Hthe Tale of Genji I Art Chapter 9 the Cherry Blossoms

There is a gap of two years between "Nether the Cherry Blossoms" and the present chapter "Aoi"; Genji is now 22 to 23. In the period in-between, Genji'due south begetter, the Kiritsubo Emperor has abdicated, and Suzaku, his son by the Kokiden Consort, has get emperor. Fujitsubo's infant son by the Kiritsubo emperor (who is in fact Genji's son) has go Heir-apparent (at historic period 3 or four).

[Kamigamo Shrine]

"Aoi" is a long and important chapter. Allow's offset expect at the plant mentioned in the affiliate title. "(Futaba) aoi" (asarum caulescens, hollyhock or heart-vine), grows on the forest flooring and consists of a pair of broad, heart-shaped leaves that leap from a single stem. The aoi plant is sacred to the Kamo shrines (Shimogamo and Kamigamo in Kyoto) and at the Kamo festival people used to decorate their headdresses and carriages with information technology. During the Heian Period, these leaves were believed to protect against natural disasters such as earthquakes and thunder, and were often hung under the roofs of homes for protection. However, as the aoi plant is relatively rare, often substitutes with similarly shaped leaves were used, such as the leaves of the katsura tree. Simply the hollyhock was firmly established every bit the symbolical flower of the Kamo shrines.

[Asarum caulescens]

[Aoi crest]

[The Aoi Crest of the Shimogamo Shrine]

The Kamo festival was the greatest festival of Kyoto in the time of the Genji, and still exists as a cute panorama of ladylike times. The main festival procession is held on May 15, only in that location are various events and rituals before that date.

The origins of the festival may get back to the belief that a drought and epidemic which struck the country in the 6th c., were a form of divine penalisation by the Kamo deities. Therefore the emperor sent a messenger with a retinue to the shrine to deport various rituals to appease the deities, such as riding a galloping horse, and say prayers for a bountiful harvest. This became an annual ritual, and the galloping horse functioning developed into an equestrian archery performance.

The deities enshrined in Shimogamo are Kamo-taketsunemi-no-mikoto and his girl Tamayorihime-no-mikoto. This girl once was sitting at the boards of the Kamo River (I don't want to destroy the romantic atmosphere, only as a thing of fact in olden times rivers were used as toilets), when a peppery cherry arrow came drifting towards her on the waves. Freud could not have written this any amend. Of class Tamayori got pregnant (never let your daughter go solitary to the river) and gave birth to Kamo-wake-ikazuchi, a god who was subsequently enshrined in the Kamigamo Shrine, the related facility further upstream.

Emperor Kanmu who in 794 made Heiankyo (Kyoto) his new capital, recognized the deities of the Kamo shrines equally protectors of the upper-case letter, and established the Aoi Matsuri as an annual purple event. The festival reached its peak of grandeur in the centre of the Heian Period, but waned in the Kamakura and the following Muromachi periods, and finally the festival procession was discontinued. Thereafter it was held with fits and starts, until 1953, when the modern festival procession was held for the first time. So far it has merely been canceled in one case, in 2020 because of the corona virus pandemic.

[Inside the Shimogamo Shrine]

The following rituals are held earlier the twenty-four hours of the chief procession:

• Yabusame Ritual on May 3, held in Tadasu no Mori at the Shimogamo Shrine. Dressed in traditional Heian Menstruation costume, riders galloping down the forest path shoot arrows with tips shaped like turnips at targets along the course.
• Saio-Dai Misogi Ceremony on May 4, held at the Mitarashi River at either the Shimogamo or Kamigamo Shrine (present, the location alternates every yr). The women who will participate in the Aoi Matsuri procession, including the Saio-Dai, undergo a purification ceremony at the Mitarashi River in which a paper doll, called kamishiro, is floated down the h2o. The Saio-Dai is one of the two most important figures during the festival. She used to be chosen from the sisters and daughters of the Emperor to dedicate herself to the Shimogamo shrine, and her role was to maintain ritual purity and to correspond the Emperor at the festival. Nowadays, the part of the Saio-Dai is played by an single civilian adult female from Kyoto, dressed in the traditional style of the Heian court (twelve layers of the traditional junihitoe).
• Mikage Matsuri on May 12. Kamo Priests visit the Mikage Shrine (at the human foot of Mt Hiei, in northern function of the the Eastern Hills) to invite the "aramitama", the "rough spirit" of the deities and accompany them to the Shimogamo shrine, in a procession of more than 100 people in Heian costume.

[The master procession setting out from Gosho]

The primary procession on May xv is led by the Majestic Messenger, followed past a retinue of 600 people all dressed in the traditional costumes of Heian nobles, plus ii oxcarts, iv cows and thirty-six horses. The oxcarts are adorned with artificial wisteria flowers. The procession starts at the Kyoto Royal Palace and slowly works its fashion towards the Shimogamo shrine and finally (in the early afternoon) the Kamigamo shrine. At both shrines, the Saio-Dai pays her respects, and the Imperial Messenger intones the imperial rescript praising the deities and requesting their continued favor.

[Ox cart decorated with wisteria blossoms]

In this chapter of the Genji an incident takes place at the festival - not during the principal procession, merely on the 24-hour interval of the Saio-Dai Misogi Anniversary. At that place are so many aristocrats setting out in their ox-fatigued carriages that a true traffic jam ensues on Ichijo Avenue which is packed with spectators. Moreover, the occupants of the carriages are competing to occupy the all-time spot to see Genji pass past every bit 1 of the participants. A quarrel erupts betwixt Lady Aoi, Genji's main married woman (at present meaning), and his lover, the Rokujo Haven (Rokujo no Miyasudokoro). Rokujo has hesitated whether to nourish or not, torn equally she is between her desire to run across Genji in the procession and the hurting caused by his macerated love. She finally decides to come up, but rides in an camouflaged railroad vehicle so as not to attract attending. Carriages were status symbols, like an expensive, outsized automobile today, and parking places from where the occupants could watch the festival, had to be reserved in accelerate (of course, the ladies in the carriages remained behind their bamboo blinds and did non become out). When the wagon of her rival, Aoi, all of a sudden arrives and the vehicles of lesser mortals are pushed aside by Aoi'south retainers, her pride is wounded. Rokujo's carriage is forced into a corner, so that she can't encounter annihilation of the procession. What is more, she has been humiliated in public and feels great resentment.

Rokujo is a proud aristocratic lady. Genji seems to accept been initially attracted to her because of the very difficulty of approaching such a adult female, the widow of a former crown prince (presumably i of Emperor Kiritsubo's brothers) who would have become empress, if not for her husband'southward early death. Although in the "Hahakigi" chapter Genji and his friends agreed that high ranking women were to be avoided, Genji was somehow drawn to Rokujo. Just once he has succeeded in making her his lover, his passion subsides. He finds her too sensitive, and there is a discrepancy in ages (Rokujo is nigh seven years older than Genji). The problem is that Rokujo has fallen more deeply in dearest with Genji than he with her.

[Wisteria flowers on the ox-drawn carriage]

In fact, there is something unusual almost the fashion in which Murasaki Shikibu introduces Rokujo. That is in the Yugao affiliate, where Genji is said to be on his way to visit her as his lover, but and so makes a detour to the house of his nurse, leading to the discovery of Yugao. But his affair with Rokujo is nowhere told in detail, nor exercise we become complete biographical information well-nigh her - we have to glean the details from the full general narrative and piece them together ourselves. Has Murasaki Shikibu on purpose left it out as in that location was aught special to tell about their early relation (the writer was anyhow mostly interested in telling about Genji's affairs with unknown women of the middle rank)? Or has an early on chapter about Rokujo been lost?

Because of her outstanding social position, Rokujo is entitled to be treated with the utmost respect, something which Genji, too caught up in his philandering, neglects to do. Humiliated by Genji'south boldness for her, angered past the rumors of his diplomacy, on summit of that Rokujo now is slighted by Genji's wife Lady Aoi. Her uncontrolled jealousy, which leads to her own unhappiness and the devastation of others, is her fatal flaw.

As her girl has been selected as a new "Ise Virgin" (Saio), Rokujo, unable to stand Genji's coldness, contemplates accompanying her daughter to Ise (the system of having a woman related to the imperial house stay at Ise was introduced by Emperor Tenmu. Since then, every time a new emperor succeeded to the throne - similar now Emperor Suzaku -, a new Saio was chosen and set out on a journey from the capital to Ise). Rokujo apparently hopes that leaving the capital may help her forget Genji, although it was not customary that the mother of an Ise virgin accompanied her daughter.

[The quarrel with the carriages in Aoi, past Sanjonishi Sanetaka (1455 - 1537), Harvard Museum of Art ]

Aoi'due south pregnancy has weakened her - the people around her are fifty-fifty worried that she may have a miscarriage or die in childbirth, which might pollute others (significant women were believed to be in a state of defilement) and lead to bad karma in her own next life. In her weakened status, she is also more than susceptible to psychic influences - for example attacks past spirits such equally mono no ke.

From her side, the proud Rokujo feels so humiliated by Lady Aoi that she peradventure unconsciously wishes her rival dead. She blames herself for her lack of cocky-control. When the time of Aoi's delivery nears, an evil spirit possesses her and she suffers terribly. At first the cause of Aoi's sickness baffles the doctors, and Genji has numerous prayers and rituals performed to bewitch it, but to no avail. Finally, diviners succeed in compelling the spirit that possesses Aoi to speak. The words that issue from Aoi's rima oris are not in her own voice, but - as Genji realizes to his horror - the voice of Rokujo (in that location is an impressive scene in Kurosawa's motion-picture show Rashomon in which a female person medium carrying the words of a dead human being, of a sudden starts speaking in a deep, male person voice). Finally, Lady Aoi gives prematurely birth to a son who will be called Yugiri ("Evening Mist"), and then suffers a sudden seizure and dies.

Information technology should be noted that Murasaki Shikibu - like others of her fourth dimension - firmly believed in the existence of spirits - especially vengeful ones. Illness was believed to be acquired by such spirits, and often exorcists played a larger role at the sickbed than doctors. The conventionalities that the vengeful spirit of a former minister who had been banished, Sugawara no Michizane, was causing devastation in Heiankyo and in the palace, motivated the building of shrines in his honor at great cost. The author faithfully describes the world around her.

(The fact that Rokujo's spirit possesses Aoi, has led readers, critics and scholars to speculate that the unnamed spirit in Yugao as well must have been Rokujo. There is still no proof for that (no proper noun is mentioned in the novel), and information technology could just as well exist a spirit from the haunted house in which Yugao dies.)

Troubled by the gossip near her involvement in Aoi's possession, Rokujo herself comes to believe in her ain guilt, which strengthens her determination to accompany her daughter to Ise.

[Aoi Matsuri in the Gosho palace grounds]

It is only at the time of her illness and decease that Aoi appears sympathetic in Genji's eyes. Genji finally starts to appreciate her, something which never happened earlier. Their marriage was an bundled one, and as Aoi was several years older, she at first considered Genji more every bit her lilliputian brother than her husband. And we take seen that Genji fell in honey with vulnerable women, who played the baby to him, and non with cold and proud types equally Aoi. She was such a perfect lady that she simply intimidated Genji. Their spousal relationship failed because of their incompatibility of grapheme.

Afterward the 49 solar day mourning period has concluded, Genji returns to his Nijo mansion, where he has subconscious Musasaki. He sees her for the commencement time after a long while and realizing that she has grown up (she is 14 or fifteen, which was the marriageable age for women in the Heian period), he sleeps with her and makes her his secondary wife. For 4 years Genji has enjoyed a platonic, paternal relation with Murasaki while waiting for her to attain maturity. Murasaki is shocked by the sudden change in their human relationship - she was quite innocent of sexual knowledge, and considered Genji in the first place as a father. Genji sends Murasaki the usual "morning time later on" poem, just that makes her all the more upset, because she feels that she has been deceived. Genji may indeed have been inconsiderate in his abrupt seduction of her, but Seidensticker'south translation here goes incorrect past implying that Genji forced himself on Murasaki. He has brought her up to marry her and now the time is right. Genji is perchance somewhat patronizing towards Murasaki on the forenoon subsequently, only he is also very solicitous and conscientious in arranging the ritual foods signifying union. In dissimilarity to Yugao and others, Genji makes Murasaki his official secondary wife. Why non his first wife, now that Aoi has died? Because - again! - Heian court guild was a terrible hierarchical society and Murasaki's rank was unfortunately much too low to brand her his master wife.

As regards Genji-e, the nearly famous scene illustrated is the "Carriage Competition" during the Kamo festival, when the carriages of Aoi and Rokujo compete for viewing space (see photo above).

The Aoi chapter has the get the subject of a famous No play "Aoi no Ue". The story has been changed for dramatic effects: the play is wholly focused on Rokujo equally the possessing spirit. Aoi is just represented past a folded robe at the front of the stage over which Rokujo (the shite) does battle with the exorcising priest, the holy human being of Yokawa (the waki). The spirit battle ends - contrary to the novel - in the triumph of the Police force of the Buddha and Rokujo's spirit is subjugated.

[Mitarashi river (purification place) in Shimogamo Jinja]

The Shimogamo Shrine and Kamigamo Shrine in Kyoto are among my most favorite places in the old capital, on the i hand considering I used to live in that surface area in the by, and besides because I often adopt their refined atmosphere for hatsumode at New year's day to that of other shrines (here and here). And the Aoi Matsuri (May 15) is a dandy gamble to go a whiff of the atmosphere of the Genji!
See https://www.shimogamo-jinja.or.jp/ and https://www.kamigamojinja.jp/.
Admission to Shimogamo: Urban center Bus Stop Shimogamo Jinja-mae (#four or #205) / 12 min walk from Demachiyanagi Station on the Keihan Railway.
Access to Kamigamo: Urban center Autobus Finish Kamigamo Jinja-mae (concluding stop of bus #4).

Translations:

Seidensticker, Edward G. (1976). The Tale of Genji. 1 & 2. Tuttle Publishing.
Tyler, Royall (2001). The Tale of Genji. New York: Viking.
Waley, Arthur (1926-33). Tale of Genji: The Arthur Waley Translation of Lady Murasaki's Masterpiece with a new foreword by Dennis Washburn (Tuttle Classics)
Washburn, Dennis (2015). The Tale of Genji past Murasaki Shikibu. W. W. Norton & Visitor; Unabridged edition
Yosano Akiko, Genji Monogatari in modern Japanese, at Aozora Bunko.
Original text in full at Japanese Text Intitiative (University of Virginia)

Studies:
Bargen, Doris G (1997). A Adult female's Weapon : Spirit possession in the Tale of Genji. Honolulu: Academy of Hawaiʻi Press.
Bargen, Doris Grand. (2015). Mapping Courtship and Kinship in Classical Japan: The Tale of Genji and Its Predecessors (Hawaii U.P.)
Bowring, Richard (1985). Murasaki Shikibu, Her Diary and Poetic Memoirs: A Translation and Report (Princeton U.P.)
Emmerich, Michael (2013). The Tale of Genji: Translation, Canonization, and World Literature (Columbia U.P.)
Field, Norma (1987). The Splendor of Longing in the Tale of Genji. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Goff, Janet Emily (1991). Noh Drama and the Tale of Genji : The Fine art of Innuendo in Fifteen Classical Plays. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Harper, Thomas and Shirane, Haruo (2015). Reading The Tale of Genji: Sources from the First Millennium (Columbia U.P.)
McKinney, Meredith (2006). The Pillow Book, by Sei Shonagon (Penguin)
McMullen, James (2019). Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji: Philosophical Perspectives (Oxford U.P.)
Morris, Ivan I (1964). The World of the Shining Prince: Courtroom Life in Ancient Japan. (Vintage)
Seidensticker, Edward G. (1984). Genji Days (Kodansha International)
Shirane, Haruo (1987). The Bridge of Dreams : A Poetics of the Tale of Genji. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Shirane, Haruo (2008). Envisioning the Tale of Genji: Media, Gender, and Cultural Production. New York: Columbia University Press.
Tyler, Royall (2014). A Reading of the Tale of Genji.
The Tale of Genji, Scenes from the World'southward first Novel, with illustrations by Miyata Masayuki, Kodansha International (2001).
Kano Shigefumi. Genji Monogatari no butai wo tazunete (Kyoto, 2011).

I am indebted to the discussion about Aoi and Rokujo in Seeds in the Heart, Japanese Literature from the Primeval Times to the Late Sixteenth Century, by Donald Keene (1993, Henry Holt, p. 495-500).

[The photos in this article - except Harvard Museum of Art - are my ain]

Reading The Tale of Genji

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Source: https://adblankestijn.blogspot.com/2021/03/reading-tale-of-genji-10-heart-to-heart.html

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