaiting the fifth month recalls the sleeves of someone long ago”) and Man'yōshū 1477 (also Kokin rokujō 4417): “The cuckoo in the village where the orange blossoms fall sings and sings on many and many a day.

  9. On the west side of the main house. The lady there seems to have been the ultimate object of Genji's visit.

  12: SUMA

  1. Kokinshū 405, by Ki no Tomonori: “As the undersash goes two ways to come round and join again, so I long for time again to join us.”

  2. With fully lowered inner blinds (shita sudare, lengths of silk that hung down inside the carriage blinds proper).

  3. China.

  4. Tō no Chūjō.

  5. Genji did not have to leave before dawn when Aoi was alive.

  6. Gosenshū 719, by Ki no Tsurayuki: “I would gladly ask her: what is it like, the pain of an unwilling parting at dawn?

  7. From Kokinshū 952: “Where could I live, among the rocks, that I should hear no more of the world and its troubles?”

  8. Heian law allowed a man to take his wife into exile, but Genji seems to mean that no one had ever actually done so.

  9. Prince Hotaru, Genji's younger brother and later on His Highness of War.

>   10. The moon reflected in her tears: an image from Kokinshū 756, by Ise.

  11. Her sleeves are “too narrow” (unworthy) because she believes her personal and social worth insufficient to retain Genji's affection.

  12. Gosensbū 1333, by Minamoto no Wataru: “Tears of ignorance, alas, as to what lies ahead fall here, straight before my eyes.”

  13. Although most obviously by the sea, Suma is referred to as a yamazato, a “mountain village.” Hills rise behind the shore.

  14. Of Bai Juyi. Bai Juyi, too, took a kin with him into exile.

  15. Oborozukiyo.

  16. “Shoal” (se) suggests also “change of fortune” and “lovers’ meeting.”

  17. In acknowledgment of his disgrace, rather than travel in a carriage.

  18. The “palisade” (mizugaki) is the sacred fence around the shrine. The syllables sono kami (“then”) mean also “(remember) that divinity (with bitterness).”

  19. The Lower Kamo Shrine is in Tadasu Grove, a name homophonous with the verb for “ascertain the truth.”

  20. Being under imperial ban, he cannot enter the palace.

  21. Men used outside latrines and women chamber pots.

  22. He would have ridden to Fushimi and then taken a boat down the Yodo River to Naniwa (now Ōsaka), a day's journey. He probably “boarded his ship” the next morning at Naniwa, to sail the thirty miles westward to Suma.

  23. Roughly 4:00 P.M.

  24. It is unclear what this building was or had been.

  25. An allusion to a Chinese poet (Qu Yuan, 340–278 B.C.) who also wandered in exile.

  26. Ise monogatari 8 (section 7): “My heart so longs to cross the distance I have come: with what envy I watch the waves as they return!”