The Tale of Genji (1)The Tale of GenjiThe Tale of Genji ( ) is an early 11th-century Japanese , Genji monogatarinovel by Murasaki Shikibu. Widely regarded as a classic, the novel remains widely read and celebrated today. It is known for its vivid depictions of court life (the author herself was a member of the imperial court of Heian-era Japan).

Scene from a pair of 18th-century folding screens; this one depicting a scene from Chapter 9 of The Tale of Genji.

Background and Composition

Murasaki Shikibu was writing at a time when fictional stories were regarded as second-class art, vastly inferior to poetry and scholarly writings. Because only men were expected to become scholars, fiction was left largely in the hands of women (and occasionally, men writing under a woman's name ), and  seems to have been written primarily for a female audience. Murasaki Shikibu spent a significant portion of her life at [1] The Tale of Genji court, and that lifestyle informs . Ultimately, it became quite popular among both men and women and was widely circulated. Modern The Tale of Genjieditions are based on a revision and compilation carried out by a 13th-century scribe, who found current editions lacking.

The Tale of Genji is written primarily in prose, with a relatively small number of Chinese characters; this style was characteristic of female Japanese writers at the time. In addition to the prose,  contains 795 poems over its 54 chapters. These poems, written in the (sometimes The Tale of Genji  wakacalled  ) style, are critical elements of social exchanges within the world of  . One might compose a  to a lover, a friend, or tanka The Tale of Genji waka someone you were requesting a favour of. These poems are often paired with response poems from the recipient. In addition, these poems, as well as some of the characters' exchanges within the prose sections, often make reference to older works (poems, history, and stories) that the characters can interpret to find deeper meaning in than what the words alone convey. These frequent allusions reinforce the fact that Shikibu was writing for a courtly audience; contemporary readers, without the benefit of a good education, would have been able to make little sense of these references.

Summary

The Tale of Genji follows the life of the titular Genji, a son of the emperor by a low-ranking consort. Charming all those around him almost from the moment he is born, Genji is nonetheless unable to remain a prince due to his mother's low social standing, and is made into a commoner by receiving a surname (the Imperial Family in Japan does not have surnames). Genji is married to Aoi, daughter of a high-ranking official, but his fascination with the Emperor's new consort Fujitsubo (said to resemble Genji's deceased mother) prevents him from dedicating himself fully to her. Genji has many affairs, but his interest is first truly piqued by a young girl he comes across while on a retreat to a remote area seeking to cure some illness. This girl, Murasaki (from whom the author's name is derived), is eventually brought up to be his bride, and the two remain dedicated to each other for the rest of their lives. This does not stop Genji from pursuing other women, and as a consequence of one of his affairs he is briefly sent into exile. He returns in triumph, with great political power that only grows greater as time goes on. He ultimately marries the Third Princess, daughter of the Emperor, but he is far more devoted to Murasaki, allowing the opportunity for another suitor to impregnate her. Genji, is outraged, but her son, Kaoru, is widely believed to be his. The Third Princess dies soon after, and then, after a few years, do Murasaki and a grief-stricken Genji. The story then continues with the younger generation, Kaoru and Genji's grandson (by another woman) Niou, as they repeat some of the cycles of love, loss, and struggle that the earlier generations had gone through.

 

Themes

Mononoke

Throughout the tale, characters are frequently possessed by spirits, a phenomenon known as  .  was widely blamed at the time mononoke Mononoke for a wide variety of phenomena, and the text contains several instances of  explicitly being depicted. For instance, Genji's first wife, Aoi, is mononoke haunted by the vengeful spirit of a woman she is seen to have slighted at a ceremony. This occurs without the knowledge of the slighted woman, who has no idea of the harm her spirit is causing. This unwitting possession is characteristic of this type of possession; other forms of  could mononoke involve spirits of the dead or nature spirits.  could be seen as the weakening of barriers between the material world, and  , the "floating Mononoke  ukiyoworld."

Literature professor Doris G. Bargen argues in her book  that  as a device allows Murasaki to render visible certain inner Women's Weapon  mononoke conflicts that otherwise would not see the light of day. For instance, in the aforementioned case of Aoi, her possession (and the timing thereof, occurring while she is pregnant) is an active representation of her loveless marriage to Genji and all the pain she has silently borne over the years. It draws Genji's, and the reader's, attention to her suffering in a way that is hard to match.

Exile

One of the core themes in the novel is the power one can gain through exile, self-imposed or otherwise. As pointed out by scholar Richard Okada, Genji, through his own exile, meets the Akashi lady, who would ultimately bear the child who would one day become emperor. This child is the key to Genji's redemption, and indeed he soars to greater heights after his exile than he had reached before . It is not just Genji who gains some measure of 3 

power through exile, however. His mother was shunned by other court ladies for the favour she enjoyed with the emperor, but she was renowned in equal measure. Murasaki is said to have her beauty because she was raised away from the rest of the world, due to her family's self-imposed isolation.

Writing

The power of writing to offer insight into the author is a recurring theme throughout the novel. A character's thoughts and feelings can often be most succinctly transmitted through poetry, and an exchange of letters between lovers adds airs of mystery and romance to their dalliance. These writings also serve as elements of ritual; a young Murasaki's refusal to write a reply to Genji after he forcibly consummates their marriage disrupts this ritual and strongly conveys her dissatisfaction and anger. It is not merely the content of the writing that offers insight into the characters, however, but also the style of their writing. When Genji first meets Murasaki, her caretakers impress upon him that she is far too young to be a bride, with a particular emphasis on how she cannot properly write her (the simplest kind of Japanese character). This writing, the writing of a child, is used as the kana quickest way of conveying to Genji how young Murasaki is.

Illness and Decay

Illness is omnipresent throughout  . Genji's birth mother dies of an illness when Genji is merely three years old, setting the scene for The Tale of Genjinumerous characters to fall ill over the course of the novel. Ultimately, Genji loses his beloved Murasaki to disease. This illness is often accompanied by a decay in the strength of the character's identity. For instance, an episode where Kashiwagi, who had had an affair with one of Genji's wives, is dying of illness features vivid descriptions of his loss of self. As pointed out by critic Reginald Jackson, the sub-humanity Kashiwagi falls into with his disease is shown in his writing . It is described as resembling bird tracks, and his hand shakes until he can write no more. Given the importance of 2 

writing in as a mirror to the inner self, this passage is a symbolic representation of his decay and inner turmoil.Genji

Legacy and Interpretations

The Tale of Genji remains an important work today. It is taught (in a modernized translation) across Japanese high schools.  has The Tale of Genji inspired interpretations across a vast number of media, from paintings and  theatre to anime and manga.Noh 

 

The Tale of Genji Scrolls

 

One famous companion work to the tale itself is the  , a Tale of Genji Scrolls (, Genji Monogatari Emaki)set of illustrated scrolls depicting key scenes from the novel, with accompanying calligraphy for each scene. Exact creatorship is disputed, but the scrolls are believed to date to the mid-12th century , which [2]

has been contextualized as leading to the scrolls' emphasis on the "death and decay" aspects of the tale (due to the instability of Japanese society at that time). Much of the original work has been lost, but it is believed that originally there was one scroll for each chapter, of which about sixteen survive. Genji Scroll depicting the "Takekawa" (Bamboo River) chapter.

Translations

There have been many translations of  into other languages, allowing its influence to spread throughout the world. One of the key The Tale of Genji issues faced by translators is adapting the numerous  Due to the nature of the Japanese syllable count, it is generally difficult to preserve both waka. the original meaning and the "5-7-5-7-7" meter. Aiming to preserve meaning as accurately as possible will likely render the poem too short to fit the meter, while trying to fit the meter will require adding extra words, due among other things to the abundance of particles in Japanese that serve a grammatical purpose which is unnecessary in other languages.

There also exist so-called "free translations," which are updates of  's language into modern Japanese. They take liberties with the original text, Genjiand often feature a greater emphasis on sexuality. These have been in production since the mid-1970s, and remain somewhat popular to this day .4

 

1 Bagen, Doris.  . University of Hawai'i Press, 1997.a A Woman's Weapon: Spirit Possession in The Tale of Genji

2 Jackson, Reginald. "Scripting the Moribund:  ' Aesthetics of Decomposition."  The Tale of Genji. Ed. Richard Stanley-Baker, The Genji Scrolls Reading Murakami Fuminobu, Jeremy Tambling. Kent, UK: Global Oriental Ltd, 2009. 3-36. Print.

3 Okada, Richard. "Displacements of Conquest, or Exile,  , and Post-Cold War Learning."  The Tale of Genji. Ed. Richard The Tale of Genji Reading Stanley-Baker, Murakami Fuminobu, Jeremy Tamblin. Kent, UK: Global Oriental Ltd, 2009. 63-79. Print.

4 Kitamura, Yuika. "Sexuality, Gender, and  in Modern Japanese Translations and  ."  The Tale of Genji. Ed. Haruo The Tale of Genji  Manga Envisioning Shirane. New York, USA: Columbia University Press, 2008. 329-357. Print.