Buddhist rites to heal her, but is forced to witness
From the perspective of the ladies at the Uji villa,
her demise, and he remains at the household for the
the boat bobbing on the waves through mist could
full forty-nine days of mourning. Meanwhile Niou
easily be taken for that ethereal fl oating bridge of
visits the grieving Nakanokimi and fi nally makes
woven brocade-like leaves that will unite the lovers
plans to move his bride to the capital, to Nijō, the
once more. And reinforcing the idea of Prince Niou
home he inherited f rom Murasaki.
Chapter 47 | A Bowknot Tied in Maiden’s Loops | 211
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These are now for you
(Many springs have I picked them
Through drifting years for him),
These fi rst shoots of the bracken
In a custom we won’t forget.
cranston, p. 934
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48
Early
Fiddlehead
Greens
Sawarabi
Kimi ni tote
Amata no toshi o
Tsumishikaba
Tsune o wasurenu
Hatsuwarabi nari
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Chapter Forty-Eight opens with Nakanokimi still
The poem in fact touchingly recalls for Nakano-
mourning her older sister and in the midst of exam-
kimi a time one year ago when she and her now
ining a gift f rom a character known as “the ascetic”
deceased sister both mourned the death of their
( azari), a priest who had been her late father’s reli-
father, Hachinomiya. The sisters received a similar
gious guide. It being spring and the start of the New
delivery of spring bracken f rom the ascetic at that time
Year, the ascetic has sent a basket fi lled with plants
(narrated in the Shiigamoto chapter), which inspired
recently picked near his temple in the Uji moun-
a verse that Oigimi sent to the ascetic in response:
tains. The basket that has been gifted is a focal point
Kimi ga oru
Could we but view it
in the album painting, shown on the fl oor directly
Mine no warabi to
As the bracken Father plucked
in f ront of Nakanokimi. It contains both horsetail
Mimashikaba
On the peak where he dwelt,
shoots ( tsukushi), with their distinctive brown cir-
Shirare ya semashi
We might fi nd in it a sign
cles on beige-colored spore cones, and fi ddleheads
Haru no shirushi mo That spring has come again.
( warabi), most of the green pigment of which has
cranston, p. 922
disappeared f rom the surface of the painting. The
ascetic has also sent a letter through the princess’s
The word kimi refers to Hachinomiya, as Oigimi
female attendant inquiring about the young lady’s
wished the plants were ones their father himself
well-being. The attendant appears in the painting,
had picked — Hachinomiya died while on a retreat
seated in the aisle room in profi le, seemingly having
at the ascetic’s mountain temple after suddenly
just delivered the gift and the ascetic’s note, which
becoming ill, and the sisters were never allowed to
Nakanokimi holds in two hands as she reads intently.
see him. Oigimi’s poem suggests an imagining on
In a trope that we have seen before in the album, the
her part that her father lived on, like an immortal
poem inscribed on the adjacent calligraphy sheet is
on his mountain peak, and her wish that the plants
the very one being read by the fi gure in the image.
provided a confi rmation of his eternal return. The
It may have taken some eff ort for Nakanokimi to
ascetic’s poem, included with his gift and reproduced
decipher the ascetic’s writing — the narrator makes
in the album leaf, reuses the fi rst word kimi (“him,”
a point of noting the roughness of his kana callig-
which referred to Hachinomiya) to echo Oigimi’s
raphy and the clumsy indentation of his poem amid
previous verse, but now refers to Nakanokimi (sent
the prose of the letter. Nevertheless, Nakanokimi is
to “you”). The last two lines of the verse pay trib-
grateful for the sentiments expressed and contrasts
ute to the deceased Oigimi, the “fi rst shoots of
them to the superfi cial content and fl orid language
bracken” ( hatsu-warabi), the elder, fi rstborn sister.
of Niou’s letters.
In this way, the ascetic’s words bring all three fam-
ily members together. In response, Nakanokimi
sends the following poem (not included in the
album leaf ):
Kono haru wa
Whom this year in spring
Tare ni misemu
Shall I show the shoots you’ve picked,
Naki hito no
These remembrances
Katami ni tsumeru
Of one who is no more,
Mine no sawarabi
Early bracken f rom the hill?
cranston, p. 935
She laments the loss of her one true companion in
life, her grief over her sister’s death surpassing even
that for her father. Nakanokimi uses “early bracken”
( sawarabi), the title for this chapter, altering the
214 | The Tale of Genji
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priest’s “fi rst bracken,” as if to say that the elder sis-
wooden panel directly opposite this one bears a
ter was taken too soon.
painting of tall green bamboo overlaid with conspic-
For all of the expressions of paralyzing grief,
uous ink lines that indicate the panel’s wood grain.
the fi rst line of the Sawarabi chapter hopefully Nakanokimi sits directly between these two visual announces the change in season f rom winter to
symbols, the regal chrysanthemum (Niou) and the
spring after Oigimi’s death, explaining that “the sturdy, austere bamboo (Kaoru). The only fl owers radiance of spring illuminates even the darkest of
shown in the Uji garden are violets ( sumire), which
thickets.” Life will go on, as it indeed does when
are never mentioned in the narration of The Tale of
the story soon turns to Nakanokimi’s move to Genji but are allude
d to indirectly by Niou, when he the capital, and into Niou’s magnifi cent Nijō resi-sends Nakanokimi a suggestive message and refers
dence. Chapter Forty-Eight marks Nakanokimi’s to a poet who sleeps among a fi eld of violets. The emergence as the sole remaining heroine of the
delicate purple petals connote spring but also Niou’s
Uji storyline, and the album painting depicts her
attraction to Nakanokimi, an attraction that is said
taking her sister’s place. She is situated at an angle
to be mutual. Despite this suggestion that the new-
within the architecture identical to that of Oigimi
lywed’s union is a promising one, Kaoru has started
in the painting for Chapter Forty-Five, for example,
to believe that the younger sister should be for him
visualizing the theme of their interchangeability. a living memento of Oigimi, creating a complicated The bamboo fence of the residence that fi gured
romantic triangle that Nakanokimi will be forced to
so prominently in the kaimami passage in the negotiate on her own.
Hashihime chapter appears in this image as well,
between golden clouds in the lower left corner,
a subtle reminder of all that has happened since
Kaoru fi rst glimpsed the sisters f rom the other side
of the fence on that moonlit night in Chapter Forty-
Five. Nakanokimi is depicted wearing a transparent
white singlet, with its pink tone created by layers
of red garments underneath. Her eyebrows point
inward and upward registering her sorrow as she
reads the ascetic’s mournful poem, while her black
tresses are full and luxurious. The narrative stresses
the closeness and similarity of the sisters, and yet
when directly compared, Nakanokimi is said to be
more cheerful and yielding than her sister.
The decor of the sister’s room also hints at
Nakanokimi’s new life to come in the capital as a
princess married to Prince Niou. One of the wooden
panels enclosing the aisle of her residence includes
a colorful lattice wall, resembling a f reestanding
lattice panel ( tatejitomi). Its squares are painted
alternatively in green and white in a checkerboard
pattern, with blue chrysanthemums, each with ten
petals, adorning the center of the white squares. The
chrysanthemum could be a symbol for off spring of
the imperial house and may suggest Nakanokimi’s
marriage to Prince Niou. Meanwhile, a second
Chapter 48 | Early Fiddlehead Greens | 215
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He pulled a tendril of the
Shall I give my glance
morning glory toward him,
Admiring to this morning’s hue,
causing a cascade of dew to fall.
Knowing all the while
washburn, p. 1063
I but rely on a fl ower
Lustrous til the dewdrops dry?
cranston, p. 940
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49
Trees
Encoiled in
Vines of Ivy
Yadoriki
Asagao o hikiyose tamau
ni tsuyu itaku koboru.
Kesa no ma no
Iro ni ya medemu
Oku tsuyu no
Kienu ni kakaru
Hana to miru miru
217
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In the painting for Chapter Forty-Nine, Kaoru stands
withdrawal from the world. The morning glory,
amid a garden teeming with autumn fl owers — pam-
blooming only briefl y, captures Kaoru’s sentiment at
pas grass, bush clover, white-tipped mistfl owers, and
this moment, as a metaphor for life’s ephemerality.
yellow maiden fl owers — accented by dots of silver
Before plucking the fl ower, the narrative describes
to evoke the glistening morning dew. As in the text
Kaoru as lying alone, staring out into the garden
of the album’s calligraphy, Kaoru pulls a tendril of
through raised shutters, watching the fl owers as
morning glory toward him; the painting shows him
they open with the coming of dawn. He decides to
fi rmly taking the dew-drenched vine in both hands.
visit Nakanokimi, breaks off the morning glory, and
The vines of the jaunty blue fl owers wind around a
intones the verse in the album on his way to the Nijō
wood-framed bamboo fence and a black, open-work
villa. In the poem Kaoru questions his own tendency
design atop its lintel. The fence is called “mist-en-
to be drawn to such fl eeting beauties, referring, it
shrouded” in the preceding passage in the tale, and
seems, to both the short-lived Oigimi and her unat-
Kaoru fi rst spots it, along with the blue morning glo-
tainable younger sister.
ries, from inside his Sanjō residence. He has a spent a
While the image of Kaoru and the morning
sleepless night still tormented over the loss of Oigimi
glory that so aptly expresses his ethereal persona
and fi lled with regret for not pursuing Nakanokimi
and the sentiment of his verse seems rather straight-
when he had the chance. Niou has recently suc-
forward, the painting’s inclusion of a female fi gure
cumbed to relentless pressure by his parents and the
inside the residence complicates the identifi cation
Minister, Yūgiri, to take Rokunokimi (Yūgiri’s sixth
of the scene’s subject matter. Although Kaoru is
daughter) as a second wife. The news devastates
said to gaze at the garden alone in the early morn-
Nakanokimi, who has just learned she is pregnant
ing hours, and although he is presented as the chaste
with Niou’s fi rst child, and it encourages Kaoru to
foil to the libidinous Niou, he is far f rom abstinent.
rationalize acting on his attraction to Nakanokimi.
In fact, the prelude to his plucking of the morning
At the same time, Kaoru himself has fi nally agreed
glory is a passage that describes his relations with a
to marry, after having received a personal invita-
number of women in his service, women of distin-
tion from the Emperor to wed his daughter by his
guished lineages, but to whom he never develops a
Fujitsubo Consort. Although it is a great privilege
strong attachment. These women seem to be like
for a commoner to marry a princess, Kaoru remains
the proverbial “showy maiden fl owers” noted in the
confl icted given his spiritual aspirations and aver-
tale (Washburn, p. 1024), an allusion to three diff er-<
br />
sion to commitments that would hinder his later
ent Kokinshū poems by Bishop Henjō, in which the
priest-poet spurns the seductive charms of fl owers
that threaten the single-minded purpose of the reli-
gious devotee. Kaoru prefers the morning glory,
symbol of transience, a point underscored by the
painting, which has him nearly trampling the yel-
low maiden fl owers underfoot, and turning his back
to the beautiful woman inside, while focusing his
attention on the waning beauty in his hands. He
leaves the garden, it is said in the tale, “without so
much as a glance at the maiden fl owers.”
The woman in the painting could be an example
of the kind of alluring beauty who lacks the sen-
sitivity and thoughtfulness that attracted Kaoru to
Oigimi. The visual tropes that convey social status
in narrative painting, however, make this identi-
218 | The Tale of Genji
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fi cation unlikely. Luxurious curtains f raming the
One other woman is referred to as a maiden
woman, her location deep within the interior of
fl ower in this chapter — Rokunokimi, the new wife
the room, and the gold cloud above her, all suggest
of Niou, who with her powerful paternal backing,
someone specifi c and prominent. The album paint-
stands in stark contrast to the solitary Uji Princess.
ing most likely combines two scenes: Kaoru in the
Nakanokimi fears that she will be abandoned by
garden at Sanjō and his subsequent visit to Nijō just
a husband on whom she is wholly dependent but
moments later, in which case the woman depicted
fi nds ways to assert her position and to occupy
in the interior is none other than Nakanokimi. The
Niou’s attention even over the course of the three
residential facade that diagonally bisects the paint-
successive wedding nights and the early days of his
The Tale of Genji- A Visual Companion Page 31
