The Tale Of Genji

“Genji’s looks had an indescribably fresh sweetness, one beyond even Fujitsubo’s celebrated and, to the Emperor, peerless beauty, and this moved people to call him the Shining Lord. Since Fujitsubo made a pair with him, and His Majesty loved them both, they called her the Sunlight Princess.”

This is one of several times throughout the book the narrator accentuates Genji’s ineffable attractiveness and charm that will help him rise beyond his non-royal status. Such characteristics will allow most who meet him throughout his life to be in awe of his grace and also easily forgive him, as well as socially propel him beyond his identity as son to a low-ranking Intimate (Lady Kiritsubo, his mother). Here, his Emperor father’s wife, Fujitsubo, is also noted as his equal in looks and charm. This mention foreshadows one reason why Genji will pursue her later as a romantic partner, even though she is married to his father, the Emperor.

“At any rate, the best remedy when something comes between a couple is patience.”

To no Chujo makes this declaration during a rainy night conversation with Genji and several other men, discussing the ideal characteristics of a good wife while the men exchange stories of their past love affairs.

“Meanwhile Genji was absorbed in meditation on one lady alone. By the standard of this evening’s discussion she had neither too little or too much of any quality at all, and this thought filled him with wonder and desperate longing.”

As Genji leaves the Chapter 2 discussion with the group of men about the qualities of the ideal woman, he realizes much of what they say reminds him of his young foster mother, Fujitsubo, a wife of the Emperor. He already has been attached to Fujitsubo in childhood, since she resembles his mother’s looks, and after this conversation his interest seems to become more deeply romantic.

“Both the looks of the place and Aoi’s own manner were adorably distinguished, for neither could be faulted in either way, and it seemed to Genji she should be singled out as a treasure by his friends the evening before, but in fact he found such perfection too oppressive.”

Though Genji’s wife, Aoi, has many of the qualities identified by the group of men in Chapter 2 as ideal traits for a wife, he comes to understand that her remoteness and flawless nature alienate him more than attract him. He is more attached to Fujitsubo’s embodiment of some of the criteria the men list, especially how she seems to have no overriding qualities, but instead she exhibits a well-distributed set of traits that are not stronger or weaker than any others. His lack of intimacy with Aoi continues through their entire marriage, especially as Genji increasingly pursues outside romantic affairs.

“Meanwhile, after successfully overcoming the Rokujo Haven’s reserve, he had changed and taken most unfortunately to treating her like any other woman. One wonders why there lives on in him nothing of the reckless passion [from when] he first began courting her.”

While at the nunnery, visiting with his former nurse and beginning to flirt with Yugao, Genji realizes that his attraction to the Rokujo Haven—with whom he is also having an affair—has faded. He comes to the conclusion the more she shows emotion and passion for him, the less he feels intrigued by her, and was drawn to her more when she did not express so much interest in him. Eventually, the Rokuji Haven is accused of having her living spirit attack and kill Yugao, out of jealousy over losing Genji’s romantic attentions.

“Mist veiled the landscape into the distance, and the budding trees everywhere were as though swathed in smoke. ‘It all looks just like a painting,’ he said. ‘No one living here could wish for more!’”

When Genji travels to the Northern Hills area to help cure a fever, he makes note of his shock over the beauty of the landscape. This moment helps illustrate how officials of his rank, including technical commoners (even if of royal lifestyle), are not accustomed to seeing the natural world outside of their palaces and protected travels.

“She is one I would like to see when she grows up! Genji thought, fascinated. Indeed, he wept when he realized that it was her close resemblance to the lady who claimed all his heart that made it impossible for him to take his eyes off here.”

Though problematic for modern readers, Genji is instantly drawn to 10-year-old Murasaki, which he realizes is because she resembles Fujitsubo, who is the wife of his father, The Emperor, and a woman who helped raise him.

“What an enchanting girl he had found! Those companions of his, so keen on women and always exploring, might indeed come across their rare finds, but he had found a treasure just on a chance outing! He was delighted. What a dear child! Who could she be? He now longed for the pleasure of having her with him day and night, to make up for the absence of the lady he loved.”

Also potentially problematic for modern readers, one of Genji’s other reasons for being attracted to the young Murasaki is how hidden-away she is, as she is discovered in the rural Northern Hills, not in high society. This particular thrill harkensback to Genji’s Chapter 2 discussion with the group of men about the qualities of an ideal wife: a woman can be considered more rare and valuable if she is found in conditions such as those where Genji finds Murasaki.

“My Lord, your proposal should be very welcome, but she is still so young and innocent that I do not see how you could propose even in jest to favor her that way. At any rate, I myself can make no decision, since it is not for me to rear a girl into adulthood. I shall give you answer after discussing the matter with her grandmother.”

After Genji pleads with the prelate priest to let him adopt young Murasaki, the Prelate tells Genji he must consult the grandmother of Murasaki, Kitayama no Amagimi, about taking her to live with him. Once asked, Murasaki’s grandmother refuses, as she is concerned about Genji’s intentions, and for Murasaki’s future. Genji repeatedly begs the grandmother to allow Murasaki to come with him, but the grandmother refuses each time. Soon after the grandmother passes away, Genji finds his chance to take Murasaki back to his home, without consent of her father or other household. The woman next in line to serve as her guardian, Shonagon, decides to travel with the child back to Genji’s house to stay with her, asshe would rather stay with the girl than face the child’s father after failing to inform him of Genji’s actions.

“But why should I exhibit my immodesty this way if I had only taken a passing fancy to her? There is an unfathomable bond between her and me, and my heart went out to her the moment I saw her—indeed, with such uncanny speed that I cannot believe this to be from this life alone.”

Here, Genji defends his feelings about Murasaki, despite her young age. He claims he could not feel so deeply about her if his intentions were purely lustful or sexual. Rather, as is referenced many times during The Tale of Genji, he expresses how a connection in past lives must play a part in why he feels such a bond with her.

“Murasaki was lying wrapped in a shift, and he insisted that she get up. ‘You must not be so unfriendly,’ he said. ‘Would I be looking after you this way if you did not mean a great deal to me? A woman should be sweet and obedient.’ And so began her education.”

In the first hours after Genji takes Murasaki from her childhood home, he instructs her that he would not be moving her to live with him if he did not genuinely care for her. He then tells her not to resist, as she is still a child, and adds that an ideal woman is pliant and submissive. The narrative voice saying that this is the beginning of Murasaki’s education confirms these are lessons Murasaki must learn to survive.

“A woman may be so querulous and so quick to make issue of the smallest lapse that the man takes a dislike to her, fearing that whatever he does may unleash bitter reproaches, until an estrangement that neither had wished for becomes a reality; but not so for Genji with his delightful companion. No daughter by the time she reaches this age can be as free with her father, sleep so intimately beside him, or rise so blithely with him in the morning…”

This quote is another example of the narrative voice confirming for readers that Genji’s actions can be pardoned or vindicated due to his deep, genuine love for many of the women with whom he has affairs.

“Genji found Aoi dauntingly perfect when he withdrew to her father’s from the palace, and her lack of warmth prompted him to remark, ‘How happy I would be if this year you were at last to consent to engage with me a little!’ But now that she knew he had brought another woman to live with him, she was convinced that he had lofty plans for the newcomer and undoubtedly thought him a sorrier embarrassment than ever…Obviously, Genji reflected, it is my own dissolute behavior that has earned me her rejection.”

Here, Genji, while visiting his wife, Aoi, directly asks her to be more personable with him after their several years of marriage. The narrator confirms for us that Aoi is aware of Genji’s other love interest now living at his house, and that his affairs have continued to add to her reasons for remaining withdrawn from him. The narrative voice also clarifies that Genji realizes his actions are mainly why his wife interacts with him as coolly as she does.

“Actually the boy was astonishingly, frighteningly like Genji himself. The resemblance was impossible to miss.”

After Fujitsubo gives birth to the next Heir Apparent, Reizei, the child looks very much like Genji, who is secretly his true father. The Emperor continues to believe this is his son with Fujitsubo, however, and he is overjoyed with the birth. As the child gets older, it becomes more and more obvious how much he resembles Genji.

“‘How can I keep in touch with you? Surely you do not want this to be all!’ With sweet grace she replied, ‘If with my sad fate I were just now to vanish, would you really come—ah, I wonder!—seeking me over grassy wastes of moor?’’ ‘I understand. Please forgive me.’”

Genji sleeps with Oborozukiyo when he drunkenly stumbles into the Kokiden Consort’s living area, but does not know her identity, save that she is a younger sister of the Kokiden Consort, and that she is a virgin. Later, he learns she is engaged to be a wife of his half-brother and Heir Apparent, Suzaku. Understanding he does not know who she is, and that he likely will not pursue her regardless, she responds to his inquiries for more information with a poem. Her chosen lines express her understanding that he would not likely search for her again, even if she were to let him know how to find her. Genji acknowledges she is probably right, and apologies.

“‘Never cause a woman humiliation,’ His Eminence continued. ‘Treat each with tact and avoid provoking her anger.’”

Genji’s father, the former Emperor, learns that the Rokujo Haven plans to accompany her daughter, Akikonomu, who has just been made High Priestess of Ise, down to her new territory. However, the former Emperor learns she feels she needs to be with her daughter due to concern for her young age, should Genji pay a visit and also try to begin an affair with her, too. His father finds it “intolerable” he should “treat her as casually” as he treats his other affairs, and as her father is now the new Emperor, His Eminence (the former Emperor) tells Genji, as a father advising a son, to refrain from pursuing Akikonomu, and for Genji to think more carefully about how he handles his philandering. This is one of the first times those close to Genji openly acknowledge to him that his romantic dalliances are becoming reckless.

“After considering all the women with whom Genji had a liaison, people began to whisper that only the Rokujo Haven and the lady at Nijo engaged with deeper feelings, so that either might be intensely jealous […].”

Close to giving birth, Aoi is attacked by a malicious spirit, similar to the attack that killed Yugao. Though Aoi does not die immediately, the spirit stays with her while divination tactics are performed to try to determine who the spirit might be. Rumors abound again, as they did with Yugao, that the spirit may belong to the Rokujo Haven, or perhaps Murasaki, torturing Yugao out of jealousy.

“At the Minister of the Left’s the spirit was very active, and Aoi was in agony. The Rokujo Haven heard that some were calling it her own living phantom or the ghost of her late father, but on reflection she found in herself only her own misery and no desire at all to see Aoi harmed, though she conceded a soul wandering in distress, as souls are were said to do, might well act in this manner.”

This is another use of the spiritual and supernatural realm to move forward major plot points. As with the above quote, this scene continues after news of Aoi taking ill during a spirit attack. Here, the Rokujo Haven learns yet again people are accusing her of association with the jealous spirit torturing Aoi, as she will never have a child with Genji as Aoi gets to have. The Rokujo Haven wishes no conscious harm on Aoi, but in the belief systems of the culture, her obsession with Genji has the power to allow part of her energy force to begin “wandering in distress.” Aoi eventually diesafter giving birth to Genji’s second son.

“For years, while he could see her whenever he wished and she herself thought of him with longing, a proud complacency had made him somewhat different to her; and then that shocking discovery of her flaw had cooled the last of his ardor and turned him away.”

This quote echoes sentiments expressed in Chapter 4: that once the Rokujo Haven revealed her passion and concern for Genji, his romantic feelings towards her declined. This habit also reflects many of the observations made by the Chapter 2 discussion of the men about the ideal wife: that a woman should reserve her feelings as much as possible, be as willing to serve a man as much as possible, and if she has thoughts or knowledge that might overpower what he knows or wants, she should keep her true opinions quiet.

“His last touching injunctions were many, but a woman has no business passing them on, and the little said of them here is no more than enough.”

After the kind-hearted former Emperor, Genji’s father, passes away, the realm goes into deep mourning. Here, the narrator informs the reader that Emperor’s last words were extensive and very moving, but, as a woman, the narrator cannot pass those full sentiments on to the reader. This is one of several moments in which the narrative voice (partially fictionalized, and partially the true role of author Murasaki Shikibu) actively draws attention to her narrative limits as the teller of this story.

“Fujitsubo and Genji were even more stricken with grief. It goes without saying that everyone was profoundly moved see Genji, the most brilliant presence among all his father’s princes, so devotedly perform the memorial rites.”

Here, the narrative voice clarifies that though Fujitsubo and Genji had a secret affair and the next Heir Apparent is actually Genji’s son, they are no less devastated by the loss of the former Emperor (Genji’s father, and Fujitsubo’s partner). The narration also reminds the reader of Genji’s sentimental importance to his father’s subjects, as the crowd remains empathetic towards him due to his brilliant nature and beauty, especially during the solemn act of his father’s memorial.

“Genji was ashamed to have willfully disobeyed her and sufficiently daunted by her dignity to seek to placate her. ‘I would do nothing I might regret,’ he pleaded, ‘if only I could sometimes tell you like this all I suffer.’ Love like theirs must be fraught with pain, and their feelings were beyond any comparison.”

Genji has the rare chance to speak with Fujitsubo in-person, and he poursout his woes to her in a way he cannot seem to do with any other woman in the book. It is inferred he also tries to sleep with her again, and though she asks him to stop, he continues his emotional outcry. Though she eventually calms him, he is embarrassed he has not been able to control himself in his complaints, despite her wishes. The narrative voice confirms a love as deep as theirs is inherently weighted with misery, which is proof of their connection “beyond comparison.” (However, before he sees Fujitsubo, he still is reminded of young Murasaki, and how pleased he is that Murasaki is growing to resemble Fujitsubo.)

“She grieved to see how much had changed, even if the palace remained the same.”

Fujitsubo recalls under a “brilliant moon” how His Late Eminence (Genji’s father, and her former partner, the previous Emperor) often would have music played on such a night. After he has died, she realizes a location can remain the same, but the feeling and essence of the same place can dramatically change with the passing of time.