The tale of Genji
written by Pin Fang Su
Discuss Genji's character in Genji  Monogatari
Introduction: The history of Genji Monoatari and Lady Murasaki Shikibu
 

         Medieval Japan reached its collateral's highest point with the flowering of  the Heian period.  During this period, Lady Murasaki Shikibu ( image on the left ), a lady-in-waiting to the empress, wrote the classic love story called, "The Tale of Genji". This literaturary work describes the elegant and refined society of the Heian period. Genteel's love affairs are  the dominant theme in "Tale of Genji," which focused on Genji's romances.  The story of Genji Monoatari is basically about Prince Genji, the young handsome son of an emperor.  The Prince possessed all the virtues including beauty, grace, talent, and sensitivity.

        In order to understand Genji's enchantment and femininely character, we can comprehend through the background of Lady Murasaki Shikibu, and Genji's relationships with his women. Before talking about Genji, some people might wonder what influenced Lady Murasaki Shikibu to create "KoGenji," and what the significance of Genji to Lady Murasaki Shikibu is. The meaning of "Ko" in front of Genji was usually used in ancient Japanese names, to mean  pretty and charming. To Lady Murasaki, exactly who is Genji?  According to conjecture, Lady Murasaki might be born after C. E. 937.  During that period her father was a famous poet and scholar.  Furthermore, if we go back toward the history of her ancestors, we could discover that among her ancestors, many were sufficient to be called a men of letters, or  poets.  Therefore it is clear to us that Lady Murasaki Shikibu had a strong literary influence from her family.  Before Lady Murasaki Shikibu became sensible with the world, her mother passed away.  So during Lady Murasaki Shikibu's youth, her father paid special attention to educate Lady Murasaki Shikibu and her brother.  In the diary of Shikibu, Lady Murasaki Shikibu mentioned that whenever her father tried to teach her brother, her brother took much more effort to memorize. On the other hand, Lady Murasaki Shikibu could memorize things better than her brother, so her father always felt that Lady Murasaki Shikibu should be a boy. Lady Murasaki Shikibu was married to her 46-year-old husband when she was 29 years old.  At that time, her husband already had many wives.  Such middle-aged man does not seem to attract women.  At first, Lady Murasaki did not agree to this marriage.  However, she also realized that she was getting old.  In addition, it was not easy to find someone suitable for her at her age in that time period.  Therefore, she had to put up with it.  In the year 1005, she received a job at "Ijijyo Tenon."  With great interest in literature, Lady Murasaki Shikibu had much hope for an ideal husband, but in reality her husband was old.  In addition, he did not have a special talent, which was very different from her ideal husband.  Therefore, Genji was probably the ideal man for Lady Murasaki Shikibu during that time period.

        Now, I would like to talk about Genji's attractive character and femininity which was reflected in "Genji no Monogatari."  During Genji's period, which is about 8-12th century.  During that period, it was normal for man to have many wives.  It was also very clear in Genji's case which he had relationships with many different women.  Many of Genji's women had good families and were also well-educated.  In terms of age, they ranged from youthful to mature women.  So what would be the main reason Genji made so many different women fall in love with him?  Certainly, Genji's noble lineage, pretty and charming looks were considered special, but he also possessed other appealing character traits

        First of all, Genji was smart and knows  how to express his feelings. For example, in one of the stories of "Genji no Monoatari" called "Haha Kigi," a woman named "Utsu Semi" ( image on the right ) never knew she would become unfaithful to her husband. Since Genji was able to quickly grasp the delicate mind of Utsu Semi's innermost heart, finally, Utsu Semi accepted  Genji.  Secondly, Genji also took good care of the woman whom he had a relationships  with. Even if Genji did not truely love the woman, he would try his best to take care of the her. Such example is in Genji's relationship with a woman named "Suetsumuhana."  For Genji, he unexpectedly slept with Suetsumuhana in one dark night.  After he realized he didn't like the way Suetsumuhana looked, he still supported her and took good care of her.  As for Suetsumuhana, she didn't grumble, but she felt grateful to Genji.  Thirdly, Genji is a character of true sentiments.  For example, Genji's lover "Yugao" was killed by the evil spirit of Lady Rokujyo, and passed away at midnight.  After Genji returned home he was consoled by his company.   However, later Genji thought Yugao's spirit would return and not see him.  Genji thought Yugao must have been lonely and afraid.  Therefore, Genji did not care if it was late at night.  He rushed back to Yugao's graveyard and earnestly prayed for good fortune and recited a Buddhist sutra.  In reality, Genji was considered a typical person of talent in letters and unconventional in lifestyle.  For example, Genji is proficient in painting, music, writing poems for his lovers, and dancing.  Even though Genji was raised in the center of politics, Genji still kept his unique personality, which was a contrast to the politics.  Furthermore, the result of Genji's literarcy pursuits naturally emitted a strong sense of artistic quality.
 
        To further understand his character and femininity we can look at Genji's relationship with Fujitsubo and Yugao. Fujitsubo ( image on the left ) was Genji's stepmother.  She looked very similar to Genji's departed mother Kiritsubonokoi, and Genji's father was relieved from melancholy.  Once Genji heard that Fujitsubo looked similar to his mother, he gradually expressed his love towards her.  For Fujitsubo, she also felt in love with Genji. In terms of their age, Fujitsubo is only five years older than Genji.  Their relationship developed from mother and son to lovers.  It seemed natural to me.  When Genji became 12 years old, there was a ceremony for him as he became an adult.  Such that Genji had an arrange marriage with "Aoi no Jyo."  Once Genji got married and became an adult, he could not visit Fujitsubo as before.  For Genji, Fujitsubo is his father's favorite concubine, so Genji could only hide his true feeling inside his heart.  In "Genji no Monoatari," Lady Murasaki Shikibu did not write in detail about Fujitsubo.   Lady Murasaki Shikibu passed her idea on Genji's love for Fujitubo and built her ideal type of husband through Genji's character.
 

Genji when he was a child Genji when he became an adult
  Genji and Fujitsubo ( image on the right ) later had a son, and the son looked just like Genji.  Fujitsubo tried not to have affair with Genji.   Therefore, she decided to be a Buddhist nun.  It was a big  blow to Genji.  This made Genji feel very depressed.  Fujitsubo was a merciful woman and was considered an ideal queen.  In addition, she received the greatest respect among people.  When Genji became 32,  Fujitsubo passed away at age 37.  After Genji heard about Fujitsubo's death, he felt grief but couldn't express his true feelings in front of others.  Instead, he always hid in some place to cry alone and read Buddhist sutra  for Fujitsubo.

        Another important woman of Genji's relationships is Yugao.  Genji met Yugao by chance when he was 17 years old.  At the same time, Genji was also seeing lady Rokujo no Miyasudokoro.  One day Genji was on his way to visit lady Rokujyo no Miyasudokoro.  He stopped by to paid a visit to his "menoto," her old nurse, Koremitsu's mother.  While Genji was waiting, he looked up and down. Beside the nurse's house, was as new fence of plaited cypress.  The four or five narrow shutters above had been raised and new blinds, white and clean,  hung in the apertures.  Genji caught outlines of a pretty forehead beyond. Afterwards, Genji had Koremitsu find out the lady's identity.  They found out that this lady's name was Yugao and she moved to the area around May.  It made Genji feel even more curious when he heard Yugao has some relationship with To no Chujo.  Yugao was shy and withdrawn.  Therefore, Genji was soon captured by Yugao's gentle personality.  Later Genji and Yugao became lovers without really knowing each other.  However, about the same time, Genji had another lover named Rokujo no Miyasudokoro.  She was a very beautiful and smart woman.  In addition, she is much older than Genji.  At the same time, Lady Rokujo no Miyasudokoro had lots of pride in herself, so she could not accept Genji's new lover, Yugao, who was from a lower class.  Since Lady Rokuo no Miyasudokoro had pride, it was difficult to show her feelings at all. Lady Rokujo no Miyasudokoro thought and worried too much.  As a result,  her evil spirit killed Yugao. ( image on the left ) After Genji returned, Genji felt depressed and wanted to die.  Genji was sick for twenty days.  From this story, we can see Genji was tender-hearted, just like a woman.

        Finally, from Lady Murasaki and  Genji's relationships with these two women, we can clearly see The unique faminine characteristic of Genji not only had beautiful appearance as it  appeared in the comics or cartoons,but he also possess a gentle heart like a woman.  This is especially clear through Genji's compassion toward the death of Yugao and Fujitsubo.
 

 
 Interconnection of Lady Rokujo in Genji Monogatari with Mieko in Masks
 
        One of the best examples among the modern Japanese literatures with the interest to relate their story line with Genji Monogatari is  "Mask" written by Enchi Fumiko.  The themes, characters, scenes, and narrative being woven together as a series of interlocking triangles.  The novel has three sections, each entitled with a name of a female mask from the No theatre, which literally translated the novel's title is female masks. Furthermore, the events within the story take place in three eras.  The era from ancient, recent past and present.  In addition, the relationships of the characters can be interpreted in sets of three to fit a pattern in which they have been conceived.  There are two main male characters in this novel.  Ibuki, a young professor of Japanese literature and Mikame, a psychiatrist.  Both Ibuki and Mikame are in love with Yasuko, a beautiful young widow with whom they have become acquainted through their common interest in folklore studies.  Yasuko's former husband Akio, died on a climbing expedition, leaving her under the spell of his mother, the mysterious Togano Mieko.  Mieko is described by Yasuko as being a woman whose heart is as secretive as a garden of flowers at night, which the mingled scent of unseen blossoms trailed from her every gesture.  In Masks, it is clear from the tragic life of Mieko which resulted Mieko transformed into a modern Lady Rokujo, seeking her revenge against certain people who betrayed her in her youth.  For example, Mieko was arranged to marry to a man was not her choice, the liaison between her husband and a servant, and finally her miscarriage.   In Mask, neither Ibuki who initiates a passionate affair with Yasuko, nor Mikame who proposes marriage to her, is aware that her husband had a twin sister named Harume, who is severely retarded, although attractive, but is most unlikely to marry and bear children.  However, for reasons of her won, Mieko wishes to have a single grandchild, a boy who will be the very image of her lost son.  To this end, Mieko uses her daughter-in-law Yasuko as the "medium" for her plan, persuading her to seduce Ibuki and substitute Harume while he is either drugged or drunk.  By there devious means Mieko achieves her objective and in doing so may have outwitted a vengeful ghost such as the spirit of a female rival from her own past.    Based from this outline, the plot of Masks appears to be an overgrown garden of fantasies, but the novel itself is distinguished by its clarity and precision.  For example, it was clearly inspired by the episode of the Rokujo lady in The Tale of Genji, of whom Enchi's female protagonist Mieko has secretly written an essay quoted in full at an essential point in the story.   It is clear to us that Enchi's suggestion and by implication of Mieko suggestion is the representation of archetypal women that is not only an object of man's eternal love but can also be the object of his eternal fear.  In Tale of Genji, the Rokujo lady who continues to haunt Prince Genji's lovers long after he has rejected her is Mieko which Enchi claims, an embodiment of this archetype.  While not being especially original, the story certainly underlines Enchi's feminist belief that the oppression of women must surely have its origin in the male psyche.   Finally, through the novel we can see that Mieko had the power of spirit possession similar to lady Rokujo, but Mieko used this transform this spirit possession to control Yasuko, and her hatred of her former husband toward Ibuki.
Related Links