The Tale of Genji

  23. Tō no Chūjō.

  24. Kumoi no Kari.

  25. In separate rooms.

  26. To celebrate the recent promotions.

  27. Because of the posture the instrument requires.

  28. From the source of her musical lineage, Emperor Daigo.

  29. Tō no Chūjō plans to marry Kumoi no Kari to Suzaku's son (now nine), despite the threat posed by the daughter of the lady from Akashi (“this fortunate mother”).

  30. As though moved by the music.

  31. From the preface to a poem in the Wenxuan, a Chinese anthology that every courtier knew: “The leaves await a breeze to fall, and yet how light the breeze!”

  32. An anecdote that follows the Wenxuan passage just quoted tells how a gentleman wept on hearing another play the kin, although the emotional depth of the kin was not really that great. Presumably tears, like autumn leaves, simply fall of themselves, when the moment comes.

  33. A scholar may play music, since Confucius attributed great value to it.

  34. A line from a saibara song.

  35. The “fruit” (kudamono) may include also nuts and prepared confections; the “watered rice” (yuzuke) consists of steamed brown rice in hot water.

  36. She kept a curtain at least partially between them.

  37. Kumoi no Kari's stepfather.

  38. The one into Kumoi no Kari's room. He is probably in one subdivision of the chamber and she in another.

  39. Kumoi no kari, an expression from Genji monogatari kochūshakusho in yō waka 165: “Is the goose on high in the fog-filled heavens sad as I am sad? Why does my melancholy never clear?” This is the source of the name by which the speaker is conventionally known.

  40. This sentiment echoes Kokin rokujō 423 on the autumn wind.

  41. Her ceremonial entry into the palace at her new rank.

  42. To move Kumoi no Kari after representations to his wife and to his mother.

  43. The tears of blood shed (so convention had it) by someone in particularly intense grief.

  44. “How did we become so attached to each other?” Nakagoromo (“the robe between us”) is a literary expression for a love relationship.

  45. The Gosechi Festival accompanied the Daijōsai rite in the year of a new Emperor's accession, or the Niinamesai rite, as on this occasion. It took place on the middle days of the Ox (ushi), Tiger (tora), Rabbit (u), and Dragon (tatsu) in the eleventh month. In the former case there were five dancers and in the latter four; of these, two in a Niinamesai year came from among the senior nobles and two (three in a Daijōsai year) from among the privy gentlemen or provincial Governors. On the day of the Ox the dancers and their escort of gentlewomen entered the Gosechi chamber in the Jōneiden. On the last day (that of the Dragon) there was the great court banquet known as Toyo no Akari, and on this occasion the Gosechi dancers danced the dance of the heavenly maidens.

  46. The entry into the Jōneiden on the day of the Ox.

  47. Akikonomu.

  48. He did not want his daughter put on display that way.

  49. Sotobara, a woman other than the formal wife.

  50. Into the west wing, where Murasaki lived.

  51. Shūishū 579 mentions a sacred “Toyo-oka-hime,” whose identity remains uncertain. Yūgiri seems to mean that as a Gosechi dancer the girl is now in the service of the gods. His “claim” is shime, the word not only for roping off (claiming possession of) a plot of ground but for the sacred rope (shimenawa) that marks off a sacred space.

  52. “I have always loved you.” “Within the sacred fence” (mizugaki no) is from Shūishū 1210, by Hitomaro: “O maiden who toss your sleeves within the sacred fence on the hill of Furu, since I first loved you long ages have passed.” The “maiden” of the poem serves the Isonokami deity, whose shrine is on the “hill of Furu.”

  53. The daughter of a mere privy gentleman.

  54. The day when the dancers performed, on the occasion of the Toyo no akari banquet.

  55. “Grown wise” more or less translates kamisabinu, “grown [in age and dignity] to be like a god.” The expression alludes to the sacred character of the Gosechi dance.

  56. The vocabulary of the original hints in various ways at the Gosechi dance that the writer once performed. The “sunshade band” (hikage) is something a Gosechi dancer wore.

  57. Aozuri no kami, paper that may have been patterned by a wax-resist method. The robes worn by the Gosechi dancers were also described as aozuri.

  58. Yoshikiyo's daughter and Koremitsu's. Karasaki is a promontory at the southern end of Lake Biwa, while Naniwa corresponds roughly to the site of Ōsaka. Purification rites associated with the Gosechi Festival took place at both locations.

  59. Presumably as a Consort.

  60. The color alludes to that of the “sunshade band” (hikage).

  61. “Bright day” is hikage, a homophone for the “sunshade band.” The “feather sleeves” (ama no hasode) are, in the imagination, those of a Gosechi dancer, whose dance was that of a celestial being.

  62. Hanachirusato.

  63. The original expression, hamayū, is from Shūshū 668, attributed to Hitomaro. Hamayū is a perennial plant (a crinum) that grows on seaside dunes. Its leaves lap over one another, layer on layer, hence its use here to suggest “many veils” (curtains, blinds, etc.). The poem reads, approximately, “Hamayū, manifold on the Kumano shore, manifold my thoughts of you, and yet we do not meet.”

  64. Because she was a nun.

  65. Because by allowing himself to mope he invites the malevolent attentions of roving spirits.

  66. Fujiwara no Yoshifusa (804–72), the first official to hold the offices both of Regent (Sesshō, Regent for a minor Emperor) and of Chancellor (Daijōdaijin).

  67. Sechie no hibi, the days of the year on which the Emperor feasted his courtiers. During the first month these included the first, the seventh (the day of the Blue Roans), and the fourteenth and sixteenth (the mumming).

  68. The palace of the Retired Emperor Suzaku. He is in principle Reizei's older half brother, but the difference in age makes him more like a father.

  69. Fujitsubo. Mourning for her would have prevented the visit.

  70. This examination allowed the student to pass from gimonjō (“provisional candidate”) status, Yūgiri's present one, to monjōshō (“regular candidate”).

  71. There were two, elaborately decorated and each with a tall prow in the form of a fabulous beast.

  72. A modest suggestion, in response to the praise expressed in the previous poem, that the speaker's reign is less brilliant than his predecessor's.

  73. They sang sōga, which should mean that they sang strings of wordless syllables (such as taririra), each syllable being the name of the corresponding note. Judging from what follows, however, they seem to have been singing songs.

  74. The Kiritsubo Emperor and Fujitsubo.

  75. Oborozukiyo.

  76. About 14 acres. Akikonomu's mother, the Rokujō Haven, apparently left this property to Genji when she entrusted her daughter to his care.

  77. He is her father.

  78. Toshimi, a celebratory banquet held after a solemn Buddhist service to pray for the long life and happiness of the gentleman being honored.

  79. Roku, the gifts to compensate the priests for their efforts. Murasaki is taking care of everything to do with the Buddhist service that preceded the banquet.

  80. The Sweet Flag Festival of the fifth month involved riding events.

  81. Hahaso (probably the nara oak), a tree honored in poetry for the deep red of its late-autumn leaves.

  82. The autumn equinox was celebrated for seven days, centered on the tenth day of the eighth lunar month.

  83. Hanachirusato and Yūgiri.

  84. Apparently artificial.

  85. The tenth lunar month is the first of winter, her season.

  22: TAMAKAZURA

  1. Because tears aboard ship invite misfortune.

  2. Ise monogatari 8 (section 7): “My heart so longs to cross the distance I have come: with what envy I watch the waves as they return!”

  3. Kokinshū 961, by Ono no Takamura: “I never thought to fall so low, banished to the wilds, as to draw a fisherman's line and take fish from the sea!”

  4. Kane no Misaki, on the north coast of Kyushu. “I shall not forget” is from Man yōshū 1234, a poem of thanks to a sea deity on safely passing this perilous cape: “Though I have passed the mighty Kane no Misaki, I shall not forget the august Shiga Deity.”

  5. The woman Genji had seen beside Yūgao on the night of Yūgao's death.

  6. The memorial services to be performed at regular intervals after a person's death.

  7. Perhaps her husband's scrupulousness (in matters of taxation, for example) angered the local powers and ensured that he derived no personal profit from his tour of duty. His enemies could easily make travel impossible for his widow.

  8. Fasting and purification, and prayers for a happier rebirth, during the first fifteen days of the first, fifth, and ninth months.

  9. A rare commodity in the City, although perhaps slightly easier to get in Kyushu, where the trading ships from China docked.

  10. Yobai, a custom by no means confined to the amorous adventures of gentlemen like Genji. It seems to have been common in the countryside as well.

  11. A joking allusion to Kokinshū 546: “All times are equal for I love you in them all, yet, on an autumn evening, O how strangely more!”

  12. The present month is the third, the last of spring. Perhaps it was thought unlucky to marry in the last month of a season.

  13. The poem does not follow; something like “I will accept the punishment of the gods” is missing between its two halves. Its great virtue, for the speaker, seems to be that it gets in a word
play (on kakete), according to accepted poetic practice. This divine mirror is enshrined in the Kagami Jinja (“Mirror Shrine”) in Matsura now Karatsu, on the north coast of Kyushu.

  14. Instead of uta (the light Japanese word) he uses the hard Chinese-style waka, which here reeks of schoolbookish effort.

  15. Both sisters accompany their mother and Tamakazura to the port of Matsura, but only Hyōbu, the younger, sails with the party. Her “name” is apparently derived from a title once borne by her eldest brother, who (as a later passage makes clear) was then a minor functionary in the Bureau of War and known as Hyōtōda (“the Bureau of War official who is a Fujiwara eldest son”).

  16. The location of Ukishima is uncertain, but its overtones suit the context, since uki means both “float” and “sad.” Tamakazura's poem, below, incorporates the same wordplay.

  17. Hibiki no Nada: the Harima coast, which included Akashi. It was apparently considered especially dangerous. They are approaching the site of modern Ōsaka.

  18. Presumably spoken by the nurse.

  19. Apparently from a folk song. Karatomari (“Korea port” or “China port”) was probably along the Harima (Hyōgo Prefecture) coast. Kawajiri is the mouth of the Yodo River, which empties into Ōsaka Bay.

  20. A line from a poem by Bai Juyi (Hakushi monjū 0144). The speaker, taken captive by the Tibetans, escaped at last only to be mistaken by the Chinese for a Tibetan and sent off to a penal colony.

  21. “Ninth Avenue,” one of the major, numbered east-west avenues of the City, in its distant southern, or “lower,” sector.

  22. The Yawata Shrine is Iwashimizu Hachiman on Otoko Yama, immediately southwest of the City. The speaker believes that the same deity is honored in all three places. (The language makes no distinction between a deity and the structure in which the deity is honored.) However, while the shrine at Hakozaki, on the north coast of Kyushu, is dedicated to Hachiman, the shrine at Matsura is not.

  23. A goshi (a second-level temple administrator) at Iwashimizu Gokurakuji, the Buddhist temple associated with the Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine.

  24. Hatsuse is the place-name associated with Hasedera, a temple in the mountains roughly east of Nara. Hasedera is dedicated to Eleven-Headed Kannon (Jūchimen Kannon). In Japan as in the Catholic world, particular sacred images could be revered as having special powers, and the Kannon of Hasedera made the temple a major pilgrimage center.

  25. The forty-five miles from Kyoto to Hasedera could be covered in two days on foot and in three by ox carriage. Since a noble lady seldom walked any distance, this pilgrimage must indeed have tested Tamakazura's endurance. However, walking conveyed greater piety than going by carriage.

  26. The Kannon of Hasedera.

  27. At the foot of Mount Miwa, about two and a half miles short of Hasedera and a customary stopping place for pilgrims. She arrives about midmorning.

  28. The place is probably a temple as well as an inn.

  29. Zejō, a long curtain suitable for partitioning a room.

  30. In the hope of coming across Tamakazura.

  31. Ukon, the nurse, and presumably Sanjō.

  32. Assuming that the Kannon image of Hasedera faced south then as now, both parties are to its right, but Tamakazura's is much farther away.

  33. Oshi, a priest whose profession included assisting pilgrims to a sacred site. The two parties seem to have different oshi.

  34. Yamato Province where Hasedera is located.

  35. Tō no Chūjō's title when Tamakazura was conceived.

  36. The most important temple in Kyushu, and often paired in popular faith with Hasedera. Both are dedicated to Kannon.

  37. Miakashi-bumi, a written prayer formally offered up by suitably commissioned priests.

  38. Tamakazura, a Fujiwara because her father is one. Ruri-gimi (“Miss Ruri”) is either Tamakazura's childhood name or a pseudonym invented by Ukon.

  39. Murasaki.

  40. Unlike a buddha, whose enlightenment, according to the Ryōgon-kyō, is revealed in this way.

  41. Kokinshū 1009 (not a tanka but a slightly longer sedōka): “By the Hatsuse River, the Furu River through the years the twin cedars stand, and may we meet again, where the twin cedars are.” “Furu” seems to be another name for the Hatsuse River.

  42. Literally, “turn back into colts” (komagaeru).

  43. Ukon implies by omission that Tamakazura was at least not too far from the City.

  44. Suetsumuhana.

  45. This poem is grammatically continuous with the prose that precedes it. It affirms the lasting tie between Genji and Tamakazura. It is quite difficult; perhaps Genji means it as a sort of test. Mishima Cove (Mishima-e), a spot along the Yodo River between Kyoto and Naniwa, was associated in poetry with densely growing mikuri reeds, the many suji (“lines”) of which introduce, or ornament, the idea of suji as “connection” between one person and another.

  46. Hanachirusato.

  47. Akashi.

  48. Yūgiri. This is the first reference to his most recent promotion.

  49. Nihon shoki 66, by Ōe no Asatsuna: “Do his parents not pity him? The Leech Child has reached his third year and cannot yet stand.”

  50. In the original, tamakazura (“tendril wreath”) functions mainly as an ornament to the suji (“stem”) that appeared, with its implications of “connection,” in Genji and Tamakazura's exchange of poems.

  51. Because he speaks as to a sister.

  52. Whom she had found so overwhelmingly impressive when she was in Tsukushi (Kyushu).

  53. “I leave it to you.”

  54. Hanachirusato.

  55. Tamakazura. The nature of these garments remains unspecified, except for the first “dress gown” (kouchiki) and the two “long dresses” (hosonaga). Commentators suggest uchiki or kouchiki for all.

  56. The “Chinese” probably alludes to Suetsumuhana's antique taste and manners.

  57. Utsusemi.

  58. The first day of the New Year.

  59. The recently built east pavilion of his Nijō residence.

  60. More like a mistress than a wife.

  61.The garment is utsuo (“empty”) because it has no shift with it, as it should.

  62. Suetsumuhana's poem, a merciless string of trite wordplays, resembles the poem that accompanied her gift of a robe to Genji in “The Safflower.” “Turn you back” is meant to convey at once “send back” (to the giver) and “turn inside out,” an accepted method of encouraging a dream visit from one's lover.

  63. Literally, “the syllables ma-to-i are mandatory.” Matoi, a poetically noble expression, means “sitting in a circle.”

  64. The “break” (yasumedokoro) is the third syllabic unit of the standard, five-unit poetic form.

  65. Utamakura, place names admissible in poetry.

  66. Her father.

  23: HATSUNE

  1. Large, round cakes made of glutinous rice (mochii), commonly offered to the gods on festive occasions. There may also be only one.

  2. They seem to be singing the congratulatory Kokinshū 356, which is partly quoted in the text: “I have celebrated your living the pine tree's myriad years, for I wish to make my home beneath your millennial shade.” “Celebrating length of days” (ha-gatame) was done during the first three days of the New Year; for the occasion one ate a set range of foods that included boar or pheasant, venison or snipe, and sweetfish (ayu).

  3. Keeping a hand in the front fold of one's robe (futokorode) seems to have been as casual as a man keeping his hands in his pockets.

  4. Kokinshū 1086, which was sung during ha-gatame: “There stands in Ōmi the Mirror Mountain, and even now I see in it my lord's thousand years.” Kagami-yama, “Mirror Mountain,” is a hill in Ōmi Province, near Lake Biwa.

  5. Chūjō was mentioned briefly in “Heart-to Heart” as one of Genji's gentlewomen, and she now serves Murasaki. Her ostensibly irreproachable remark seems to hint secretly at disappointment that Genji is neglecting her and at dismay over her own aging looks in the mirror. The mirror motif is also connected with the “mirror cakes.”