Dec 15, 2009

The Tale of Genji | Introduction

Murasaki Shikibu's epic-length novel, The Tale of Genji, probes the psychological, romantic and political workings of mid-Heian Japan. The novel earned Murasaki Shikibu notoriety even in the early 11th century, some six hundred years before the printing press made it available to the masses. Court society, which served as the subject of the novel, sought out chapters. Ladies-in-waiting and courtiers even pilfered unrevised copies, according to legend. Some thousand years later, Murasaki Shikibu and her novel continue to delight an enthusiastic audience. Stamps, scrolls, comic books, museums, shower gel, movies, parades, puppet plays, CD-ROMS: Murasaki Shikibu and her creation Genji have achieved National Treasure status in Japan and admiration all over the world.

The tale spreads across four generations, splashed with poetry and romance and heightened awareness to the fleeting quality of life. Murasaki Shikibu's tale of love, sex, and politics explores a complex web of human and spiritual relationships. This focus on characters and their emotional experience, as compared to plot, makes the novel easily accessible to the modern reader. It explains, in part, why many scholars consider Genji to be the world's first great novel.

Readers through the ages have especially admired Murasaki Shikibu's depiction of the Heian court society's deep aesthetic sense. Beauty—in flesh flowers, sunsets, musical notes—moved and influenced the society. The title character, Genji, flourishes in this atmosphere. He is a master of speech, poetry, music, manners, dress.

Many Japanese scholars cite as an influence Chinese poet Po-Ch-I's classic narrative poem, The Song of Unending Sorrow. Murasaki Shikibu writes in her diary of reading the poet's work to the empress. She also refers to it several times in The Tale of Genji. Importantly, the novel also marked Japan's liberation from Chinese influence. According to Richard Bowring in Landmarks of World Literature: The Tale of Genji, "Japan had just emerged from a time of substantial Chinese influence and was going through one of its periodic stages of readjustment, during which alien concepts were successfully naturalized. The Genji is thus the product of a native culture finding a truly sophisticated form of self-expression in prose for the first time."

The Tale of Genji has had a pervasive influence on later Japanese and world-wide art. It has inspired Noh theater, waka poetry, scroll paintings, pop music and dances. It has had an especially profound influence on Japanese literature. Court fiction for hundreds of years after openly modeled itself after Genji. Present-day writers, including Kawabata Yasunari in his 1968 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, still cite The Tale of Genji as a great influence.

The Tale of Genji Summary

The Emperor and Kiritsubo give birth to the novel's hero, Genji, in 11th-century Japan. Kiritsubo, the Emperor's true love, is of the lower ranks of court. The slander and petty jealousy of the other palace wives contribute to the mental anguish which results in her early death, when Genji is but three-years-old.

Genji from the start impresses everybody with his unparalleled beauty. He is exceptional in every way. He is raised in the court. Despite his father's unflinching devotion, indeed because of it, the boy receives the name Genji, which classifies him as a commoner. The Emperor knows that without influential maternal relatives, Genji's position as a crown prince (or a son picked to become future Emperor) would be tentative, especially after his own death. Since the Kokiden faction will most certainly cause his son problems, it seems more practical to secure for him a court ranking (a political but not royal position) and to encourage his studies. A Korean soothsayer's prediction that the boy will never become emperor plays a part in this decision.

Genji, or Minamoto, roughly translated means ''commoner.'' It carries negative connotations, that the bearer of the name has been dispossessed of a potential birthright because of an embarrassment or scandal. But the name Hikaru Genji, by which he becomes known, means "the shining prince."

The Emperor's grief over Kiritsubo is eased when he meets her look-alike, Fujitsubo. She becomes the Emperor's official consort, and Genji grows up in her presence. Genji is drawn to Fujitsubo for much the same reasons as his father. The Emperor seeks a substitute for his wife, and Genji seeks a mother. Right after Genji's coming-of-age ceremony, at the age of twelve, Genji is married-off to the Minister of the Left's daughter, Aoi. She is a Fujiwara. Aoi turns out to be cold and unsympathetic, and Genji spends most of his time at the Palace in his mother's apartments (though he is now denied access to her). His inattentiveness to his wife inspires resentment from his father-in-law. Aoi's brother, To no Chujo, becomes both Genji's close friend and bitter rival.

Five years pass between the first and second chapters. At the age of seventeen, Genji is already an experienced lover. His countless affairs occupy much of his time and energy. He seems to have a penchant for difficult situations, that or he is too weak to avoid them. Genji seduces Yugao, a former mistress of To no Chujo's, and she dies of a mysterious ailment shortly after. Lady Rukujo's living ghost seems to be responsible. Though this is Lady Rukujo's first appearance, it is understood that her jealousy (she is one of Genji's many partners) is the root cause.

Genji, now eighteen, discovers Murasaki in the hills north of Kyoto. He is there seeking a cure for a persistent illness. Though just a girl of ten, Murasaki looks hauntingly like Fujitsubo. She turns out to be her niece. A series of negotiations in which Genji tries to adopt her fail. He won't be denied, though, and before her father, Prince Hyobu, can make his proper claim, Genji spirits her away to his household. He begins her education, grooming her to be his future romantic partner. Meanwhile, Genji's persistent efforts to be with Fujitsubo finally come to fruition. She becomes pregnant as a result of their one sexual encounter, but the son's real heritage must remain secret. Fujitsubo resolves not to allow Genji even the slightest access to her in the future, though the Emperor, unaware of the clandestine relationship, sometimes brings the two together. Everybody assumes the son, who eventually will be... » Complete The Tale of Genji Summary