A wreath of cloud : being the third part of 'The tale of Genji',

Front matter

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N 1 ye ¢ | Be aa Murasale VF

Preface

HIS is the last volume but one of The Tale of

Genji proper. Between volumes IV and V there is

a gap of eight years, during which Genji has died. Volumes V and VI contain the sequel, ‘the ten Uji chapters,’ as they are called in Japan, which deal with the fortunes of Genji’s supposed son Kaoru, and his grandson (the Akashi Princess’s child) Niou. The name ‘ Genji’ (member of the Minamoto clan) applies equally to his descendants, so that in Japanese the sequel too can be called The Tale of Genji. But in English it needs a new name, and I have called it The Tale of Kaoru. Thus The Tale of Genji itself will be complete in four volumes, and will be followed by a sequel in two volumes.

I wish here to thank Mr. R. C. Trevelyan and Miss Sybil Pye for the care with which they have read the proofs of the present volume. The fact that the heroine of the story and the writer of it are both called Murasaki is somewhat confusing. I will therefore here point out that the name “ Murasaki’ was given to the authoress as a nickname, in allusion to the heroine of her book. Her real name is unknown to us. For the origin of the nickname, see below, p. 23.

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Contents

PREFACE . e . ° ° .

LIST OF MOST IMPORTANT PERSONS

SUMMARY OF VOLUMES I AND II

INTRODUCTION ° . .

CHAPTER

5 We

II. Fil

ASAGAO . . . ° : .

TAMAKATSURA . . . .

THE FIRST SONG OF THE YEAR .

A BED OF CARNATIONS ° .

THE FLARES . . ° ° .

THE TYPHOON : ° ° .

PAGE

147 200 218 240 264 291

LIST OF MOST IMPORTANT PERSONS

(ALPHABETICAL)

AKASHI, LADY OF .

AKASHI, PRINCESS FROM AKIKONOMU, EMPRESS Aol. hing ASAGAO, PRINCESS

ATEKI .

BuGo NO SUKE .

Cutjo, Lapy

EMPEROR, THE OLD FALLING FLOWERS, LADY FROM THE VILLAGE OF

FUJITSUBO .

GENJI

HIGEKURO Hy6spuky0, PRINCE .

KASHIWAGI.

KOBAI

KOKIDEN

KOREMITSU

KOREMITSU’S DAUGHTER. a ES

Whom Genji courted during his exile.

Daughter of the above by Genji.

Daughter of Rokujo.

Genji’s first wife.

Daughter of Prince Momozono Shikibuky6, courted by Genji since his boyhood, without success.

Daughter of Tamakatsura’s old nurse.

Brother of the above.

T6 no Chijsd’s eldest daughter (called Kokiden in the original, but this renders her liable to confusion with Genji’s_ step-mother).

Genji’s father.

Sister of one of the Old Emperor’s Court-ladies under Genji’s protection.

Consort of the Old Emperor; loved by Genji.

Son of the Old Emperor by a lady-in-waiting.

Brother of Suzaku’s consort Lady jJokydden.

Murasaki’s father.

Eldest son of T6 no Chijo.

Brother of the above.

Consort of the Old Emperor ; Genji’s wicked “ step-mother.’

Genji’s retainer.

Gosechi dancer, admired by Yigiri.

Younger daughter of T6 no Chiijo.

MoMOZONO, PRINCE MURASAKI .

Nyoco, PRINCESS OBOROZUKI

Omi, Lapy oF.

OmIYA, PRINCESS Roxvj6

‘Ry06zeEn, THE EMPEROR SANJO

SHONI

SUZAKU, THE ExX-EMPEROR .

TAMAKATSURA Tayv UTSUSEMI YOSHIKIYO

YUGAO

YUGIRI.

Brother of the Old Emperor. Father of Asagao.

Second ‘wife’ of Genji (never, technically speaking, his kita no kata or formal wife).

Younger sister of the Old Emperor.

Consort of the ex-Emperor Suzaku.

Loved by Genji.

Bastard of T6 no Chij6, reclaimed by him in error while searching for Tamakatsura.

Mother of Aoi and T6 no Chiujé.

Sister of the Old Emperor.

Widow of a brother of the Old Emperor,

Reputed son of the Old Emperor, but really son of Genji and Fujitsubo.

Yigao’s maid.

Husband of Tamakatsura’s nurse.

Father of Ateki and Bugo no Suke.

Genji’s step-brother.

Fantastic lady with red _ nose, daughter of Prince Hitachi.

Genji’s step-brother; son of K6kiden.

Child of T6 no Chiij6 by Yigao.

Swashbuckler in Tsukushi.

Wife of a provincial governor ; loved by Genji.

Faithful retainer of Genji; followed him into exile.

Loved first by T6 no Chijé, then by Genji. Dies in a deserted

mansion.

Genji’s son by Aoi.

SUMMARY OF VOLUMES I AND II the age of twelve he is affianced to Lady Aoi, daughter

of the Minister of the Left ; but she is older than he is, and looks down upon him as a mere schoolboy. Genji falls in love with Rokujé, a widow eight years older than himself. She is passionately jealous of his wife, and relations with her become very difficult. Genji turns for consolation to Utsusemi, wife of a provincial governor: to Yiigao, a discarded mistress of his friend T6 no Chiij6 : to the fantastic Suyetsumu, the ‘lady with the red nose.’ Utsusemi is carried off to the provinces by her husband; Yugao dies, withered by the virulence of Rokuj6’s jealousy. Meanwhile Genji succeeds in establishing better relations with his wife, Aoi, only to lose her through the operation of the same baleful force that had destroyed Yitigao. Since his childhood he has passionately admired Fujitsubo, his father’s second wife. He has a son by her, who is believed by the public to be the Emperor’s child.

Genji’s enemies, in particular Kokiden, who had been his mother’s rival, are striving to get rid of him. He simplifies matters for them by starting an intrigue with Oborozuki, a much younger sister of Kokiden.

At the end of Vol. I Genji marries Lady Murasaki, a niece of Fujitsubo; some years before he had taken her into his house and adopted her.

In Vol. II, Rokuj6 leaves the capital and goes to live at Ise, where her daughter is Vestal Virgin. Genji is caught making love to Oborozuki, and knowing that his enemies now have him in their grasp he retires as a voluntary exile to Suma. Here a storm destroys his house, and the Old

Gini is an illegitimate son of the Emperor. At

Recluse of Akashi (a neighbouring bay) persuades him to move thither. Here he falls in love with the Recluse’s daughter (the Lady of Akaski), by whom he has a child (called the Princess from Akashi). Genji, after three years of exile, is recalled, and wants to send for the Lady of Akashi to live with him in his palace. But she fears that her position there will be humiliating, and will not consent. Finally he instals her in a country house at Oi, several miles from the capital. In this volume both Utsusemi (the governor’s wife) and Rokujo re-appear at the capital. There is also a further encounter, of a diverting kind, between Genji and the lady with the red nose.

Introduction

MURASAKI

URASAKI SHIKIBU was born about 978 A.D. Mee father, Tametoki, belonged to a minor branch

of the powerful Fujiwara clan. After holding various appointments in the Capital he became governor first of Echizen (probably in 1004); then of a more northerly province, Echigo. In r1o16 he retired and took his vows as a Buddhist priest.

Of her childhood Murasaki tells us the following anecdote1: ‘When my brother Nobunori? (the one who is now in the Board of Rites) was a boy my father was very anxious to make a good Chinese scholar of him, and often came himself to hear Nobunori read his lessons. On these occasions I was always present, and so quick was I at picking up the language that I was soon able to prompt my brother whenever he got stuck. At this my father used to sigh and say to me: “If only you were a boy how proud and happy I should be.’”’ But it was not long before I repented of having thus distinguished myself; for person after person assured me that even boys generally become very unpopular if it is discovered that they are fond of their books. For a girl, of course, it would be even worse ; and after this I was careful to conceal the fact that I could write a single Chinese character. This meant that I got very little practice ; with the result that to this day I am shockingly clumsy with my brush.’

t Diary, Hakubunkwan text, p. 51. 2 Died young, perhaps about 1012, while serving on his father’s staff in Echigo.

Between 994 and 998 Murasaki married her kinsman Fujiwara no Nobutaka, a lieutenant in the Imperial Guard. By him she had two daughters, one of whom married the Lord Lieutenant of Tsukushi and is reputed (very doubtfully) to be the authoress of an uninteresting novel, the Tale of Sagoromo. Nobutaka died in roor, and it was probably three years later that Murasaki’s father was promised the governorship of Echizen. Owing to the machinations of an enemy the appointment was, at the last minute, almost given to some one else. Tametoki appealed to his kinsman the Prime Minister Fujiwara no Michinaga, and was eventually nominated for the post.

Murasaki was now about 26. To have taken her to Echizen would have ended all hope of a respectable second marriage. Instead Tametoki arranged that she should enter the service of Michinaga’s daughter, the very serious minded Empress Akiko, then a girl of about sixteen. Part of Murasaki’s time was henceforth spent at the Emperor’s Palace. But, as was customary, Akiko frequently returned for considerable periods to her father’s house. Of her young mistress Murasaki writes as follows!: ‘The Empress, as is well known to those about her, is strongly opposed to anything savouring of flirtation; indeed, when there are men about, it is as well for any one who wants to keep on good terms with her not to show herself outside her own room. ... I can well imagine that some of our senior ladies, with their air of almost ecclesiastical severity, must make a rather forbidding impression upon the world at large. In dress and matters of that kind we certainly cut a wretched figure, for it is well known that to show the slightest sign of caring for such things ranks with our Mistress as an unpardonable fault. But I can see no reason why, even in a society where young girls are expected to

t Diary, p. 51.

keep their heads and behave sensibly, appearances should be neglected to the point of comicality ; and I cannot help thinking that her Majesty’s outlook is far too narrow and uncompromising. But it is easy enough to see how this state of affairs arose. Her Majesty’s mind was, at the time when she first came to Court, so entirely innocent and her own conduct so completely impeccable that, quite apart from the extreme reserve which is natural to her, she could never herself conceivably have occasion to make even the most trifling confession. Consequently, whenever she heard one of us admit to some slight shortcoming, whether of conduct or character, she henceforward regarded this person as a monster of iniquity.

“True, at that period certain incidents occurred which proved that some of her attendants were, to say the least of it, not very well suited to occupy so responsible a position. But she would never have discovered this had not the offenders been incautious enough actually to boast in her hearing about their trivial irregularities. Being young and inexperienced she had no notion that such things were of everyday occurrence, brooded incessantly upon the wickedness of those about her, and finally consorted only with persons so staid that they could be relied upon not to cause her a moment’s anxiety.

“Thus she has gathered round her a number of very worthy young ladies. They have the merit of sharing all her opinions, but seem in some curious way like children who have never grown up.

‘ As the years go by her Majesty is beginning to acquire more experience of life, and no longer judges others by the same rigid standards as before; but meanwhile her Court has gained a reputation for extreme dullness, and is shunned by all who can manage to avoid it.

“Her Majesty does indeed still constantly warn us that

B it is a great mistake to go too far, “for a single slip may bring very unpleasant consequences,’ and so on, in the old style; but she now also begs us not to reject advances in such a way as to hurt people’s feelings. Unfortunately, habits of long standing are not so easily changed ; moreover, now that the Empress’s exceedingly stylish brothers bring so many of their young courtier-friends to amuse themselves at her house, we have in self-defence been obliged to become more virtuous than ever.’

There is a type of disappointed undergraduate, who believes that all his social and academic failures are due to his being, let us say, at Magdalene instead of at St. John’s. Murasaki, in like manner, had persuaded herself that all would have been well if her father had placed her in the highly cultivated and easy-mannered entourage of the Emperor’s aunt, Princess Senshi.t ‘ Princess Senshi and her ladies,’ Murasaki writes, ‘are always going off to see the sunset or the fading of the moon at dawn, or pursuing some truant nightingale amid the flowering trees. The Princess herself is a woman of marked character, who is determined to follow her own tastes, and would contrive to lead at Court a life as detached as her present existence at the Kamo Shrine. How different from this place, with its perpetual: “‘The Empress has been summoned into the Presence and commands you to attend her,” or “‘ Prepare to receive his Excellency the Prime Minister, who may arrive at any moment.” Princess Senshi’s apartments are not subject to the sudden alarms and incursions from which we suffer. There one could apply oneself in earnest to anything one cared for and was good at ; there, occupied perhaps in making something really beautiful, one would t 963-1035. Vestal at Kamo during five successive reigns. One of the most important figures of her day ; known to history as the Great Vestal.

have no time for those indiscreet conversations which at our own Court are the cause of so much trouble. There J should be allowed to live buried in my own thoughts like a tree-stump in the earth; at the same time, they would not expect me to hide from every man with whom I was not already acquainted ; and even if I addressed a few remarks to such a person, I should not be thought lost to all sense of shame. Indeed, I can imagine myself under such circumstances becoming, after a certain amount of practice, quite lively and amusing ! ’

While pining for the elegance and freedom of Princess Senshi’s Court, Murasaki was employed by her earnest young mistress for a purpose that the world would have considered far more improper than the philandering of which Akiko so sternly disapproved. The Empress had a secret desire to learn Chinese. The study of this language was considered at the time far too rough and strenuous an occupation for women. There were no grammars or dictionaries, and each horny sentence had to be grappled and mastered like an untamed steer. That Akiko should wish to learn Chinese must have been as shocking to Michinaga as it would have been to Gladstone if one of his daughters had wanted to learn boxing. Murasaki had, as we have seen, picked up something of the language by overhearing her brother’s lessons. She did everything in her power to conceal this knowledge, even pretending (as she tells us in the Diary) that she could not read the Chinese characters on her mistress’s screen; but somehow or other it leaked out : ‘Since the summer before last, very secretly, in odd moments when there happened to be no one about, I have been reading with her Majesty the two books of “Songs.’’! There has of course been no question of formal t The third and fourth body of Po Chii-i’s poetical works, including Magic, The Old Man with the Broken Arm, The Prisoner, The Two Red Towers, and The Dragon of the Pool, all of which are translated in my “170 Chinese Poems.’

lessons ; her Majesty has merely picked up a little here and there, as she felt inclined. All the same, I have thought it best to say nothing about the matter to anybody. . . .’

We gather, however, that what in the long run made Akiko’s Court distasteful to Murasaki was not the seriousness of the women so much as the coarseness and stupidity of the men. Michinaga, Akiko’s father, was now forty-two. He had already been Prime Minister for some fourteen years, and had carried the fortunes of the Fujiwara family to their apogee. It is evident that he made love to Murasaki, though possibly in a more or less bantering way. In 1008 she writes: ‘From my room beside the entrance to the gallery I can see into the garden. The dew still lies heavy and a faint mist rises from it. His Excellency! is walking in the garden. Now he has summoned one of his attendants and is giving directions to him about having the moat cleared. In front of the orange trees there is a bed of lady-flowers (ominabesht) in full bloom. He plucks a spray and returning to the house hands it to me over the top of my screen. He looks very magnificent. I remember that I have not yet powdered my face and feel terribly embarrassed. “‘Come now,” he cries, “be quick with your poem, or I shall lose my temper.’’ This at any rate gives me a chance to retire from his scrutiny; I go over to the writing-box and produce the following: ‘If these beyond other flowers are fair, ’tis but because the dew hath picked them out and by its power made them sweeter than the rest.” ‘‘ That’s right,” he said, taking the poem. “It did not take you long in the end.”’ And sending for his own ink-stone he wrote the answer: ‘‘ Dew favours not; it is the flower’s thoughts that flush its cheeks and make it fairer than the rest.” ’

The next reference to Michinaga’s relations with Murasaki

1 Michinaga.

INTRODUCTION aI is as follows: ‘ His Excellency the Prime Minister caught sight of The Tale of Genji in her Majesty’s room, and after making the usual senseless jokes about it, he handed me the following poem, written on a strip of paper against which a spray of plum-blossom had been pressed: ‘‘ How comes it that, sour as the plum-tree’s fruit, you have contrived to blossom forth’ in tale so amorous?” To this I answered : “Who has told you that the fruit belies the flower? For the fruit you have not tasted, and the flower you know but by report.” !

‘One night when I was sleeping in a room which opens on to the corridor, I heard some one tapping. So frightened was I that for the whole of the rest of the night I lay dead still on my bed, scarcely daring to breathe. Next morning came the following poem from His Excellency: ‘‘ More patient than the water-rail that taps upon the tree-root all night long, in vain I loitered on the threshold of your inhospitable room.”’ To this I answered: “‘ So great was your persistence that for a water-rail I did indeed mistake you ; and lucky am I to have made this merciful mistake.”’ ’ 2

Again, in 1010: ‘ To-day his Excellency had an audience with the Emperor ; when it was over they came out of the Audience Chamber together, and banqueted. As usual, his Excellency became very drunk and, fearing trouble, I tried to keep out of his way. But he noticed my absence and sent for me, crying out: ‘“‘ Here’s your mistress’s papa taking dinner with the Emperor; it is not every one who gets the chance of being present on an occasion like this. You ought to be uncommonly grateful. Instead of which your one idea seems to be how to escape at the earliest possible moment. I can’t make you out at all!”

t ‘You have neither read my book nor won my love.’ Both poems contain a number of double-meanings which it would be tedious to unravel.

2 Kui-na means ‘ water-rail’ and ‘ regret not.’

He went on scolding me for some time, and then said: “Well, now you are here, you must make a poem. It is one of the days when the parent’s poem is always made by a substitute. You will do as well as anybody; so be quick about it... .” Iwas afraid at first that if I showed myself he would behave in such a way as to make me feel very uncomfortable. But it turned out that he was not so extraordinarily drunk after all; indeed, he was in a very charming mood and, in the light of the great lamp, looked particularly handsome.’

It has often been observed that whereas in her commonplace book (the Makura no Sdsht) Sei Shonagon 2 scarcely so much as mentions the existence of the other. ladies-inwaiting, Murasaki refers constantly to her companions, and _ to one of them at least she was evidently very strongly attached. Her great friend was Lady Saisho. ‘On my way back from the Empress’s rooms I peeped in at Saishd’s door. I had forgotten that she had been on duty at night and would now be having her morning sleep. She had thrown over her couch various dresses with bright-coloured linings, and on top of them had spread a covering of beaten silk, lustrous and heavily scented with perfume. Her face was hidden under the clothes; but as she lay there, her head resting on a box-shaped writing-case, she looked so pretty that I could not help thinking of the little princesses in picture-books. I raised the clothes from her face and said to her: ‘‘ You are like a girl in a story.’’ She turned her head and said sharply: ‘‘ You lunatic! Could you not see I was asleep? You are too inconsiderate... .” While she was saying this she half raised herself from her couch and looked up at me. Her face was flushed. I have never seen her so handsome. So it often is; even those t The parent of the Empress. 2 Lady-in-waiting to the Empress Sadako, Akiko’s predecessor.

whom we at all times admire will, upon some occasion, suddenly seem to us ten times more lovely than ever before.’

Saish6 is her constant companion and her fellow victim during the drunken festivities which they both detested. The following is from a description of an entertainment given on the fiftieth day after the birth of the Empress Akiko’s first child: ‘The old Minister of the Right, Lord Akimitsu, came staggering along and banged into the . screen behind which we sat, making a hole in it. What really struck us was that he is getting far too old! for this kind of thing. But I am sure he did not at all know that this was the impression he was making. Next followed matching of fans, and noisy jokes, many of which were in very bad taste.

‘Presently the General of the Right came and stood near the pillar on our left. He was looking at us and seemed to be examining our dresses, but with a very different expression from the rest. He cannot bear these drunken revels. If only there were more like him! And I say this despite the fact that his conversation is often very indecent ; for he manages to give a lively and amusing turn to whatever he says. I noticed that when the great tankard came his way he did not drink out of it, but passed it on, merely saying the usual words of good omen. At this Lord Kinto 2 shouted: “‘ The General is on his best behaviour. I expect little Murasaki is somewhere not far off!’”’ ‘‘ You’re none of you in the least like Genji,” I thought to myself, “so what should Murasaki be doing here?” ... Then the

Vice-Councillor began pulling about poor Lady Hydbu, and the Prime Minister made comic noises which I found very disagreeable. It was still quite early, and knowing well what would be the latter stages of an entertainment which

1 He was now 64. 2 Fujiwara no Kintd (966-1041), famous poet; cousin of Michinaga.

had begun in this way, I waited till things seemed to have come to a momentary pause and then plotted with Lady Saish6 to slip away and hide. Presently however the Prime Minister’s sons and other young Courtiers burst into the room; a fresh hubbub began, and when they heard that two ladies were in hiding they tracked us down and flung back the screen behind »which we had ensconced ourselves. We were now prisoners. .. .’

The Diary contains a series of notes chiefly upon the appearance but also in a few cases upon the character of other ladies at Court. Her remarks on Lady Izumi Shikibu, one of the greatest poets whom Japan has produced, are of interest: ‘Izumi Shikibu is an amusing letter-writer ; but there is something not very satisfactory about her. She has a gift for dashing off informal compositions in a careless running-hand ; but in poetry she needs either an interesting subject or some classic model to imitate. Indeed it does not seem to me that in herself she is really a poet at all.

‘However, in the impromptus which she recites there is always something beautiful or striking. But I doubt if she is capable of saying anything interesting about other people’s verses. She is not intelligent enough. It is odd; to hear her talk you would certainly think that she had a touch of the poet in her. Yet she does not seem to produce anything that one can call serious poetry. .. .’

Here, too, is the note on Sei Shdnagon,? author of the famous Makura no Séshi: ‘Sei Shonagon’s most marked characteristic is her extraordinary self-satisfaction. But examine the pretentious compositions in Chinese script which she scatters so liberally over the Court, and you will

See p. 22. Shdnagon was about ten years senior to Murasaki. She was lady-in-waiting first to the Empress Sadako (died, 1000 a.D.) ; then to Sadako’s sister Princess Shigesa (died, 1002 a.D.); finally to the Empress Akiko.

find them to be a mere patchwork of blunders. Her chief pleasure consists in shocking people; and as each new eccentricity becomes only too painfully familiar, she gets driven on to more and more outrageous methods of attracting notice. She was once a person of great taste and refinement ; but now she can no longer restrain herself from indulging, even under the most inappropriate circumstances, in any outburst that the fancy of the moment suggests. She will soon have forfeited all claim to be regarded as a serious character, and what will become of her? when she is too old for her present duties I really cannot imagine.’

It was not likely that Murasaki, who passed such biting _ judgments on her companions, would herself escape criticism. In her diary she tells us the following anecdote: ‘There is a certain lady here called Sayemon no Naishi who has evidently taken a great dislike to me, though I have only just become aware of it. It seems that behind my back she is always saying the most unpleasant things. One day when some one had been reading The Tale of Genji out loud to the Emperor, his Majesty said: “‘ This lady has certainly been reading the Annals of Japan. She must be terribly learned.” Upon the strength of this casual remark Naishi spread a report all over the Court that I prided myself on my enormous learning, and henceforth I was known as ‘“‘ Dame Annals ”’ wherever I went.’

The most interesting parts of the Diary are those in which Murasaki describes her own feelings. The following passage refers to the winter of 1008 A.D.: ‘I love to see the t Murasaki suggests that Sh6nagon will lose Akiko’s confidence and be dismissed. There is indeed a tradition (Kojidan, vol. ii) that when some courtiers were out walking one day they passed a dilapidated hovel. One of them mentioned a rumour that Sei Shénagon, a wit and beauty of the last reign, was now living in this place. Whereupon an incredibly lean hag shot her head out at the door, crying ‘ Won’t you buy old bones, old rags and bones ?’ and immediately disappeared again.

snow here,t and was hoping from day to day that it would begin before Her Majesty went back to Court, when I was suddenly obliged to go home. Two days after I arrived, the snow did indeed begin to fall. But here, where everything is so sordid, it gives me very little pleasure. As, seated once more at the familiar window, I watch it settling on the copses in front of the house, how vividly I recall those years 3 of misery and perplexity! Then I used to sit hour after hour at this same window, and each day was like the last, save that since yesterday some flower had opened or fallen, some fresh song-bird arrived or flown away. So I watched the springs and autumns in their procession, saw the skies change, the moon rise; saw those same branches white with frost or laden with snow. And all the while I was asking myself over and over again: ‘‘ What has the future in store for me? How will this end?’ However, sometimes I used to read, for in those days I got a certain amount of pleasure out of quite ordinary romances; I had one or two intimate friends with whom I used to correspond, and there were several other people, not much more than acquaintances, with whom I kept up a casual intercourse. So that, looking back on it now, it seems to me that, one way and another, I had a good many minor distractions.