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The Tale of Genji- A Visual Companion

Page 8

by Melissa McCormick


  immersed in their own activity and seemingly

  unaware that they are being watched. Spatial par-

  titions including bamboo blinds ( sudare), a standing

  curtain ( kichō), and a folding screen ( byōbu) are per-

  fectly arranged so that nothing obstructs Genji’s

  view. The composition artfully includes exposed

  architectural beams and interior furnishings to con-

  struct space cells within the scene. Three fi gures in

  the room are contained within one such cell, which

  includes an oil lamp with red fl ame, and a Go board

  with tiny black and white stones in play. Lamplight

  is a common feature of kaimami scenes, which are

  often nocturnal, drawing the voyeur to an object

  bathed in atmospheric light.

  The scene within Genji’s fi eld of vision reveals

  striking contrasts between the two women facing

  off at the game board. His gaze fi rst lands on the

  elusive Utsusemi, the woman he has been pursu-

  ing, and the fi gure closest to him in the image. He

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  intermediary role in the episode. Although aware of

  his sister’s determination never to meet with Genji

  again, Kogimi nevertheless admits Genji directly

  into her chambers after the ladies have retired for

  the night. Utsusemi, however, is too quick; she sees

  Genji’s shadowy fi gure moving about in the darkness

  and slips away, leaving behind nothing but a sheer

  robe. Genji fi nds only the somnolent daughter of

  the Vice Governor. Despite being disappointed and

  embarrassed, he pretends that she was his intended

  target all along and makes the most of the situation.

  When Genji returns to his Nijō mansion he takes

  with him the thin robe Utsusemi left behind and

  suggests its similarity to a cicada’s empty shell in a

  poem he sends to her. The woman too uses the met-

  aphor to characterize herself in a verse she inscribes

  the tale as having been raised with little attention

  on the margins of Genji’s letter, hence the name

  to social decorum and appears rather uncouth to

  “Utsusemi” by which this character and this chapter

  Genji’s eyes, though not without charm. It is this

  came to be known. Other Genji paintings illustrate

  guileless young woman who falls prey to Genji’s

  the scene of Utsusemi in the act of fl eeing and “molt-

  advances when the savvier Utsusemi fl ees the scene

  ing her shell.” This album instead showcases Genji’s

  and leaves her stepdaughter in her place.

  fi rst act of voyeurism. At the same time, pictorial

  Genji’s fi eld of vision also includes Kogimi, elements provide a subtle commentary that alludes Utsusemi’s younger brother. Seated on a tatami to Genji’s relationship to the two women. The fold-mat, he is depicted in profi le with a longish face

  ing screen in the inner chamber, shown here in a

  that resembles that of his sister. Indeed, this sim-

  detail, depicts green bamboo on a gold ground,

  ilarity provokes Genji’s interest in the boy, and he

  evoking Utsusemi’s said similarity to “supple bam-

  spends the night in the company of the youth after

  boo” because of her unyielding resistance to Genji’s

  being rejected by his sister. Here Kogimi wears the

  overtures. Meanwhile, a gold cloud hovering above

  long ponytail of a boy who has not yet undergone

  Genji connects outside and inside, pointing past

  a coming-of-age ceremony, reminiscent of images

  Utsusemi to her stepdaughter, with whom Genji

  of young men known as chigo, acolytes and objects

  will consummate this act of looking. The young girl

  of aff ection for Buddhist monks in popular tales of

  serves as the negative counterpart to Utsusemi; she

  the medieval period. The inclusion of the boy in

  receives not even a single missive from Genji after

  the kaimami scene recalls the homoerotic leitmo-

  their tryst, while Utsusemi will continue to fascinate

  tif in these two chapters while acknowledging his

  him until they meet again in Chapter Sixteen.

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  This lay devotee

  Practices the Way — oh, let

  It be our guide:

  Even in the lives to come

  Do not betray our deep vow.

  cranston, p. 702

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  4

  The Lady

  of the

  Evening

  Faces

  Yūgao

  Ubasoku ga

  Okonau michi o

  Shirube ni te

  Komu yo mo fukaki

  Chigiri tagau na

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  The season turns to autumn and Genji, still in his

  of his stature. The striking red robe in the painting,

  seventeenth year, continues to pursue an array embellished with a gold fl oral pattern, is far f rom of women, including Lady Rokujō, a widow of understated, however, and it falls open casually to exalted status with whom he has been carrying on

  reveal the edge of a lightly colored undergarment.

  a passionate aff air. On his way to visit Rokujō he

  Yūgao faces Genji, her hair cascading down the back

  encounters a character of ambiguous origins known

  of her robe for the viewer to see.

  as Yūgao (Evening Faces), named after the white

  What appears to be a romantic interlude

  fl owering vine that climbs the woven fence of her

  between Genji and Yūgao is in fact suff used with

  humble residence. Most illustrations of this chapter

  religious overtones. As Genji pledges vows of love

  depict Yūgao’s gift to Genji of a fan inscribed with

  that will last into the next life, he overhears an old

  a coquettish poem accompanied by a white blos-

  man intermittently intoning the name of the future

  som. The painting in this album instead represents

  Buddha Maitreya and thumping his forehead to the

  a unique moment in the Yūgao chapter just before

  ground in ritual preparation for a pilgrimage to the

  their aff air takes a turn for the supernatural. As we

  Yoshino Mountains. Inspired by this chanting, Genji

  shall see, this encounter culminates in one of the

  composes the poem that appears in the album leaf,

  most spine-tingling episodes in Heian literature, a verse that deftly alludes to vows both r
omantic with the young woman’s sudden death caused by a

  and Buddhist. The poem begins with the term uba-

  malevolent spirit.

  soku, a word derived f rom the Sanskrit term upāsaka

  Genji is shown at Yūgao’s residence on the fi f-

  that denotes a lay devotee who performs Buddhist

  teenth day of the eighth month. He has become

  austerities in the mountains and aims to acquire

  utterly enchanted by Yūgao, in part because she may

  magico-religious powers. The pictorial counterpart

  be the long-lost lover of Tō no Chūjō, his f riend,

  brother-in-law, and rival. The reader fi rst hears of

  this mysterious woman, and her daughter fathered

  by Tō no Chūjō, in Chapter Two, during the “rainy

  night appraisal.” There, Tō no Chūjō explains that

  she suddenly disappeared after receiving threaten-

  ing messages f rom his wife’s family. In this image, it

  is before dawn, and the working-class neighborhood

  where the lady has been hiding fi lls with sounds to

  which Genji is unaccustomed: the rough voices of

  laborers, the thumping of a mortar and pestle hull-

  ing rice, and the dull rhythms of women pounding

  cloth. Gold clouds and architectural lines divide

  the painting into distinct quadrants bearing poetic

  motifs associated with the auditory landscape of

  autumn, namely the pounding of cloth ( kinuta), and

  geese ( kari). The garden teems with delicate pink and

  yellow fl owers, and the painting evokes details cited

  by Genji in the tale, most notably Chinese bamboo,

  dew sparkling on the plants, and a cacophony of

  chirping insects. In keeping with a theme of hidden

  identity that runs throughout this chapter, Genji

  is said to disguise his status by wearing a hunting

  robe ( kariginu), a garment rarely worn by someone

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  dant Koremitsu. Yūgao has been attacked, it seems,

  by the angry spirit of Genji’s lover Lady Rokujō.

  The language describing this scene is reminiscent of

  a ghost story, with a chilling wind that extinguishes

  the oil lamps, and creaking pines outside preceding

  another brush with the phantom woman as she

  sweeps in to deal the fi nal blow to Yūgao. Genji must

  face the gruesome task of disposing of his lover’s

  corpse and concealing his involvement in the tragic

  and potentially scandalous situation. He arranges

  for her body to be taken to a temple in the Eastern

  Hills of the capital for Buddhist rites and cremation,

  and later travels there incognito for one last glimpse

  of his lover. Despite taboos concerning contact

  with a dead body, Genji tenderly lifts her hand with

  no sense of repulsion, overcome with sadness and

  regret. He later refl ects that lying there she looked

  no diff erent f rom when he had last seen her, “still

  to this poem, the fi gure in the lower left of the paint-

  wrapped in my own crimson robe.” The vibrant red

  ing, is unique among extant Genji paintings. The

  robe Genji wears in the album painting is the same

  elderly fi gure clasps his hands in prayer and faces

  one that will be draped over the corpse of the young

  a simple wooden altar outfi tted with white paper

  woman seated before him — a subtle and unsettling

  streamers ( gohei) that signify ritual purifi cation and

  foreshadowing of events to come.

  sacred space. The mystical atmosphere conjured by

  Like Utsusemi before her, Yūgao f retted over her

  his presence is echoed by the fi gure of Yūgao. At the

  low social status and refused to reveal her identity.

  time of the album’s creation, Yūgao was the subject

  At the same time, the text suggests an even more

  of a popular Noh play in which the character reap-

  undistinguished status, likening her to a lady of

  pears after her death as a ghost seeking Buddhist

  the evening by associating her with the lowly “eve-

  salvation. The same poem that graces the calligra-

  ning fl ower” that blossoms only after dark. Yūgao

  phy leaf here appears word for word near the climax

  declares that she is “nothing but a fi sher’s child,”

  of the play as Yūgao embarks on her spiritual path;

  an allusion to a famous poem associated with a

  its inclusion suggests how the theatrical, spectral

  category of peripatetic female entertainer. In fact,

  version of this character found expression in medi-

  Yūgao’s father was of high rank, but his death left

  eval painting.

  her without support. When the phantom woman

  Genji’s conspicuous red garment also foretells

  attacks in the abandoned villa, she rebukes Genji

  the death of Yūgao. According to the tale, after the

  for dallying with a woman of such low status.

  scene depicted here, Genji whisks Yūgao away to

  Apparently Genji’s gravest sin lay in his transgres-

  a deserted villa, where he has a disturbing dream

  sion of social boundaries. The chapter ends several

  of a beautiful woman violently shaking his lover,

  weeks after Yūgao’s passing. Its fi nal scene witnesses

  only to awaken to discover Yūgao convulsing and

  Genji returning the robe likened to a “cicada shell”

  near death. Her breathing stops and Genji begins to

  to Utsusemi, thus closing the curtain on two of the

  panic, drawing his sword and calling for his atten-

  most famous amorous adventures of Genji’s youth.

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  Where is the garden

  For this young grass to grow in?

  Since it cannot know,

  The dewdrop that one day must leave

  Finds no quiet space to fade.

  cranston, p. 708

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  5

  Little Purple

  Gromwell

  Wakamurasaki

  Oitatan

  Arika mo shiranu

  Wakakusa o

  Okurasu tsuyu zo

  Kien sora naki

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  Among the early chapters in The Tale of Genji,

  which three fi gures attempt to retrieve Murasaki’s

  Chapter Five is notable for introducing Murasaki,

  sparrow. The tiny bird has been let loose f rom its

  the young woman
who will go on to become cage by the girl attendant Inuki, shown standing Genji’s primary companion and greatest love. Their

  on the veranda in a pink robe. Genji watches as

  encounter is initiated by a bout of fever that causes

  the older nursemaid Shōnagon jumps into the f ray.

  Genji to seek the healing powers of a Buddhist Dressed in a bright yellow garment, she stands near ascetic living in the northern mountains. His jour-the edge of the veranda raising a hand to call the

  ney there gives rise to some of the most evocative

  bird depicted in mid-fl ight. While the attractiveness

  descriptions in the tale and sets the stage for the

  of all the ladies is duly noted, it is Mursasaki who

  scene depicted in the album. As if the ordinary leaves Genji mesmerized. She is the small girl facing rules of time do not pertain to this mountain site,

  him directly, whom Genji correctly surmises could

  the spring blossoms that have already faded in the

  be no more than ten years of age. He notes the way

  capital burst back to life at higher altitudes. Hilltop

  her hair falls loose against her shoulders, spreading

  vistas aff ord Genji a new and invigorating perspec-

  out like a fan, and he fi nds her face, reddened f rom

  tive of the surrounding landscape, views that are

  wiping away tears, utterly adorable.

  described with Buddhist imagery that resonates

  But what attracts Genji to Murasaki most of all,

  with larger themes in the tale. Genji’s imperial par-

  and what drives his subsequent abduction of the

  entage and right to ascend the throne, for example,

  child (an act deemed shocking by every character

  is here manifest in references to divine rulership; the

  who witnesses it in the tale), is the girl’s striking

  text equates Genji with a Buddhist ruler or Dharma

  resemblance to Fujitsubo, the consort of Genji’s

  King who only appears in the world once every three

  father, the Emperor. Genji has been engaged in an

  thousand years. The Buddhist nature of this chapter

  aff air with Fujitsubo, now pregnant with a child

  suggests that the worldly events and Genji’s seem-

  he rightly suspects to be his own. A familial tie

  ingly immoral acts are in fact being determined by

  substantiates the resemblance between the two

  unseen forces, all part of a preordained plan.

 

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