The Tale of Genji (源氏物語 ) by Murasaki Shikibu (紫 式部)

The Tale of Genji (源氏物語 ) by Murasaki Shikibu (紫 式部)

It represents the classical literature, the literature of the [1]Heian period, a very distinctive and productive in didactic. The book is unique – it was pronounced a first modern, psychological novel, it describes the daily life of the Emperor and the court’s vassals, live hood of everyday people. The book has got a shape of clusters of chapters and chapters, it was everyday writing to amuse, to entertain, to acknowledge the aristocracy, women mostly. The shape of the novel is very much alike as in modern evaluated narrative; there is one main hero, villain and sideways characters that fill the plot, make it vivid and dynamic. There is not a firm plot as the reader used to know in modern XX and XXI century novels, however, there is a chain of events that describes the life of the characters, it changes as their life goes on; gradually getting older and older. The system – Imperial Japan, feudal shape of the country, the fate of the characters, the way they perceive the outside surroundings is indeed very much obsolate, regardless of what we think of it - Japan was exactly as described at that time. Notably, the novel doesn’t portray the characters by their real identity, therefore they are mysterious, anonymous figures for the reader, intriguing and yearn to know and follow-up. The reader meets “the  Excellency”, “women on the right or left”- how exciting it sounds, sometimes the description of a mysterious girl is so powerful and picturesque – seems to be almost divine. It mustn’t be forgotten that the language of the book is  – old-Chinese. The court language is unbearably difficult to follow in reading, incomprehensible, it changes when alliteration is introduced. Nowadays the reader doesn’t have any difficulty of reading an archaic text – modern translation and diversity of languages it is present in puts the mind at ease. The historians agreed that the novel must have been completed by Murasaki Shikibu by the end of 1021.  The book concentrates on the mayor of Kyoto, the ancient Japanese Emperor and his concubine – the woman he loved most of all. The conflict between the Emperor and Genji – who eventually had been forced to accept degradation has its justification with protecting and prevailing the line of succession. His new name Minamoto gives him a new identity – in the book we meet him and read about him as of imperial officer. The book describes the romantic life at court, its upheavals and tragedies. Genji mother died when he was very young, the Emperor remarried with a princess – an angel as he refers to her – Genji loves her with his boyish love as a mother, as a stepmother, but when he grows older he sees much more than that, he sees a beautiful woman he wants to love and wants to be with – eventually they fall in love. The love is cursed, the love is forbidden, it leads to misunderstandings and conflicts, it is hidden, but, so explicit in feelings and gestures as being shouted out loud. Genji marriage suffers because of it, the woman he loves will never be in a person of his wife, his wife, sadly, sees she will never be like “the other woman”- it simply doesn’t match the match. The loneliness and frustration pushes Genji into relationships, into affairs which are destructive and damaging, none of the women he met will ever be loved, they are just toys, just fun to kill a boredom and a bitter feeling of loss. Genji dies – the novel doesn’t say how … it happens out of the blue. The novel ends in the mid-sentence as if there was no longer relevant to write further …

The origins of the author are very interesting, she belonged to aristocratic middle-level class, her family of Fujiwara clan was very influential. Her life and background were sophisticated. The importance of male particle is obvious, medieval Japan was very restrict about hierarchical diversification; the men in Shikibu’s novel are noble men, government officials. All of them were very educated; they studied law, Chinese language, philosophy. They wrote in Chinese; mostly poetry. In contrary position of women is different, they were not supposed to learn Chinese, the poetry is read to them, instead. Those who acknowledged to have such wide knowledge were in danger of harsh punishment. The hierarchy is very important; the Emperor was supported by two main ministers; The Minister of the Left and the Minister of the Right. The structure of the imperial government functioned with two parallel branches – left and right, respectively.  The rank of birth and the seat one had in the government had to be exact. The poetry and prose of the Tale of Genji is simply exceptional; the most noble of all in all Japan. Writing the court poetry was a challenge; people wrote new ones by adapting verses and phrases from the one they had already known, they changed patterns and rhyme, they learnt and created new words, memorizing was a key to compose a poem. It was a spontaneous, frivolous torrent of various sets of feelings, a spur of a moment put down to celebrate life, passion, love sometimes hatred as well. In the Tale of Genji most of the poems are written in “tanaka” style which represent so – called “short song”. The pattern was 5…7…5…7…7, embracing thirty-seven syllables. The Tale of Genji is a brilliant masterpiece, long, but, dynamic in action and romances, for all Japanese literature lovers – I guess, it is a must.  

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[1] The name of the period derived from the Kyoto prefecture of Medieval Japan – Heian-kyo. It is very imperialistic period with a tremendous influence of Emperor and Chinese culture and religion, especially Buddhism and Taoism. In Japanese language / heian means peace/.