The Tale of Genji- A Visual Companion
Page 26
to remain in her thoughts this way is in keeping with
cians situated in the bottom third of the painting.
the description of their tension-fi lled relationship, in
Through raised bamboo blinds, we see the newly
which Genji insists on professing his attraction to his
created moor, full of autumn grasses and fl owers,
young tonsured wife. The elaborate transformation
which are home to the bell crickets whose chirping
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Just as the gathering is at its peak, a message
f rom retired Emperor Reizei arrives with a poem
that laments Genji’s absence on this moonlit night:
Kumo no ue o
Once above the clouds,
Kakehanaretaru
Now my dwelling is far off ,
Sumika ni mo
But even this abode
Monowasure senu
Receives unforgotten the splendor
Aki no yo no tsuki
Of the moon on an autumn night.
cranston, p. 880
It is the third time Reizei has written to his father
wishing to be with him. The previous instances
were in Chapter Eighteen of the album, where
Genji was shown occupied with his men in Katsura,
and in Chapter Twenty-Nine, where Genji decides
is said to mingle with the music. Visible beyond the
against participating in Reizei’s royal excursion.
blinds are the veranda, a walkway, and the adjacent
The single poem included in the album’s calligra-
wing of the southeastern residence, perhaps an allu-
phy for this chapter is Genji’s response to the above
sion to the hidden presence of the Third Princess.
poem in which he honors Reizei’s reign and mod-
She is said to be just behind a blind, within earshot
estly alludes to his own waning glory, but instead of
of Genji’s words and the musical concert put on in
avoiding an encounter with his son this time, Genji
her name. Only the koto is mentioned in this passage
subsequently makes an impromptu visit, taking
in the tale, but the album leaf depicts a variety of
along with him the musical entourage depicted in
instruments in detail, beginning with the striking
the painting.
koto in Genji’s lap. It has thirteen golden strings tied
Only after Genji achieves the status of Retired
and looped at the end, ten wooden bridges, and a
Emperor (Chapter Thirty-Three) does the narrative
pattern to suggest the grain of its paulownia wood.
describe him visiting his son, the Emperor. To do so
Yūgiri is most likely the fi gure on the transverse fl ute
beforehand would have necessitated placing Genji in
( yokobue), while one of Tō no Chūjō’s sons plays the
an inferior position. Instead, the one grand imperial
small oboe ( hichiriki). On the far left a fi gure plays the
visitation in the tale, which takes place in Chapter
mouth organ ( shō), consisting of seventeen vertical
Thirty-Three, presents Retired Emperor Suzaku and
bamboo pipes, which rounds out the wind instru-
Emperor Reizei paying Genji the highest show of
ments. To Genji’s left, a fi gure, most likely his half
respect by visiting him at the Rokujō Estate. When
brother Sochimomiya (Prince Hotaru), strums with
Genji fi nally does visit Reizei in the scene following
his plectrum a four-stringed biwa with a painting of
the one depicted in this album painting, the visit is
a mountain landscape and gold clouds on its f ront.
marked by informality; the men do not wear formal
The inclusion of so many instruments is unique
cloaks, but simply add trains to their regular robes,
among renditions of this scene, and it complements
as if Murasaki Shikibu is wary of presenting Genji,
the emphasis on sound in this short chapter, f rom the
the symbolic Retired Emperor, as beneath his son.
intoning of sutras, to the chirping of crickets, to the
The meeting on this moonlit night will in fact be the
courtly music.
last one between Genji and Reizei.
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As the cold wintry wind blew, deer
golden stalks of grain, calling out
were standing stock-still near the
plaintively for his mate.
brushwood fence and would not
washburn, p. 832, modified
scare despite the sharp reports of
wooden clappers intended to drive
them away f rom the fi elds. A stag
was belling in a rice fi eld amidst dark
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39
Evening
Mist
Yūgiri
Kogarashi no fukimayoitaru ni,
shika wa tada magaki no moto
ni tatazumite, yamada no hita
ni mo odorokazu, iro koki ine
domo no naka ni majirite naku
mo urēgao nari.
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Yūgiri’s romantic pursuit of Kashiwagi’s widow, of the rice fi elds ( ine) where the deer ( shika) stand Ochiba, Suzaku’s Second Princess, starts up again
“stock-still.” The rice stalks are depicted with a com-
in Chapter Thirty-Nine, and the location of action
bination of red and brown pigments to delineate the
shifts to the village of Ono, where the Princess and
long stems of the grasses and the oblong spikelets
her mother are now residing. Ochiba’s mother has
containing their grains, all against a yellow ground
been suff ering f rom an illness that seems attribut-
that lends the entire image a subtle glow. The album
able to a malignant spirit and has sought the help of
text describes the deer as indiff erent to the sound
a priest f rom Mount Hiei to perform healing rites
of clappers ( hita), not depicted in the image, but
and incantations. The villa at Ono, at the base of the
that would have been suspended on strings across
famous mountain, is remote for Yūgiri, but he visits
the fi elds and sounded to scare them off . Instead,
several times in this chapter, providing the pretense
the stag and doe seem preoccupied, looking “for-
for passages dense with descriptions of desolate lorn” ( urēgao) as described in the album excerpt. In autumn scenery and allusions to classical poetry.
a subsequent poem (quoting K
okinshū 582 and 505)
His character’s nickname derives f rom the thick to Ochiba’s lady-in-waiting, Yūgiri likens himself to
“evening mist” ( yūgiri) that blankets the Ono foot-
the stag, whose call in Heian poetry is a metaphor
hills, which he uses in this chapter as an excuse to
for the plaintive cries of a lover:
stay the night at the villa and to declare his roman-
Sato tōmi
Far f rom the homes of men,
tic intentions to Ochiba. Refl ecting this allusiveness,
Ono no shinohara
Over the Ono bamboo fi elds,
the painting in the album is like a primer of autum-
Wakete kite
I have made my way,
nal poetic motifs, visualizing several keywords Ware mo shika koso For I too, O dear one, thus found in the accompanying prose excerpt. The cal-
Koe mo oshimane
Cannot restrain my call.
ligraphic text (on red paper that complements the
cranston, p. 885
autumn colors) begins with the word for “chilly
wind” ( kogarashi), the wind that rustles through the
By the time of the visit depicted in the painting,
remaining leaves on the trees, harbinger of the win-
Ochiba’s mother has passed away and all at the
ter to come. The brushwood fence ( magaki), which
house are grieving, which prompts the attendant
zigzags through the center of the image, signals
to reply on her lady’s behalf with a poem about
the rusticity of the site and marks the boundary
the Princess’s deep gray “mourning robes” ( fujig-
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oromo). The word is evocative of the “mistfl ower”
to fi gures like the hirsute Blackbeard, the husband
( fujibakama), which can be seen in the image grow-
of Tamakazura we met in Chapter Thirty-One. In
ing around the veranda. Also growing at the foot
Yūgiri’s case, his identity as a student of Chinese
of the house are blue autumn bellfl owers, gentians
learning and court bureaucracy aligned him with
( rindō), which were mentioned in Sei Shōnagon’s
ideas of conventional masculinity, and it distanced
Pillow Book, for the way their “brilliant color perse-
him from the gender ideal achieved by his father.
veres when the other fl owers have withered in the
Genji’s ability to transcend the societal boundaries
autumn f rost.” Besides the cry of the deer, motifs in
associated with masculinity and femininity, and to
the album painting help us imagine the other sounds
fi gure in the romantic imaginations of both men
mentioned in the tale, such as the faint chirping of
and women, set him apart with a spiritually suf-
the crickets f rom beneath the clumps of grass and
fused physicality reserved for those in the imperial
the roar of a waterfall that pierces the silence, loud
line. Yūgiri, though admired, and called handsome
enough to “bring anyone lost in sorrowful thoughts
by many an onlooker, never exuded such gender-am-
back to themselves” (Washburn p. 833).
biguous radiance until now. The characterization
Standing on the narrow veranda of Ochiba’s refl ects Yūgiri’s transition to a romantic protago-villa, Yūgiri is conspicuously large as he gazes out
nist in this chapter, in pursuit of a Princess, as Genji
over the landscape. The fence and deer are within
prepares to exit the narrative. And yet his attempts
Yūgiri’s fi eld of vision, but their small scale suggests
to emulate the polygamous behavior of his father
that they stand at some distance from the villa. The
rarely succeed, and if they do, result in complica-
landscape representation is not contiguous but struc-
tions. Playing out simultaneously with his pursuit
tured according to poetic and semantic emphases.
of Ochiba is an ongoing domestic drama occurring
The gold clouds, which compartmentalize the com-
with his primary wife, Kumoinokari. As his love and
position, provide cover for spatial elisions between
companion since childhood, daughter of the pow-
the motifs, while the image of the sun helps unify
erful Tō no Chūjō, and mother to seven of Yūgiri’s
the composition. It is a golden orb outlined in a circle
twelve children, Kumoinokari speaks her mind and
of red pigment to indicate twilight ( yūhi), which casts
rebels against her husband’s desire for another wife.
a warm glow over the entire golden-toned painting.
To be clear, Yūgiri also has six children by a daughter
But while the poignant autumnal atmosphere is pre-
of Koremitsu, Genji’s loyal retainer. But as a woman
sented from Yūgiri’s point of view in the painting,
of lower status, she posed no existential threat to
the perspective in the tale suddenly shifts to that of
Kumoinokari. In her opposition to Yūgiri’s marriage
the women inside the residence. They watch Yūgiri
to Ochiba, Kumoinokari off ers the most fully artic-
on the veranda as he nonchalantly raises a fan to his
ulated objection to polygamy in the tale. Ochiba’s
face to shade his eyes from the rays of the setting
own sincere attempts to reject Yūgiri’s advances epit-
sun. He gazes in the direction of the sun, moving
omize how the relationships in this chapter are far
the fan with a fl ourish in such a way that it does not
from any romantic ideal. Even Murasaki makes an
hide him but, as in the painting, shows off his face.
appearance and gives voice to the plight of women
To the ladies observing inside, the gesture recalls
while in conversation with Genji about Ochiba’s dif-
that of a woman coyly attempting to conceal herself.
fi cult situation as a vulnerable widow. By the end of
They concede, however, that even a woman may not
Chapter Thirty-Nine, Yūgiri has relocated Ochiba to
have executed the gesture so well. The painting thus
the capital, but his relationship with Kumoinokari is
captures a moment of rare stylishness for the usu-
on the brink of dissolution. Yūgiri never comfortably
ally stilted Yūgiri, as he strikes a pose, framed by the
occupies the persona of his father and fails to pro-
wooden doors, standing tall in his courtier’s costume.
duce the kind of amity between his own wives and
In previous chapters Yūgiri had been character-
lovers that apparently existed between the women at
ized as “masculine” ( ooshi), an adjective also applied
Genji’s Rokujō estate.
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To cut fi rewood —
Only today has it begun,
Your new resolve,
And the Dharma is distant
That we pray for in this world.
cranston, p. 890
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40
Rites of the
Sacred Law
Minori
Takigi koru
Omoi wa kyō o
Hajime nite
Kono yo ni negau
Nori zo harukeki
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It is spring and the cherry blossoms are at their peak
Inspired by the line, Murasaki sends a poem to the
at the start of Chapter Forty, a chapter famous for
Akashi Lady, also in attendance at the event:
recounting the death of Lady Murasaki. The setting
Oshikaranu
Nothing to regret
is the Nijō villa, the residence Murasaki considers to
Kono mi nagara mo I am only this, and this
be her true home, and where she was last seen in the
Kagiri tote
Must reach an end;
album with Genji, gazing on the paradisal lotus blos-
Takigi tsukinan
And yet there is a sadness when
soms in the garden pond (Chapter Thirty-Five). She
Koto no kanashisa
The fi rewood at last burns out.
narrowly escapes death in that chapter and lives on
cranston, p. 890
to raise two of the Akashi daughter’s children, but
she never fully recovers. Realizing that her illness
Murasaki’s poignant verse puts herself in the posi-
has advanced and that her life is actually drawing
tion of the Buddha-king subservient to the Dharma;
to a close, she asks again to receive the full tonsure
her good works and dedications of the Lotus Sutra,
of a nun that she has long desired in order to ease
akin to gathering fi rewood, have now sadly come to
her way in the afterlife, but Genji refuses. She takes