The Tale of Genji- A Visual Companion

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The Tale of Genji- A Visual Companion Page 30

by Melissa McCormick


  while the woman’s upturned face and the plectrum

  Kaoru focusing on only one sister, who is most likely

  point toward the silver moon in the upper right

  Oigimi, with whom he later develops a deeper bond.

  corner of the composition, directly above Kaoru’s

  She is also the sister most commonly identifi ed as

  head. Unlike other artists’ renditions of this scene,

  “the divine princess at Uji Bridge” (Hashihime), the

  the moon is not a full autumn moon, but a half-

  person referred to in the title of this chapter. The

  moon, as if to match the sister’s comment and the

  name comes f rom a poem by Kaoru in which he

  holes on the biwa. Meanwhile, the inclusion of the

  likens himself to a ferryman who is adrift between

  koto in the painting, without its player, alludes to the

  the secular world and the far shore of the next life,

  continued dialogue between the sisters in the tale.

  and who pines romantically for the mythical female

  The conversation between the sisters resembles

  guardian deity of the fl oating bridge that spans the

  other instances in the tale in which serious content

  two realms.

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  The great bole of oak

  Into whose sweet shade I thought

  To come for shelter

  Has become, alas, a space

  Empty of its seat of prayer.

  cranston, p. 922

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  46

  At the

  Foot of the

  Oak Tree

  Shiigamoto

  Tachiyoramu

  Kage to tanomishi

  Shii ga moto

  Munashiki kitoko ni

  Narinikeru kana

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  In one of the most beautiful and well-preserved

  it recalls the “maiden of the bridge,” the elder sister

  paintings in the album, Mitsunobu’s artistry with

  Oigimi, as in the previous chapter.

  snow scenes is on full display in the picture’s med-

  The visible span of the bridge is covered in f reshly

  ley of shimmering gold, luminescent shell white,

  fallen snow between its brown-colored railings and

  and dark mineral blue, combined with a visually

  is f ree of tracks or traces of travelers. Its pristine

  striking and unique design. It is just before the New

  state calls to mind a poem by Oigimi in the tale (dif-

  Year in the twelfth month and the landscape at Uji

  ferent f rom the one in the calligraphy leaf ), a reply

  is blanketed in powdery white snow. The banks on

  she gives to Kaoru during a visit in which he asks

  opposite sides of the undulating stream alongside

  her whether she has ever corresponded with Prince

  the sisters’ villa are soft, rounded mounds shaped

  Niou. She seeks to reassure him with her verse:

  as if they interlock like a puzzle. The gold ground

  Yuki fukaki

  Over the bridges

  beneath the dusting of white does the work of the

  Yama no kakehashi Clinging to the cliff s along

  bright winter sun, its refulgence capturing the crisp-

  Kimi narade

  Our deep-snow mountains

  ness of a visual world in high resolution. Ink lines

  Mata fumikayou

  No letter-bearer leaves his trace:

  in the water suggest the ripples of a fast-moving

  Ato o minu kana

  Those footprints are yours alone.

  stream, but the f rosty reeds at the edge of the shore

  cranston, p. 921

  foretell the f reezing of the water soon to come.

  Adding to the sense of a chilly but not quite f rigid

  The painting for Chapter Forty-Six works with

  atmosphere are the gentle fl urries of white fl akes,

  this poem as a “poem-picture” ( uta-e), more so than

  which stand out against the mineral blue pigment

  the verse actually included in the album’s calligra-

  used to depict the water. The snowbanks and land

  phy, as Katagiri Yayoi has pointed out. Keywords

  formations on the right side of the composition,

  in Oigimi’s poem fi nd direct visual counterparts in

  dotted by snow-covered pine trees, lead the eye the image, beginning with the most obvious “deep upward past a large gold cloud that extends across

  snow” ( yuki fukaki), and the “mountain spanning

  the entire width of the painting, to the rim of a

  bridge” ( yama no kakehashi), in the fi rst part of the

  snow-covered mountain. There, in the upper right

  waka. Even the last part of the poem is visualized

  corner, is the Uji bridge, spanning f rom behind the

  through a pun on the word “fumi,” which can mean

  mountain to an unseen shore beyond the picture

  both “letter” and “to step” ( fumu). In a corner of the

  plane. The image participates in the long-standing

  residence, Kaoru sits with his head tilted downward,

  symbolism of bridges as linking this world and the

  engrossed in reading a letter held in his hands. The

  next, integral to the overall characterization of the

  missive, with its pink and gold back, and light blue

  otherworldly atmosphere of Uji. At the same time,

  surface bearing lines of writing, is unusually large,

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  now contend without their father. Kaoru’s presence

  at the house in Uji, however, represents the fulfi m-

  ment of a promise he made to Hachinomiya to look

  after the princesses.

  The calligraphic excerpt chosen for this chap-

  ter does not match the picture, as mentioned, but

  it does provide the verse f rom which the chapter

  title derives, which also refl ects Kaoru’s sadness

  over the passing of Hachimomiya, his f riend and

  spiritual mentor. The poem is a lament composed

  by the young man after he enters the room of the

  deceased Hachinomiya. He sees that the chambers

  are already covered in dust and emptied of all the

  ritual implements and Buddhist statues and paint-

  ings that had aided the prince in his devotions. The

  place where Kaoru once studied with Hachinomiya

  is “beneath the oak” ( shii ga moto), the tree being a

  as if signaling its status as a word-image for corre-

  symbol for the old prince, a space now empty ( muna-

  sponding c
omponents in Oigimi’s poem: “letter”

  shiki toko) in both the literal and Buddhistic sense of

  ( fumi) and “traces” ( ato) of writing. The letter in

  “emptiness.” Reading the image in conjunction with

  Kaoru’s hand and the pristine snow on the bridge

  this poem, regardless of its fi t with the precise tem-

  suggest that Kaoru’s competitor, Prince Niou, has

  poral moment of the scene, encourages the viewer

  not “stepped” ( fumu) here, as he has left no “tracks”

  to understand the fi gure of Kaoru in the painting as

  ( ato) either in snow or in writing.

  a character contemplating more than just romance.

  The sender of the letter, Oigimi, appears in With the inclusion of this poetic lament, the paint-the large room near the bottom of the zigzagging

  ing can function as a depiction of another step in

  architectural structure, highlighted by a bright red

  Kaoru’s ill-fated relationship with the princesses and

  standing curtain to her side decorated with a gold

  as a vision of him grieving the loss of his religious

  crisscross design on its reverse. She is dressed in

  teacher and f riend, allowing the bridge at the top of

  elaborate robes with layers of pink and red sleeves,

  the painting to symbolize the link to the mythical

  and a dark green underlayer, as she leans forward

  maiden and to the otherworld.

  facing two female attendants. The young lady’s face

  is downturned and shows a troubled expression,

  while a gold cloud hovers above, emphasizing her

  importance in the scene. Although she has reassured

  Kaoru that she has never written to Niou, the reader

  knows better. She has in fact sent the prince a poem

  on behalf of her sister who had been correspond-

  ing with him, but who was too grief-stricken by the

  death of their father to reply. Niou was fascinated

  by Oigimi’s writing, and according to the narration

  in the tale, he stared at the letter, unable to put it

  down, in much the same posture, one might imag-

  ine, as Kaoru in this painting. Kaoru’s fi gure calls to

  mind Niou as a suitor with whom the women must

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  They could make out the brocade-

  like thatch of autumn leaves that

  decorated the roof of the boat and

  were surprised by the extravagant,

  lively sound of musical instruments

  in concert that came wafting toward

  them on the wind.

  washburn, p. 1016

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  47

  A Bowknot

  Tied in

  Maiden’s

  Loops

  Agemaki

  Momiji o fukitaru fune no

  kazari no nishiki to miyuru

  ni, koegoe fukiizuru mono

  no ne mo, kaze ni tsukite

  odoroodoroshiki made oboyu

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  Drawn to women of royal status, Niou ignores the

  jected to court duties and constraints placed on

  plans made for him to marry the sixth daughter of

  him by vigilant parents suspicious of his philander-

  his commoner uncle, Yūgiri, and in Chapter Forty-

  ings, he has been unable to visit his secret bride at

  Seven, he secretly weds the second princess at Uji,

  Uji. Finally, under the public pretense of an autumn

  Nakanokimi. As Niou is a favorite son of the Akashi

  excursion, he travels by boat, one extravagantly

  Empress, and it is presumed he will one day become

  decorated and festooned with fall leaves. The

  Crown Prince, Niou’s movements and behavior are

  painting shows the boat transporting four court-

  strictly circumscribed by protocol and scrutinized

  iers playing the “lively music carried on the wind,”

  by the watchful eyes of his parents and relatives. His

  as the text in the album’s excerpt describes. The

  visits to Nakanokimi, after having been introduced

  instruments include the reed pipe ( shō), the small

  to the Uji sisters by Kaoru in the last chapter, have

  oboe ( hichiriki), and two horizontal fl utes ( yokobue).

  only been conducted with great eff ort on Niou’s

  Only one fi gure faces the viewer, a fl ute player, who

  part and careful scheming by Kaoru. Niou manages

  seems to be Prince Niou. He wears elegant robes

  to make the arduous trip south of the capital for

  and sits directly beneath the pinnacle of the boat’s

  the obligatory three consecutive nights that consti-

  roof. A golden-lined bamboo blind hangs behind

  tute a wedding, but with no one else’s knowledge

  him, and a profusion of crimson leaves encircle

  or acknowledgment, the union still feels tenuous

  his face. The fi gure playing the short vertical fl ute

  to Nakanokimi and her sister. Oigimi, burdened by

  is dressed in similarly elegant robes and might be

  her father’s admonitions not to shame the family or

  Kaoru. As in the album painting for Suma (Chapter

  marry beneath her station, coupled with her own

  Twelve), sound travels over the waves and across

  aversion to marriage and deep-seated feelings of

  golden forms that evoke sandbars, or the shadows

  inadequacy, persists in rejecting Kaoru. And yet for a

  of the mottled gold clouds hovering above. The

  brief moment after Niou spends his third night with

  musical strains reach the villa, which is represented

  Nakanokimi, both sisters seem hopeful.

  by two grand structures poking through the clouds

  The album painting depicts the moment, in the upper left corner. The buildings have gray-however, just as events take an unfortunate turn,

  tiled ridges that top hipped and gabled cypress

  leading Oigimi to fear that the couple is indeed

  roofs. Trees with leaves painted in red, green, and

  star-crossed, and that her sister may be headed blue signify the canopy of colorful autumn foliage for neglect and ridicule after all. It has been weeks

  that blends in with the green hills said to be visible

  since Niou wed Nakanokimi and having been sub-

  to Niou and Kaoru f rom the boat.

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  The passage in the tale also describes the boat

  as Hikoboshi in the painting, the artist makes him

  f rom the perspective of the female attendants at

&n
bsp; a fl ute player, the instrument long associated with

  the Uji villa who have crowded onto the veranda

  the oxherd.

  to get a glimpse of their lady’s new husband. They

  But while natural forces conspire to bring the

  cannot spot Niou himself through the heavy mist

  two stars together in poetry, in this episode, higher

  suspended over the water, but they are struck by

  powers, namely Prince Niou’s mother and father,

  the lavishness of the entourage and the colorful red

  keep Niou and Nakanokimi apart. Not only is Niou

  leaves, “brocade-like,” fl oating through the haze.

  surrounded by young men who would be his future

  The women fi nd the vision of Niou’s fl oating specta-

  brothers-in-law (sons of Yūgiri), he is also soon

  cle so magnifi cent that they liken him to Hikoboshi,

  joined by a vast contingent of palace offi

  cials sent

  the celestial oxherd (the star Altair), who only meets

  by the Akashi Empress. The excursion becomes a

  his lover the celestial weaver maiden, Orihime (the

  grand courtly event, making a visit for Niou across

  star Vega), once a year. The women decide that if

  the river to the Uji villa impossible. Meanwhile, the

  he were Hikoboshi, Niou’s celestial light would sisters, even though they have been told to prepare be worth the wait for Tanabata, the autumn festi-for the prince’s visit, can only watch in humiliation

  val during which the two stars cross the “River of

  as the fanfare and revelry exceeds anything they

  Heaven” (Ama no Kawa), the band of stars known

  have witnessed before, and Niou simply ignores

  as the Milky Way that otherwise keeps them apart.

  them. Oigimi had already been doubtful of Niou’s

  In this way, the Uji River can be viewed as the River

  intentions, but this indignity shames her to the core.

  of Heaven that separates the two lovers. During

  She wants nothing more than to disappear, a goal

  Tanabata the mythical couple reunites by crossing

  she fi nally accomplishes by the end of the chap-

  a bridge of autumn leaves, as beautifully expressed

  ter when she loses all will to live and simply stops

  in a Kokinshū poem (IV: 175), which explains why

  eating. Kaoru rushes to her sickbed, commissions

  the weaver maiden has been known to long for fall.

 

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