Chapter I: Preface

Several critics have asked to be told more about the writer of the Tale of Genji. Unfortunately little is known of Murasaki’s life save the bare facts recorded in the first appendix of Volume I. What other knowledge we possess is derived from her _Diary_, which will be discussed in a later volume and is meanwhile available in Mr. Doi’s translation. Reviewers have also asked for information concerning the state of literature in Japan at the time when the _Tale_ was written. This I have supplied; and I have further ventured upon a short discussion of Murasaki’s art and its relation to the fiction of the West.

I have been blamed for using Catholic terms to describe heathen rituals. My reason for doing so is that the outward forms of medieval Buddhism stand much nearer to Catholicism than to the paler ceremonies of the Protestant Church, and if one avoids words with specifically Catholic associations one finds oneself driven back upon the still less appropriate terminology of Anglicanism. Thus ‘Vespers’ is a less misleading translation than ‘Evening Service’ though the latter is far more literal.

Finally, I have thought it might be of interest to give a few notes concerning the transmission of the text.

Volume III is finished and will appear shortly.

_Note on Pronunciation_.—The G in ‘Genji’ is hard, as in ‘gun.’ Vowels, as in Italian.

CONTENTS

PAGE
PREFACE 5
LIST OF MOST IMPORTANT PERSONS 9
GENEALOGICAL TABLES 11
SUMMARY OF VOL. 1 13
INTRODUCTION:
FICTION IN JAPAN PREVIOUS TO THE _Tale of Genji_ 15
THE ART OF MURASAKI 30
NOTE ON THE TEXT 35

CHAPTER
X. THE SACRED TREE 39
XI. THE VILLAGE OF FALLING FLOWERS 94
XII. EXILE AT SUMA 99
XIII. AKASHI 141
XIV. THE FLOOD GAUGE 188
XV. THE PALACE IN THE TANGLED WOODS 225
XVI. A MEETING AT THE FRONTIER 252
XVII. THE PICTURE COMPETITION 258
XVIII. THE WIND IN THE PINE-TREES 282

LIST OF MOST IMPORTANT PERSONS

(ALPHABETICAL)

Akashi, Lady of Daughter of the old recluse of Akashi.

Akikonomu, Lady Vestal Virgin at Ise; daughter of Rokujō.

Aoi, Princess Genji’s first wife.

Asagao, Princess Genji’s first-cousin; courted by him in
vain.

Chūjō Short for ‘Tō no Chūjō.’

Chūjō, Lady Tō no Chūjō’s daughter by his legitimate
wife.

Chūnagon Maid to Oborozuki.

Emperor, The Old Genji’s father.

Fujitsubo The Old Emperor’s consort; loved by Genji.

Genji, Prince The Old Emperor’s son by a concubine.

Gosechi, Lady Dancer at the winter festival; admired by
Genji.

Hyōbukyō, Prince Fujitsubo’s brother; Murasaki’s father.

Iyo no Suke Husband of Utsusemi.

Jijū Maid to Suyetsumu.

Jōkyōden, Lady Consort of Suzaku.

Ki no Kami Son of Iyo no Suke by his first wife.

Kōkiden Original consort of the Old Emperor;
supplanted first by Genji’s mother, then
by Fujitsubo.

Koremitsu Retainer to Genji.

Murasaki Genji’s second wife.

Oborozukiyo, Princess Younger sister of Kōkiden.

Ōmyōbu Maid to Fujitsubo.

Reikeiden Lady-in-waiting at the Old Emperor’s Court.

Reikeiden, Princess Niece of Kōkiden.

Rokujō, Princess Widow of the Old Emperor’s brother.

Ryōzen, Emperor Son of Genji and Fujitsubo; successor to
Suzaku.

Shōnagon Murasaki’s old nurse.

Sochi no Miya, Prince Genji’s half-brother.

Suyetsumu, Lady Daughter of Prince Hitachi; the red-nosed
(Suyetsumuhana) lady.

Suzaku, Emperor Genji’s half-brother; successor to the Old
Emperor.

Tō no Chūjō Brother of Genji’s first wife, Lady Aoi.

Ukon no Jō (Ukon) Faithful retainer to Genji; brother of
Ki no Kami.

Utsusemi Wife of Iyo no Suke. Courted by Genji.

Village of Falling Sister of Reikeiden; protected by Genji.
Flowers, Lady from the

GENEALOGICAL TABLES

┌ Prince Zembō, _m_. Lady Rokujō, and died young.
│ │
│ └ Lady Akikonomu.
│
│
├ THE OLD EMPEROR.
│ │
│ ├ Suzaku (his mother was Lady Kōkiden).
│ │
│ └ Genji (his mother was Lady Kiritsubo).
│
│
├ Prince Momozono Shikibukyō.
│ │
│ └ Princess Asagao.
│
└ Princess Ōmiya, _m_. the Minister of the Left.
│
├ Aoi.
│ │
│ └ Yūgiri.
│
└ Tō no Chūjō.
│
└ Lady Chūjō.

MINISTER OF THE RIGHT.
│
├ Kōkiden (eldest daughter).
│
└ Oborozukiyo[1] (sixth daughter), wife of Suzaku, who is Emperor
for a time, but soon retires.

A FORMER EMPEROR.
│
├ Prince Hyōbukyō.
│ │
│ └ Murasaki (Genji’s second wife).
│
└ Fujitsubo.
│
└ Ryōzen (supposed to be the old Emperor’s child; really Genji’s).
Becomes Emperor in Suzaku’s stead.

[1] Whom in this volume I call Oborozuki for short.

SUMMARY OF VOLUME ONE

Genji is an illegitimate son of the Emperor; his mother dies soon after his birth. At the age of twelve he is affianced to Lady Aoi, the daughter of the Minister of the Left; but she is older than he is, and looks down upon him as a mere schoolboy. Years go by and they are still upon indifferent terms. Meanwhile Genji falls in love with Lady Rokujō, a widow eight years older than himself. She is passionately jealous of his wife (whom, however, Genji hardly ever sees) and relations with her become very difficult. Genji turns for consolation to Utsusemi, wife of a provincial governor: to Yūgao, a discarded mistress of his great friend Tō no Chūjō: to the fantastic Lady Suyetsumuhana, the ‘lady with the red nose.’ Utsusemi is carried away to the provinces by her husband; Yūgao dies, withered by the virulence of Rokujō’s jealousy. Meanwhile Genji manages to establish better terms with his wife, Aoi, only to lose her through the operation of the same baleful force that had destroyed Yūgao. Since his childhood Genji has had a passionate admiration for Lady Fujitsubo, his father’s second wife and therefore his own stepmother. He has a son by her which is believed by the world to be the Emperor’s child. Had this misdemeanour became known, Genji’s enemies, led by Lady Kōkiden who had been his mother’s rival, would have had an ample pretext for driving him away from Court. As it is, the actual cause of Genji’s banishment (recounted in Vol. II) is his intrigue with Oborozukiyo, a much younger sister of his enemy, Lady Kōkiden.

At the end of Vol. I, Genji marries, _en secondes noces_, Lady Murasaki, a niece of Fujitsubo, whom he had some years before taken into his house and adopted.