Over a millenium ago, during the Heian Period (794‒1185) in Japan’s long history, a woman who we known of as Murasaki Shikibu (d. 1014) wrote an incredibly rich tale that is widely regarded as the greatest work of Japanese literature, The Tale of Genji, said to be the world’s oldest novel. Very little is actually known of this woman; her name as we know it derives from the heroine who makes her first appearance in the work’s Part Five, entitled “Young Murasaki,” and her real father’s position at the Bureau of Rites (Shikibu).
The eminent scholar of classical Japanese literature, Kikan Ikeda (1896‒1956), analyzed the tale as constituting three divisions,“ three phases of life̶glory and youth, conflict and death, and transcendence of death…. These three divisions are unified by a concern with human fate.” (The Princeton Companion to Classical Japanese Literature, p. 204) The passions and sensibilities of the characters, fictional figures belonging to a not so fictional aristocratic society highly defined by rank and status, are ingeniously expressed through the prose in which this fifty-four-part work is written, and the nearly eight hundred poems which are included.
The tale’s opening words, written in the now antiquated Japanese of those days, may be rendered into English like this: “In what emperor’s era was it, now, that among the many ladies of the court, there was one who, though not of extraordinarily high birth or rank, the emperor loved deeply.” The lady is Kiritsubo, so called because the apartment where she resides within the Kyoto Imperial Palace has the courtyard (tsubo) featuring a paulownia (kiri). Her name serves as the title of Part One,“ Kiritsubo.”
In this first part of the intricately woven story which is about to unfold, we are introduced to Kiritsubo’s circumstances and those of the emperor’s second son, the boy she gave birth to, our protagonist Genji. The emperor dotes on Kiritsubo and their beautiful boy, Genji, which spurs hateful harassment from the other ladies. Especially hateful is Kokiden, the high-ranking mother of the emperor’s first-born son, the ‘rightful’ future crown prince. Kiritsubo, plagued by people’s jealousy, tragically falls ill and dies when Genji is but the age of three. The emperor is plunged into mourning.
The young, motherless Genji eventually excels in both scholarship and music, and his father, the emperor, considers naming him crown prince. However, the emperor heeds the words of a physiognomist who predicts that it would lead to political strife, and demotes Genji from his position even as an imperial prince, making him a vassal of commoner status.
The emperor’s longing for Kiritsubo at last wanes once Fujitsubo, who bears a striking resemblance to her, enters his service. She is the fourth princess of a previous emperor, and is placed in the apartment with the wisteria (fuji) courtyard. The emperor comes to love her deeply, and Genji, for his part, develops a great fondness for her. Meanwhile, Genji’s coming-of-age ceremony takes place, and he marries Aoi, a daughter of the Minister of the Left. Aoi is a prideful woman and, being some years older than Genji, is cold and stand-offish toward him.
Gretchen Mittwer
