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The Tale of Genji- A Visual Companion

Page 22

by Melissa McCormick


  Left Palace Guard. Just as the comparison between

  ning as her true biological brother. With so many

  Tamakazura and the daughter f rom Ōmi seemed

  men vying for her attention, Tamakazura worries

  to embed within the narrative a didactic set piece,

  that accepting a position as Handmaid at the Palace,

  here too the description of these various suitors and

  where she will not be an offi

  cial wife and thus still

  the way they each pursue Tamakazura bear similar-

  accessible to other men, could lead to scandal. Even

  ities to didactic tales of courtship written for young

  Genji seems to be planning to maintain his intimacy

  women of marriageable age.

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  The voices of the retainers in his

  escort were audible.

  “The snow is letting up . . .”

  “It’s getting late . . .”

  They coughed and cleared their

  throats, urging him as discreetly as

  possible to set off , aware that their

  lord’s principal wife was there.

  washburn, p. 589

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  31

  A Beloved

  Pillar of

  Cypress

  Makibashira

  Saburai ni hitobito koe shite,

  “Yuki sukoshi hima ari.

  Yo wa fukenuran kashi,” to sasuga

  ni maho ni wa arade, sosonokashi

  kikoete, kowazukuri aeri.

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  Of all the male suitors of Tamakazura, the one who

  ings of humiliation over the imminent introduction

  seemed least likely to win her hand was the Major

  of a new wife into the household have been made

  Captain of the Right Guard, the hirsute courtier

  known, but on this night, she is eerily calm. It has

  known as Higekuro (Blackbeard), and yet at the

  begun to snow heavily, as the painting suggests

  start of Chapter Thirty-One preparations are being

  through the depiction of reeds laden with white

  made for the “third night ceremony” that will mark

  near an icy-looking pond. As the storm intensifi es,

  their formal union. The details of how this came

  Higekuro worries that braving the elements on

  about are never explicitly given, but apparently a night like this might be too disrespectful to his Higekuro manipulated one of Tamakazura’s female

  wife, but she encourages him to go, playing the

  attendants in order to gain access to Tamakazura’s

  martyr and acting like the ideal obedient wife in a

  chambers, and then began an intimate relationship

  polygynous marriage. She even assists him in per-

  with her that made a formal marriage with him the

  fuming his garments for his new bride. All seems

  only option for the young woman. Tamakazura is

  well; Higekuro’s escort outside begins to urge him

  distraught at the turn of events, feeling no attraction

  to depart, as is related in the album’s text, while the

  to this man and realizing how poorly he compares

  female attendants, Moku and Chūjō, sit at ease. The

  to Genji and her other previous options, including

  wife too has been seated calmly but suddenly she

  Prince Sochinomiya and Emperor Reizei, who with

  retrieves the censer of burning incense being used to

  their familial connections to Genji possessed shades

  scent the robes, walks up behind her husband, and

  of his radiant appeal. Instead she is left with a man

  dumps a mound of ash all over him. This shocking

  who is no blood relation to Genji, technically respect-

  act of pique by a noblewoman is unique in the tale,

  able as his pedigree may be, and whose current

  and the artist of the album seems to revel in captur-

  household situation is a cause for concern. Higekuro

  ing precisely this dramatic moment. Higekuro looks

  already has a principal wife, a woman of distinction,

  over his shoulder in surprise, as he lurches to the

  to whom he has been married for many years and

  side, raising his folding fan in a useless attempt to

  with whom he has a daughter and two sons. The

  shield himself. The ash f rom the censer, depicted in

  wife is in fact a princess, the daughter of Prince

  long lines of gray pigment, covers his robe and fan.

  Hyōbu, Murasaki’s father, by his principal wife. She

  In the tale, the ash does far worse damage, getting

  is described as suff ering f rom an unspecifi ed malady

  in his eyes and ears so that he is temporarily blinded

  that prompts her to engage in unruly behavior and

  and confused. Higekuro’s wife, dressed in a lavish

  that makes her prone to verbal outbursts; some sus-

  multicolored robe with a delicate fl oral pattern in

  pect a malignant spirit at work. Higekuro’s amorous

  gold, seems rather calm as she tilts the censer over

  feelings for his wife have long faded, as a result of

  her husband in her act of retribution. According

  these “episodes” of hers, prompting him to con-

  to the codes of courtly painting, any depiction of

  sider dissolving the marriage. In the meantime, he

  a noblewoman standing in an interior, however, is

  plans to move Tamakazura out of Rokujō and into

  usually a sign that things have gone awry. The inclu-

  the home that he shares with his wife and children.

  sion of the couple’s white curtained bed in the room

  The narrator describes Higekuro as an exemplar of

  seems to function as a symbol of their marital bond,

  dignifi ed courtly behavior, who is now suddenly act-

  now broken, and the wife’s sense of betrayal. In the

  ing like a lovesick young man, visiting Tamakazura

  foreground, one female attendant with a view of

  every night at the Rokujō estate.

  the shocking incident responds with alarm, a hand

  The painting for Chapter Thirty-One depicts extending f rom her outstretched sleeve, while her one such night when Higekuro is about to depart

  counterpart with her back to the couple still seems

  for an evening with Tamakazura and is at his home

  blissfully unaware of the conf rontation taking place.

  fastidiously primping and adjusting his wardrobe

  If Higekuro’s wife intended to prevent his tryst,

  in preparation. His wife’s sadness, anger, and feel-

  the ash dumping did the trick, as the smoky odor

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  permeates his undergarments, lingers on his body,

  f rom a poem by the daughter, who is reluctant to

  and makes a visit to Rokujō impossible. While the

  part f rom her beloved father; she leaves the poem

  episode is dramatic, and is not without its moments

  in the house attached to her favorite “cypress pil-

  of high comedy, especially in the description of lar” ( makibashira), a metaphor for her father as the ashen Higekuro, it results in the husband sum-her stalwart supporter. By the end of the chapter

  moning priests and exorcists to purge his wife of

  Tamakazura has moved in with Higekuro and his

  the demons to which he attributes her actions. The

  boys, and soon she gives birth to her fi rst son. Her

  narrator describes the wife crying out in anguish

  life as an exalted overseer of the handmaid staff at

  during the exorcism, which continues for days in

  the palace, a job she accepted even though she was

  what can only be interpreted, at least on some level,

  in the process of marrying Higekuro, then comes

  as a punishment meted out by her husband for her

  to an end. Although Tamakazura will reappear

  bad behavior.

  later as a mother arranging the futures of her chil-

  The chapter goes on to record the details of

  dren, Chapter Thirty-One brings the so-called “ten

  the couple’s divorce, the wife’s return to her par-

  Tamakazura books” ( Tamakazura jūjō, Chapters

  ents’ home, and her decision to take her daughter,

  22–31) to a close, having traced Tamakazura’s story

  called Makibashira, with her, leaving her two sons

  f rom the provinces to the very center of courtly life

  to be raised by Higekuro. The chapter title derives

  in the capital.

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  What an elegant presentation, he

  thought. He noticed a poem:

  washburn, p. 610, modified

  Fragrance of the bloom

  Does not linger on the branch

  Whence the fl owers fall,

  But will it be but shallowly

  It perfumes the receptive sleeve?

  cranston, p. 845

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  32

  A Branch

  of Plum

  Umegae

  “Ennaru mono no

  sama kana” tote, onme

  todometamaeru ni,

  Hana no ka wa

  Chirinishi eda ni

  Tomaranedo

  Utsuran sode ni

  Asaku shimame ya

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  Although the Akashi girl is only eleven years of

  the one woman who always eluded Genji, despite

  age, in Chapter Thirty-Two, Genji holds her com-

  numerous advances and fl irtations on Genji’s part,

  ing-of-age ceremony, the so-called donning of the

  and deliberately chose not to marry. In their poetry

  skirt ( mogi), which will precipitate her entry into the

  exchange in Chapter Twenty, the chapter that bears

  imperial palace. If all goes as planned, she will win

  her name, she rejected Genji outright, leading him

  over the Crown Prince, become Empress, as proph-

  to respond by implying that she was past her prime.

  esied long ago, and give birth to an imperial heir. To

  In this scene, ever hopeful, he excitedly reads her

  outfi t her palace quarters, which will be within the

  letter, as Sochinomiya’s eyes turn to the remark-

  Kiritsubo court of his late mother, Genji begins put-

  able gifts she has sent. As described in the album’s

  ting together a thoughtfully arranged trousseau. He

  calligraphy text, Sochinomiya marvels at the “ele-

  throws open his storehouses to procure the best fur-

  gance,” or “allure” ( en) of the presentation. Her

  nishings and textiles, such as brocades and damasks

  two glass jars of incense rest within a Chinese box

  f rom China and Korea, as well as books and scrolls,

  made of f ragrant agarwood ( jinkō), itself a source

  and he commissions new paintings and copybooks

  of incense. She prepared one container the color of

  of exemplary calligraphy. He even briefl y considers

  blue lapis lazuli ( konruri), for incense of the black

  including in her library the precious Suma scrolls,

  variety ( kurobō) associated with winter, which she

  his picture-poem records of exile that won him the

  decorated with an artifi cial sprig of fi ve-needle pine.

  important symbolic victory of the picture match in

  Some loss of pigment has occurred in the album

  Chapter Seventeen. In the end, Genji decides not to

  painting, but the jar with the silvery blue color and

  turn them over just yet, but the reference to them

  red fabric corresponds to this description; traces of

  reminds readers of the Akashi girl’s role in carrying

  the brown pigment of pine branches, and green nee-

  out the legacy of her family. Next Genji turns to the

  dles, are still slightly visible. Traces of white pigment

  task of gathering incense for his daughter, which

  appear on the body of the other jar, while a deco-

  she will need for scenting robes and perfuming her

  rative white plum branch emerges f rom its center.

  chambers. To concoct an alluring scent required the

  The term used to describe this jar in the tale, “white

  utmost skill and access to exotic aromatic woods,

  lapis” ( haku ruri), calls to mind the cloudy white

  along with the best instructions, which often took

  shards of glass of possible Persian origin, found in

  the form of closely guarded recipes handed down

  the ancient Shōsōin imperial storehouse. The allu-

  within families. Genji blends certain f ragrances sion to such exotic materials evokes ancient trade himself, and he enlists the help of his most trusted

  women: Murasaki, Princess Asagao, Hanachirusato,

  and the Akashi Lady.

  The album painting for Chapter Thirty-Two

  depicts the arrival of Asagao’s two f ragrances, in

  f ront of Genji, on the left, and Sochinomiya (a.k.a.

  Prince Hotaru), on the right. Sochinomiya is dressed

  in formal attire to call on his esteemed half brother

  at Rokujō. Outside, a canopy of plum branches, pro-

  fuse with pink blossoms and red buds, arches over the

  blue stream that winds its way into the background

  through Murasaki’s celebrated spring garden. Genji

  is absorbed in readi
ng a letter f rom Princess Asagao,

  who formerly was the Kamo Priestess and is a cousin

  to him and Sochinomiya, her father having been a

  brother of the Kiritsubo Emperor. Asagao is also

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  routes that linked central Asia to the Japanese royal

  courts; Genji mentions the fabrics he was given by

  Chinese and Korean envoys, and Asagao, as a prin-

  cess, has in her possession precious objects the likes

  of which were primarily owned by individuals with

  royal bloodlines.

  While scrutinizing Asagao’s elegant gifts,

  Sochinomiya notices a poem f rom the lady attached

  to the ensemble, which is the verse featured in the

  calligraphy sheet in the album. It alludes to the bare

  plum branch she attached to her letter, using it as

  a metaphor for herself, no longer in the spring of

  her youth, as she graciously cedes its fl owers to

  the Akashi girl, hoping that their scent permeates

  the young girl’s robes. The artist has chosen to

  include a plum branch with its white blossoms still

  intact, however, lying adjacent to the incense. One

  palace is at the heart of the scene. Another more

  fi nal object included in the composition is a censer

  likely interpretation, however, is that the snow is an

  for burning incense, which alludes to an incense

  oblique allusion to the title of the chapter. Following

  competition that follows this scene, during which

  the scene illustrated in the album painting, Genji

  Sochimoniya acts as the judge and complains of

  and Sochinomiya are joined by Tō no Chūjō’s sons

  the smoke he must endure. As Inamoto Mariko has

  and Yūgiri for a musical soiree where Ben no Shōshō

  suggested, the black lacquered censer with its ele-

  (Kōbai), well known for his beautiful voice, sings the

  gant gold pattern is also a visual echo of the censer

  folk song ( saibara) “A Branch of Plum” (Umegae):

  wielded by the wife of Higekuro in the previous

  To the plum tree branch the warbler comes, to sing

  album painting. Its conspicuousness in the center of

  all spring long, all spring long, yet snow is still falling.

  the composition marks a contrast between the two

 

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