near a vibrantly patterned red and white standing
For his part, Kashiwagi only married Ochiba curtain, which is out of keeping with the funereal because he failed to win her half sister, the Third
atmosphere described in the tale. She is represented
Princess, before she was wed to Genji. The marriage
by a mere corner of her dark gray mourning robe,
was thus not an ideal one for either party, but the
and a single curl of long hair. Such partial images of
young widow and her mother still mourn him as
female characters appear elsewhere in the album in
they attempt to recover f rom the unexpected turn
ways that refl ect the meaning of a scene (Chapters
of events. Yūgiri’s attentions are not unwelcome,
Eight and Ten). Here, the minimal representa-
especially given the Major Counselor’s stature, but
tion of Ochiba through a mere sliver of her robe
the Princess’s mother remains vigilant and keeps
refl ects her guardedness and hesitation to meet with
Yūgiri at a distance, on this occasion restricting Yūgiri, the man waiting for her. It also complements him to the veranda, where he must communicate
the way the painting stages the ventriloquism of
through an intermediary.
the poem’s delivery; the Princess is nearly absent,
Until the scene depicted in the album painting,
while the female attendant acts as her proxy reciting
Yūgiri had only spoken with Ochiba’s mother, but
the verse to Yūgiri on her mistress’s behalf. In the
166 | The Tale of Genji
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poem, Ochiba uses the word kashiwagi (oak tree),
suggesting that the maple (the Second Princess) still
which gives her deceased husband his name, and
clings to the oak tree.
the chapter its title, to assert that the “deity of the
Chapter Thirty-Six is part of a subplot within
leaves” (Kashiwagi) does not grant his consent to
the larger story that essentially tells the tale of
the relationship Yūgiri desires. She refuses to be the
two sisters: the Second Princess (Ochiba), married
“welcoming branches” ( narashi no eda) of Yūgiri’s
to Kashiwagi, and the Third Princess, ravaged by
poem, instead asking rhetorically whether “branch
him. Neither sister fares well after their father takes
tips” ( kozue) should shelter a stranger.
Buddhist vows and retires f rom the world. The naive
In the painting, the oak tree dominates the right
Third Princess, with no female relatives to rely on at
side of the composition, with its slender but sturdy
Rokujō, is manipulated by her soubrettish attendant
trunk and its broad leaves, the veins of which are
Kojijū, who fl irted with Kashiwagi and granted him
outlined in gold pigment. The image of the oak tree
access to her lady’s chambers. In Chapter Thirty-Six,
announces the title of the chapter and the impor-
the Second Princess, with her mother as a bulwark,
tance of the character of Kashiwagi, as both the
and her attendants largely under control, manages
individual being mourned over in the household
to keep Yūgiri, sent by Kashiwagi, temporarily at
and as the link between Yūgiri and Ochiba. The
bay. From the Retired Emperor Suzaku’s point of
branches of oak and maple trees are interwoven, as
view, however, both of his daughters’ lives have
in the poetry, but they are not equally represented.
taken a tragic turn, with one woman having become
The maple leaves are faint in comparison, rendered
a nun and the other widowed by Kashiwagi, pro-
in a lighter shade of green, with branches overlaying
tected only by her mother and thus susceptible to
those of the oak in a tentative manner. The image of
rumor and scandal no matter how well she com-
the trees pictorializes the metaphors in the poems,
ports herself.
Chapter 36 | The Oak Tree | 167
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I’ve not forgotten
That painful segment of our life,
But the black bamboo
Grows this time in a tender shoot
I should fi nd it hard to cast aside.
cranston, p. 876
168
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37
The
Transverse
Flute
Yokobue
Ukifushi mo
Wasurezu nagara
Kuretake no
Ko wa sutegataki
Mono ni zo arikeru
169
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Genji is absent f rom the painting for Chapter Suzaku’s poem, and one that his daughter writes in Thirty-Seven, but the scene in the tale is narrated
response, both use coded language to suggest that
f rom his perspective and his words appear in the
a departure f rom Rokujō might be best in order
adjacent calligraphy in the album. He converses to pursue her Buddhist devotions in earnest—a with the Third Princess, who as a Buddhist initiate
suggestion that annoys Genji when he discovers
is off limits to her husband Genji sexually, but who
the exchange.
at Genji’s insistence still resides at the Rokujō Estate.
In crawls the son of the Third Princess and
On entering the Third Princess’s room, Genji is sur-
Kashiwagi, the character who later becomes known
prised to see an unusual tray of bamboo shoots. It
as Kaoru, thought by the world to be Genji’s son.
is a gift f rom her father, Retired Emperor Suzaku,
In the tale, the two-year-old boy’s appearance and
now referred to in the original text as “the mountain
behavior are described in great detail in the mind
emperor” ( yama no mikado) after his current abode
of Genji, whose attitude toward the boy is at once
at a temple in the western hills. The Third Princess
jovial and fraught with ambivalence given his knowl-
is referred to as the “Princess Initiate” ( nyūdō no
edge of Kashiwagi’s betrayal. Genji’s mixed feelings
miya), which resonates with the epithet now applied
are perfectly expressed in the poem included in the
to her father, though by looking only at the paint-
album, which begins with the assertion that the
ing, it would be diffi
cult to identify her as such. She
Third Princess’s infi delity with Kashiwagi will never
is the o
nly female fi gure seated on the green tat-
be forgotten, expressed as that “painful segment”
ami, with a curtain to her side, and her hair shows
( ukifushi
) in Cranston’s skillful rendering,
no sign of tonsure. This follows the description in
which captures the pun on fushi, a word that means
the previous chapter of her hair as only minimally
“time,” but also the “joint” or “segment” of a bam-
cut and looking much as it did before taking vows.
boo stalk. The poem continues, however, with Genji
Her robes, pale pink over white, are somewhat sub-
conceding that the bamboo shoot ( kuretake no ko),
dued compared to the garments of the two female
in other words the child ( ko) before him, Kaoru, is
attendants in the room. Suzaku’s gift is a show of
too endearing to disavow. Genji expressed the same
sympathy, and his poem refers to their mutual pur-
ambivalence in the previous chapter when he fi rst
suit of the Buddhist path. The bamboo shoots and
held the newborn, his feelings for the innocent child
taro roots were taken f rom the forest beside his
mingling with trepidation over the resemblance to
mountain abode and are intended to symbolize the
Kashiwagi and the possibility that his turn as a cuck-
eremitic lifestyle that he imagines she desires as well.
old would become known.
Kaoru’s physical appearance is described in the
tale as having its own special radiance, and his long
and supple body as though it had been delicately
carved f rom the pale inner wood of a willow tree.
His head, as seen in the painting, is shaved according
to the custom for children under the age of three
and gives off a bluish tint, the color of “dewfl owers”
( tsuyukusa). The artist uses an underlayer of blue
pigment that does indeed make the child’s head
seem paler than white. Genji marvels at the child’s
appealing facial features that seem to emanate a
warm glow but feels uneasy as he considers the
possible dangers that lie ahead as the boy is raised
under the same roof as his granddaughter, the First
Princess of the Akashi Consort, who has been put in
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Murasaki’s care. Genji succumbs to Kaoru’s charm-
in Chapter Thirty-Six. In the dream, Kashiwagi’s
ing antics as he toddles into the room and makes
ghost picks up the fl ute and composes:
a beeline for the bamboo shoots, soothing his new
Fuetake ni
May the wind that blows
teeth and his curiosity by gnawing on one, then
Fukiyoru kaze no
In the fl ute bamboo oblige —
immediately discarding it for another. In the paint-
Koto naraba
Be there no other strain —
ing, Kaoru holds a long, rugged, brown shoot up
Sue no yo nagaki
Long years yet I would desire
to his mouth, with two others lying on the tatami
Ne ni tsutaenamu
These notes passed on through the air.
mat already tasted and cast aside. He continues
cranston, p. 878
to nibble away, his own drool dripping excessively
( shizuku mo yoyo to), leading Genji to exclaim that
In the ghost’s poem, because “notes” or “sound” ( ne)
the boy has strange “desires,” or irogonomi. The is a homonym for “root,” the idea of Kashiwagi’s word is used most often to describe sexual desire,
descendants playing the fl ute into the future shares
signaling Genji’s inability to see him as merely an
imagery with the lengthy bamboo, which is perpet-
innocent child rather than the off spring of a father
uated by means of its root. Phallic connotations are
whose desires overcame him. The scene concludes
also implied, with the word for “root” ( ne), a term
when Genji takes the bamboo away, and the toddler
for genitalia, refl ecting the paternity anxiety inher-
blithely scampers off .
ent in the Kashiwagi storyline. And as Cranston
It is diffi
cult to regard the bamboo in Mitsunobu’s
states, his use of the word “air” in translation is
painting, which is excessively long and horizontally
intended to suggest “heir” to refl ect the underlying
held, as anything but a suggestive allusion to the
meaning of the poem. When Yūgiri conf ronts his
bamboo fl ute, the Yokobue of the chapter title. As
father about the dream and the fl ute’s rightful heir,
the chapter continues, the mother of Kashiwagi’s
Genji admits nothing but understands the import
widow bestows on Yūgiri a transverse fl ute that once
of the dream. The chapter ends with Genji trying
belonged to the deceased courtier. As an instrument
to take possession of the bamboo fl ute to give to
that symbolizes patrilineal transmission, the gift is
Kaoru, as though reversing his earlier actions of
signifi cant and causes the vexed ghost of Kashiwagi
removing the bamboo shoot f rom Kaoru’s hands.
to visit Yūgiri in a dream and inform him that the
Although Genji goes unrepresented in the album
fl ute was intended for someone else. The ghost painting, his voice in the poem inserts him into the appears eerily in the same garb that Kashiwagi wore
scene and allows him to hover over the spectacle of
the last time Yūgiri saw him, as he lay on his sickbed
this illegitimate son with his faux bamboo fl ute.
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Moonlight as ever
In a cloudland not other
Than it was before . . .
Yes, the fault lies in my house
That this autumn is so changed.
cranston, p. 880
172
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38
Bell Crickets
Suzumushi
Tsukikage wa
Onaji kumoi ni
Mienagara
Wa ga yado kara no
Aki zo kawareru
173
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The setting, as in the previous leaf, is the quarters
of the Third Princess’s quarters justifi es keeping her
of the Third Princess in the southeastern residence
at Rokujō and preempts Suzaku’s plan to move his
at Rokujō, on the fi fteenth of t
he eighth month,
daughter to his Sanjō residence. Genji has created
the night of the harvest moon. The moon-viewing
a veritable nunnery in miniature for the Princess,
banquet at the imperial palace is canceled for rea-
complete with disciple nuns and a renovated spring
sons that go unexplained, and courtiers descend garden, which before was too ostentatious for a on Genji’s villa. They fi nd him playing the thir-place of meditation on the sorrows of the world.
teen-string koto ( sō no koto), and a musical concert
The western half of the spring garden has been
ensues. The courtiers’ arrival at Rokujō follows fenced off f rom Murasaki’s eastern wing and trans-an extended passage in the tale that describes the
formed into a subdued autumn moor. Into the
elaborate Buddhist ceremonies, sutra readings, and
grassy fi eld Genji has introduced bell crickets, which
dedications that Genji commissioned to transform
give the chapter its name, and to which he likens
the Third Princess’s residence into a chapel befi t-
the Third Princess, saying that her voice is similarly
ting her new status as a nun. He ordered statues of
bright and clear. For her part, the Third Princess
Buddhist deities, paintings, and a shelf for off erings.
seems somewhat less than entirely committed to
He even transcribed the Amida Sutra himself, so that
rigorous meditation on the afterlife; just before the
the Third Princess would always have a copy at her
scene depicted, Genji plucks the koto, and the Third
disposal. It took Genji weeks of diligent work to
Princess stops rubbing her prayer beads in order to
write out the sutra, and his calligraphic transcrip-
listen more attentively, drawn to the pleasures of his
tion is said to be magnifi cent. Given the power of
music. Knowing he has her attention, Genji has wel-
handwriting in the tale to invoke a person’s pres-
comed the courtiers f rom the palace to join him in a
ence, Genji’s transcription of the sacred text ensures
concert “to celebrate the bell cricket.”
that the Third Princess will have him in mind even
The painting depicts the musical diversion taking
during her Buddhist practice. That he should wish
place beneath the full moon, with all of the musi-
The Tale of Genji- A Visual Companion Page 25
