Reading the Tale of Genji

Nowaki: Typhoon, or more specifically, a typhoon that hits in the autumn between the 210th and 220th days of the year

(First of all, again, so sorry for the delay between chapters. I don’t even have an excuse, im just tired and unmotivated, blah blah, complain complain. Anyway, Let’s get going here...)

So this chapter made me really sad cuz a big ole storm ruins all the pretty flowers. This isn’t what im reading this book for! I wanna imagine sitting in Genji’s beautiful flower patch while sipping sweetened sake and listening to koto music man.

The chapter starts off telling you how beautiful the autumn garden is, in  Umetsubo’s part of the palace, and how most people won’t admit it but they prefer autumn over spring (I agree with this sentiment, autumn is the shit). 

So when this storm hits, it fucks up all those blinds and screens that shield the women from view of the public, thus exposing Murasaki to any prying eyes. Of course, these prying eyes end up being...Genji’s son -_- he spends a good 20 minutes just oogling and thinking about how beautiful she is. Like father like son, I guess lol 

To get rid of his Oedipus boner, Genji’s son goes to visit grandma during the storm to calm her nerves, but the whole time he can’t stop thinking about the girl he’s hot for and Murasaki. In the morning, he goes back to the Rokujo Estate and visits Hanachirusato’s quarters, before slipping on back to where Murasaki and Genji sleep to potentially catch another glimpse of that milf. 

Back to the Genji stuff - he still crippin on poor Tamakazura but at least the girl is speaking up about it more. Good for her! But oh no! Genji’s so is also creeping on her from nearby?? Damn this kid is really starting to grow into his Genjiness. I love this quote tho from the son, as he’s watching Tamakazura and Genji sit really close: “This is shocking! What is going on here? I know that Father is predisposed to explore every possible variation in his relationship with women, and so perhaps he’s sexually attracted to a daughter he had absolutely no hand in raising hen she was just a little girl...”

idk it just seems really funny to see someone just outright say that Genji wants to bang his stepdaughter. 

Later, Genji gets a glimpse of the Akashi princess and he tries to figure out who’s the hottest - Murasaki, Tamakazura, or the Akashi Princess? (I feel like he’s still leaning towards Murasaki, milfs man, can’t beat em)

The Cressets (Kagaribi), Illustration to Chapter 27 of the Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari)

Muromachi period, datable to 1509-1510

Kagaribi

Yo this chapter is so short! Like what even is this?

We open up with Tamakazura thinking about how lucky she is to actually be trapped with Genji rather returned to her father. Apparently the whole thing with Tu no Chujo passing his newfound country daughter to a consort to be domesticated is a huge gossip topic. I’m sure the lady from Omi doesn’t really care about gossip, luckily for her, but either way, Tamakazura is thankful to be relatively shielded from the public eye.

From the series, "Ima Genji Nishiki-e Awase" (The Color Print Contest of the Modern Genji). Chapter 26. "Tokonatsu", Kunisada Utagawa 1786-1865

Tokanatsu Genji decides to spend a lovely hot day lounging by the fishing pavilion while eating freshly caught and grilled fish, drinking iced wine in the sunshine (gettin real jealous of Genji’s life AGAIN). To no Chujo’s sons are there as well as Genji’s own, and its not long before Genji is ‘grilling’ everyone for some sweet juicy gossip. He learns that Tu no Chujo has had a dream about a long lost child returning to him. Genji plays it cool and goes on to say that he thinks it’s totally greedy of a father to go looking for a lost child, especially if he already has so many children at his disposal. 

See, things clearly haven’t been that great between Genji and Chujo. Long gone are the days of that beautiful bromance (rip). Genji is salty about how Chujo has refused to acknowledge the feelings between their children - that is, Genji’s son and one of Chujo’s daughters. For whatever reason, Chujo is against the match. I feel like this is one of the many reasons Genji is being weird about this long lost daughter of Chujo’s 👀

Genji brings over some young men to let have a glimpse at Tamakazura, who seems more receptive today. Later, Genji and his not-daughter jam out on the Japanese koto. Tamakazura reveals that she has a real interest in mastering this instrument and getting into music as a whole. She’s so into this music topic that she actually sits right next to Genji as he plays, so im getting a little nervous for this girl.

Genji notes that the suitors have left without even getting the best look at the Wild Pinks - there is a translator’s note here about the play on words with ‘Tokanatsu’ and ‘Nadeshiko’, which are both generic names for ‘wild pinks’. This flower of autumn is often used as a metaphor for a child needing protection from the storms of life. Tu no Chujo had written poetry using these words, ‘Tokanatsu’ referring to Tamakazura as a child and ‘Nadeshiko’ referring to her mother (the lady of the evening faces). 

Genji continues to wrestle with his desire to make Tamakazura one of his wives, knowing he would his reputation would suffer for the apparent marriage to his ‘daughter’. Poor poor Genji. He begins to give the girl lessons on koto as an excuse just to hang out with her.

Meanwhile, Tu no Chujo is perplexed by this secret long-lost daughter of Genji’s and wishes he had one of his own to become to talk of all the town’s bachelors (if only he knew...). Instead, his daughter Kumoinokari,  is known to be in love with Genji’s son, but the marriage won’t be viable until the son has acquired some sort of viable rank. 

So, turns out, Tu no Chujo has received a long lost daughter who is very different from Tamakazura - she is being referred to as the Lady from Omi, and i kinda love her. We first see her praying for snake-eyes while playing dice with her equally enthusiastic friend. Tu no Chujo is horrified but feels he cannot turn her away. The Lady from Omi is fast talking, crass, and honestly hilarious. However ‘unladylike’ she may be, Tu no Chujo sees that she has true devotion to him, which is enough to keep him from ditching her. He sends her off to meet with another one of his daughters, the Kokiden Consort, to be reformed. 

So, remember I mentioned that I work at a bookstore and I’ve been forced back to work amidst the quarantine?

Well, turns out, we have several different editions of The Tale of Genji, including one translation by Royall Tyler! You know, the dude who was most skeptical about the sole authorship theory. So, I grabbed this book and hid away in the stacks to do a bit of reading to see what the deal was.... “Something like the present text existed in 1021, when a young girl returned from a distant province to the capital and received a complete copy of Genji from her aunt. In her mature years...she described the joy of reading it. Her ‘over 50 chapters’ suggests the present 54, and she mentioned Ukifune, the heroine of the last four. The evidence of sole authorship is therefore suggestive but incomplete...”

(I really love hearing about fans from the 11th century, ngl)

“A fifteenth century scholar is the first person known to have suggested that Murasaki Shikibu’s daughter, rather than Murasaki Shikibu herself, wrote the last third of the book (chapters 42-54)...”

(So people have been crafting conspiracy theories for hundreds of years! cool!)

“The idea seems to have been more or less forgotten until the poet Yosano Akiko (1878-1942) proposed it in a new guise. Akiko published two pioneering modern Japanese translations of Genji, and by the time she finished the second, she believed Murasaki Shikibu had written only chapters 1-33. She attributed the rest to Shikibu’s daughter. Others have questioned the authorship of chapters 42-54, and recent computer analysis has turned up statistically significant discrepancies among some of the earlier chapters...”

(so once again, i hear mention of this computer analysis stuff but i can’t find any more info about it! This is killing me, guys...)

“If Murasaki Shikibu was not the sole author, no known evidence actually points to her daughter, however, Daini no Sanmi, a distinguished poet, is the only plausibly identifiable candidate. Some person or persons could have added new various reasons to remain anonymous and leave credit to the tale’s acknowledged originator. The question is unlikely to ever be settled...”

"Genji E-maki" (Scroll of the Tale of Genji), "Hotaru" (Firefly), Okado Yoshio, 1970, 

So as I was sifting through artwork of this chapter, I stumbled across this more modern depiction and it really resonated with me! Most of the more famous artwork is from a few hundred years ago, so its nice to see that people are still totally enamored with this novel even in modern times. 

Fireflies/Hotaru - the nominal fireflies reveal themselves during Genji’s creepy matchmaking scene

Sorry I’ve been a bit slow as of late! My job called me back in so now i’ve been working long days inside a closed bookstore lol apparently, we’re essential! 

Anyway...

I wanna point out how jealous the first paragraph of this chapter made me. “All those that relied on him (Genji) had also settled into ideal circumstances, living as they wished with no anxieties, pleasantly passing the time.” Like, ugh, once again conflicted about my desire to live in Genji’s palace!

Of course, we are swiftly reminded of the downside to living in Genji’s Palace of Pleasure by Tamakazura’s plight. Genji is being a hella creep to her and she feels like she has no one to turn to. It really sucks. She still has some a bunch of suitors writing to her, and she feels stuck between a bunch of shitty situations tbh. 

Prince Sochinoiya is one such suitor who actually manages to get a reply out of Tamakazura. Well, it’s not really a reply, but one that is ghost written by one of the handmaidens, but still. It’s more replies than anyone else has gotten. So, the Prince just shows up to check out his potential bride-to-be. Tamakazura is super not into this but allows herself to be in a dark room behind a screen with the Prince after much cajoling on Genji’s part. Then, Genji as an idea. He randomly unleashes a bunch of fireflies into the room so that when they flash, the Prince can get a glimpse of Tamakazura. It has the desired effect, and the Prince is driven mad with desire. 

Later, it is the Sweet Flag Festival, and Genji holds a celebration, cuz of course he does. I swear, there’s a festival for every day of the year and there’s always a hot event going down in Genji’s palace. A bunch of people come over to watch the festivities, which include riding and various games. Genji spends the night with Hanachirusato and the two discuss various matters of gossip, but end up sleeping in different beds (seems to be happening a lot to Genji lately 👀)

Meanwhile, it’s rainy season, and all the ladies have been stuck inside for a while, and so, the ladies begin to entertain themselves by telling stories and creating artwork to go along with them. Tamakazura is especially interested, because it seems the poor girl is in dire need of some good ole escapism. Genji is a bit critical about this habit for whatever reason, and Tamakazura actually challenges Genji a few times about this (good for you, girl!).

So I mentioned in my last post that I felt like there was an author change at some point and I mainly brought that up because my professor in college (when I originally read this book for a class like six years ago...) had mentioned this. I really wish I could email her about it to get more info but fuck me if I remember that professor’s name at this time in my life lol

anyway...

So after doing a bit of research, the idea of dual authorship seems to depend on who you ask and what translation you’re reading. The dude who penned the particular copy I own right now (Dennis Washburn) seems to be a huge proponent of the sole author theory, while others believe otherwise. 

The first person to make a full translation in modern Japanese, Yosano Akiko, believed that only the first 34 chapters or so were written by Murasaki Shikibu, while 34-54 were penned by her daughter. They point out how continuity mistakes start to appear at this point, which is shocking because there is no such thing in the earlier chapters. Is this proof of a different author? Or did Murasaki finally get to a point in her work where even she was forgetting some of Genji’s wives’ names? 

The translator Royall Tyler claims that computer analysis reveals that there are significant style differences in these later chapters as well, and I would LOVE to read about this so called computer analysis but its apparently really hard to find this information anywhere. Like honestly, I read like 20 articles today where no one sources their work, or they simply direct me to the wiki which just mentions this stuff in a few sentences but doesn’t go into detail....

so, in conclusion, this 1000 year old work that was mainly survived in woodblock prints and various translations, may have been the work of one woman living the high court life, or several, but we probably will never know...

Kocho (Butterflies) 

Ink and Gold on paper

Momoyama period (1573-1615), About 1610

Kocho - Butterflies 

The title here shows up when Umetsubo sends her reply poem to Murasaki, with the line “Kocho...the word butterfly says ‘come’. She’s being very transparent with her word play, as the character for ‘ko’ can be read as ‘come’ when written in the kana syllabary

So I spent this whole chapter just thinking to myself - “damn I really wanna go to Genji’s house” Like, real talk. I know he’s a total creep, but if some dude wanted me to live in his giant Kyoto palace complete with gardens celebrating each season and these cute freakin ponds where you can paddle around while musicians in a different boat serenade you?? Idk, i might be swayed into the ‘Genji is amazing’ fan club haha

anyway...

so despite the scenic nature of this chapter, the real meat of the plot boils down to Genji’s ‘not so platonic’ feelings about his new adoptive ‘daughter’ (Tamakazura). Of course, she’s not his real daughter, but he’s made it clear he’s trying to play the paternal figure, and this is pointed out several times by almost everyone. People keep saying ‘oh my WORD Genji is SUCH a good guardian, what I wouldn’t DO to be in THat position! swoons’

Of course, these people don’t know that Genji has the hots for this poor little girl. Well, only Murasaki knows what’s up. Nothing gets past her, you go girl. Genji won’t stop talking about this new fresh meat and Murasaki is like ‘really bro? I know you...’ and Genji is so shocked by this that he accuses his wife of simply being jealous.

and then he goes right to Tamakazura’s room, as he’s been doing extremely often lately. One such time, the poor girl’s handmaidens sense that Genji is feeling frisky and quickly make themselves scarce, leaving the poor girl alone with the capital’s number one playboy (this translation actually uses this word, but in reference to one of Tamakazura’s suitors lol).

Genji claims to simply be interested in getting the girl married off so she can be revealed to her true father with her affairs in order, but he secretly wants this girl for himself. Tamakazura is NOT into this, and she’s pretty much freaking out the whole time. I find this interesting because in earlier chapters, Genji’s creepiness was not addressed in the text, rather, his behavior was considered totally cool, and it was just me, the reader, being appalled. However, this chapter makes it pretty clear just how wrong Genji is. This makes me think of the rumor of how these later chapters may have possibly been written by a different author (but ill get more into that in a separate post...)

Anyway, Tamakazura freezes up and Genji finally gets the hint, and he leaves the apartment. He then sends her tons of letters saying “you’re gonna regret rejecting me, you stupid bitch (imagine this but all pretty and referencing ancient proverbs and/or poetry)”. He also implies that people are going to think they slept together anyway, so they should just do it (jeez men never change, huh lol)

The Warbler’s First Song (Hatsune)

Muromachi period, 1509-1510, Kyoto

This lovely piece is depicting the moment when Genji is snooping in the Akashi’s lady shit, reading her lit poetry, and preparing to write his own...

Hatsune: Literally means ‘tooth hardening’, which apparently refers to New Year’s feasts in the court. A popular item was Mochi (!!) and was thought to strengthen tooth enamel due to its chewy consistency

So! It’s the New Year and Genji celebrates hardcore by throwing his whole palace into a tizzy. There’s people coming and going all day, performers, musicians, food, everything! Of course, because it’s a special occasion, Genji takes the time to visit every single one of his ladies currently residing in his Palace of Pleasure (also known as the Rokujo Estate).  I have to point out that the New Year they are celebrating has fallen on the Day of the Rat! What a coincidence, that’s what this year is as well. It’s a sign - the second coming of this blog was meant to be. The book mentions how it is customary to spend this day pulling up pine seedlings to ensure long life annd felicity, due to the word ’rat’ being a homophone for the word ‘root’. Neat! Anyway... So, Genji exchanges some sweet poetry with his top bitch Murasaki, then goes to check on his daughter, the Akashi Princess (his daughter with the Akashi Lady). The Lady herself sends over some gifts for the occasion, including a mechanical warbler (will try to find a good depiction of whatever that is...). Genji remarks on how hot his child is, which isn’t surprising, given how she’s is.  Next, Genji slips on over to the summer quarter of his palace to see Hanchirusato. Genji renews his vows, and although he points out he has little physical intimacy with this wife these days, he claims to not mind and enjoys her presence regardless (is this...growth, Genji??). Genji notices that while she is still beautiful, her hair is seriously lacking, and that she should really get extensions (he keeps this shit to himself, thank the gods lol).

Next, Genji goes to visit his newest lady, Tamakazura (his lovely garland...). Genji is stunned by how hot she looks in the clothes that he himself picked out for her to wear. He wonders how he will ever let her go, especially now that he has only just acquired her...(this bitch is totally never leaving). 

When evening rolls around, Genji goes to visit the Akashi lady (the mother of the Akashi princess, and ill keep pointing it out cuz i keep getting confused. Can we have more names please??). She isn’t there at first so Genji rifles through her shit and finds some baller poetry. When the lady returns, Genji is so smitten with her that he ends up staying almost until dawn, even though he knows its a dick move to his top bitch, Murasaki. Genji himself thinks about how its ill luck to not spend the first night of the new year with your favorite wife, but he goes ahead and stays out anyway, crawling back to Murasaki’s room at dawn. Murasaki is understandably salty, and Genji decides to take a nap in order to avoid her (good move!)

After Genji sleeps in and waits until Murasaki leaves before he continues on with his wife tour. He visits the Safflower Princess next, and spends the whole time remarking on how ugly her part of her house, how badly she’s dressed, and of course, how red her nose is. 

Genji visits the Lady of the Molted Cicada Shell next, who while she is his wife, is also a nun! How neat! So, Genji can’t bang this lady or make suggestive remarks to her, but, she’s really good at normal conversation, so its fine. 

I remember us watching a clip from this in class and I’m so glad it’s on youtube for our pleasure! It’s called Genji Monogatari (2009)

Yes! There is an animated adaptation of The Tale of Genji! Well, not the whole thing, but I’m honestly surprised there aren’t more adaptations of this?? 

The episodes focus on the whole ordeal with the Lady of the Evening Faces and the vengeful spirit of Lady Rokujo, so its sort of relevant to what’s going on in our most recent chapters! 

Oh man I forgot how funny I found this lol

Genji’s Lovely Ladies

Aoi (Actual Wife) (Deceased)

Murasaki (current top bitch and lowkey the author)

Utsusemi

Utsusemi’s little brother

Utsusemi’s friend (not sure what her name was)

Rokujo Lady (Deceased)

Yugao (The evening faces) (deceased)

Tamakazura (Yugao’s daughter, and yes, im counting her, she’s in the house, no one is safe!)

Fujitsubo (Has a son with, and hes the emperor! no one knows though, shh!)

The Safflower

Naishi, the 60 year old wonder (Still alive and horny)

Oborozukiyo (the misty moon lady)

Reikeiden

Reikeiden’s younger sister (names?? don’t need em)

Chunagon (Aoi’s servant)

The Akashi lady! (had a daughter with!)

(Tamakazura - a combination of the word for jewel/gem (Tama) and Kazura (vines or creepers). So, her name means she’s pretty for a peasant-girl, a diamond in the rough, so to speak)

Wow, I think im starting to remember why I lost track of my shit at this point in the book. So many women, so many generations, so many callbacks to things I totes forgot about. Thank goodness I have this funny little blog to remind me of what the heck’s happening...I forgive this for being long, but apparently i just have a lot more to say about all these things haha

Anyway...

So remember the Lady of the Evening Face? I barely did, so i had to scroll back to find her chapter and...she’s from chapter 4 holy shit! This is the lady who Genji was sleeping with when they were attacked by some vengeful spirit, and the chick just up and died. Well. Apparently she had a daughter! This chapter opens with Genji reminiscing about this and of how Genji always dreamed of finding the daughter of this women (a child that is not his, mind you), and given Genji’s history with stealing away children, I shudder to imagine what would’ve happened to her had she been found at that tender age...

Well, she was not found. After her mother died, Tamakazura was whisked away to the provincial country side, and it was very sad business. Life in the country is depressing and hopeless when compared to the din of opportunity that lies in the capitol.

The child grows into a women, and word gets out that she’s a total hottie. The maids try to stem the flow of random suitors by letting slip a rumor of the girl saying ‘She’s so hot but...she has a defect 👀’ but this only serves to make people even more intrigued. “A gem with but a flaw”...they try to claim then that she’s going to be a nun and is therefore TOTALLY off limits, but again, the men get ravenous at the thought of losing a beauty to the confines of religious life.

This robust fellow, Taifu no Gen (a title, not a name), goes right to the house to make his proposal. He starts spitting out hardcore rhymes to try and win over the lades in waiting. However, everyone is so stunned by his subpar poetry, that no one even knows what to say. After an awkward silence, the maid responds with a poem of her own, and ends up offending the suitor accidentally. (awkward...)

Despite this less than favorable meeting, the dude just goes ahead and starts planning the wedding! So! The girl and her family gtfo of the countryside, with many of the staff even abandoning their families in order to support this young girl. They all head off to the capitol with hopes of finding a more suitable place to get young Tamakazura married off into.

So they in the capitol, and its hectic af. They immediately head to some temples to give offerings to the gods, but by the time they get to the second one, everyone is hella bushed cuz they decided to walk on foot in order to appear more pious. Big mistake! At this temple though, they run into none other than Ukon! (Ukon was a lady in waiting to the Lady of the Evening Faces, and had also been searching for the missing daughter for all these (twenty) years). 

Ukon is stunned at this reunion and immediately tells Genji after the praying and stuff is done. Genji intrigued, of course, and promptly decides to have the girl move into his House of Pleasure (ohno). He tells everyone that its his long lost daughter, even though she ain’t, in order to better hide the girl’s true identity, and keep her father from finding her. Oh yeah, who is this chick’s real dad?? It’s apparently none other than Tu no Chujo, Genji’s best bud! It’s not clear whether or not Tu no Chujo even knows he had a daughter with the Evening Faces lady in the first place. I can’t wait to see what happens when he finds out about all this...

The chapter concludes with a montage where Genji picks out new outfits for all his ladies, including his newest, Tamakazura. And then there’s like a page and a half dedicated to roasting the poor Safflower Princess (which if you recall, Genji doesn’t see as attractive but still invited into his house cuz more bitches is good). Like, literally a whole page shitting on her lackluster poetry. Genji’s is ruthless.

Hello all! 

So this is the first time I’m making a post on this blog in...oh gosh, its been about five years now...sorry guys.

I sort of lost track of this blog during that semester in college, managed to fudge my way through the rest of ‘medieval Japanese literature’, and went on with my life. Graduated, moved into an apartment, got a job (still no menagerie of women and children though, #genjigoals2020). 

And yet! Throughout all these years, I still get message after message from people who are elated at the discovery of my blog, and then the subsequently disappointed when they realize i never finished. Though I was always shocked and amazed with every message, I never quite got the will or desire to keep going with this strange project...

And then, well, all the stores shut down, im temporarily ‘furloughed’, all my ‘extracurricular activities’ were canceled until further notice cuz of plague, and well...if there was a better time to try and keep going with this project, I couldn’t imagine one!

So! After reading through my own blog to try and catch myself back up to (geez chapter 22 we’re on??), I will be attempting to continue on with my chapter summaries as well as including extra info such as art and other genji related fun stuff. Reading my own posts definitely made me cringe and I can’t believe how many people found this dribble actually helpful? But! I shall do my best to keep going in this ‘vein’ to simplify and trivialize one of the most important works of fiction in history. I can’t guarantee the same level of quality due to me being older and having acquired different internet slang, but we’ll see how this goes...shall we?

Thank you to all who continue to support this wild endeavor! And a thousand apologies to all the students whom I could not see through to the end. Here’s hoping I can complete this project for all future Genji fans!