The Tale of Genji

Written text from the earliest illustrated handscroll (12th century)
Author	Murasaki Shikibu
Original title	Genji Monogatari (源氏物語)
Translator	Suematsu Kenchō, Arthur Waley, Edward G. Seidensticker, Helen McCullough, Royall Tyler, Dennis Washburn
Country	Japan
Language	Early Middle Japanese
Genre	Monogatari
Published	Before 1021
Media type	manuscript
Dewey Decimal	895.63 M93

The Tale of Genji (源氏物語, Genji monogatari, pronounced [ɡeɲdʑi monoɡaꜜtaɾi]), also known as Genji Monogatari is a classic work of Japanese literature written in the early 11th century by the noblewoman, poet, and lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikibu. The original manuscript, created around the peak of the Heian period, no longer exists. It was made in "concertina" or orihon style: several sheets of paper pasted together and folded alternately in one direction then the other.^[1]

The work is a unique depiction of the lifestyles of high courtiers during the Heian period. It is written in archaic language and a poetic complex style that makes it unreadable without specialized study.^[2] It was not until the early 20th century that Genji was translated into modern Japanese by the poet Akiko Yosano. The first English translation of Genji was attempted in 1882 by Suematsu Kencho, but was of poor quality and left incomplete. Since then, notable English translations have been made by Arthur Waley, Edward Seidensticker and Royall Tyler.

The work recounts the life of Hikaru Genji, or "Shining Genji", who is the son of an ancient Japanese emperor (known to readers as Emperor Kiritsubo) and a low-ranking concubine called Kiritsubo Consort. For political reasons, the emperor removes Genji from the line of succession, demoting him to a commoner by giving him the surname Minamoto, and he pursues a career as an imperial officer. The tale concentrates on Genji's romantic life and describes the customs of the aristocratic society of the time. It may be Japan's first novel,^[3] the first psychological novel, and the first novel still to be considered a classic particularly in the context of Japanese literature.

Historical context

Murasaki was writing at the height of the Fujiwara clan's power—Fujiwara no Michinaga was the regent in all but name, and the most significant political figure of his day. Consequently, Murasaki is believed to have partially informed the character of Genji through her experience of Michinaga.

The Tale of Genji may have been written chapter by chapter in installments, as Murasaki delivered the tale to aristocratic women (ladies-in-waiting). It has many elements found in a modern novel: a central character and a very large number of major and minor characters, well-developed characterization of all the major players, a sequence of events covering the central character's lifetime and beyond. There is no specified plot, but events happen and characters simply grow older. Despite a dramatis personæ of some four hundred characters, it maintains internal consistency; for instance, all characters age in step, and both family and feudal relationships stay intact throughout.

One complication for readers and translators of the Genji is that almost none of the characters in the original text is given an explicit name. The characters are instead referred to by their function or role (e.g. Minister of the Left), an honorific (e.g. His Excellency), or their relation to other characters (e.g. Heir Apparent), which changes as the novel progresses. This lack of names stems from Heian-era court manners that would have made it unacceptably familiar and blunt to freely mention a person's given name. Modern readers and translators have used various nicknames to keep track of the many characters.

Authorship

There is debate over how much of Genji was actually written by Murasaki Shikibu. Debates over the novel's authorship have gone on for centuries, and are unlikely to ever be settled unless some major archival discovery is made.

It is generally accepted that the tale was finished in its present form by 1021, when the author of the Sarashina Nikki wrote a diary entry about her joy at acquiring a complete copy of the tale. She writes that there are over 50 chapters and mentions a character introduced at the end of the work, so if other authors besides Murasaki did work on the tale, the work was finished very near to the time of her writing. Murasaki's own diary includes a reference to the tale, and indeed the application to herself of the name 'Murasaki' in an allusion to the main female character. That entry confirms that some if not all of the diary was available in 1008 when internal evidence convincingly suggests that the entry was written.^[4]

Murasaki is said to have written the character of Genji based on the Minister on the Left at the time she was at court. Other translators, such as Tyler, believe the character Murasaki no Ue, whom Genji marries, is based on Murasaki Shikibu herself.

Yosano Akiko, the first author to make a modern Japanese translation of Genji, believed that Murasaki had written only chapters 1 to 33, and that chapters 35 to 54 were written by her daughter, Daini no Sanmi.^[5] Other scholars have also doubted the authorship of chapters 42 to 54 (particularly 44, which contains continuity mistakes; in the rest of the book such mistakes are rare).^[5] According to Royall Tyler's introduction to his English translation of the work, recent^[when?] computer analysis has turned up "statistically significant" discrepancies of style between chapters 45–54 and the rest, and also among the early chapters.^[5]

Plot

Genji's mother dies when he is three years old, and the Emperor cannot forget her. The Emperor Kiritsubo then hears of a woman (Lady Fujitsubo), formerly a princess of the preceding emperor, who resembles his deceased concubine, and later she becomes one of his wives. Genji loves her first as a stepmother, but later as a woman, and they fall in love with each other. Genji is frustrated by his forbidden love for the Lady Fujitsubo and is on bad terms with his own wife (Aoi no Ue, the Lady Aoi). He engages in a series of love affairs with many other women. These are however unfulfilling, as in most cases his advances are rebuffed, or his lover dies suddenly, or he becomes bored.

Genji visits Kitayama, a rural hilly area north of Kyoto, where he finds a beautiful ten-year-old girl. He is fascinated by this little girl (Murasaki no Ue), and discovers that she is a niece of the Lady Fujitsubo. Finally he kidnaps her, brings her to his own palace and educates her to be like the Lady Fujitsubo, who is his womanly ideal. During this time Genji also meets Lady Fujitsubo secretly, and she bears his son, Reizei. Everyone except the two lovers believes the father of the child is the Emperor Kiritsubo. Later the boy becomes the Crown Prince and Lady Fujitsubo becomes the Empress, but Genji and Lady Fujitsubo swear to keep the child's true parentage secret.

Genji and his wife, Lady Aoi, reconcile. She gives birth to a son but dies soon after. Genji is sorrowful but finds consolation in Murasaki, whom he marries. Genji's father, the Emperor Kiritsubo, dies. He is succeeded by his son Suzaku, whose mother (Kokiden), together with Kiritsubo's political enemies, take power in the court. Then another of Genji's secret love affairs is exposed: Genji and a concubine of the Emperor Suzaku are discovered while meeting in secret. The Emperor Suzaku confides his personal amusement at Genji's exploits with the woman (Oborozukiyo), but is duty-bound to punish Genji even though he is his half-brother. He exiles Genji to the town of Suma in rural Harima Province (now part of Kobe in Hyōgo Prefecture). There, a prosperous man known as the Akashi Novice (because he is from Akashi in Settsu Province) entertains Genji, and Genji has an affair with Akashi's daughter. She gives birth to Genji's only daughter, who will later become the Empress.

In the capital, the Emperor Suzaku is troubled by dreams of his late father, Kiritsubo, and something begins to affect his eyes. Meanwhile, his mother, Kokiden, grows ill, which weakens her influence over the throne, and leads to the Emperor ordering Genji to be pardoned. Genji returns to Kyoto. His son by Lady Fujitsubo, Reizei, becomes the emperor. The new Emperor Reizei knows Genji is his real father, and raises Genji's rank to the highest possible.

However, when Genji turns 40 years old, his life begins to decline. His political status does not change, but his love and emotional life begin to incrementally diminish as middle age takes hold. He marries another wife, the Third Princess (known as Onna san no miya in the Seidensticker version, or Nyōsan in Waley's). Genji's nephew, Kashiwagi, later forces himself on the Third Princess, and she bears Kaoru (who, in a similar situation to that of Reizei, is legally known as the son of Genji). Genji's new marriage changes his relationship with Murasaki, who had expressed her wish of becoming a nun (bikuni) though the wish was rejected by Genji.

Genji's beloved Murasaki dies. In the following chapter, Maboroshi ("Illusion"), Genji contemplates how fleeting life is. The next chapter is titled Kumogakure ("Vanished into the Clouds"), which is left blank, but implies the death of Genji.

Chapter 45–54 are known as the "Uji Chapters". These chapters follow Kaoru and his best friend, Niou. Niou is an imperial prince, the son of Genji's daughter, the current Empress now that Reizei has abdicated the throne, while Kaoru is known to the world as Genji's son but is in fact fathered by Genji's nephew. The chapters involve Kaoru and Niou's rivalry over several daughters of an imperial prince who lives in Uji, a place some distance away from the capital. The tale ends abruptly, with Kaoru wondering if Niou is hiding Kaoru's former lover away from him. Kaoru has sometimes been called the first anti-hero in literature.^[6]

Completion

This section has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please help improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (November 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. The specific issue is: The authors currently cited are Western translators of the tale. You may improve this article, discuss the issue on the talk page, or create a new article, as appropriate. (November 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

The tale has an abrupt ending. Opinions vary on whether this was intended by the author. Arthur Waley, who made the first English translation of the whole of The Tale of Genji, believed that the work as we have it was finished. Ivan Morris, however, author of The World of the Shining Prince, believed that it was not complete and that later chapters were missing. Edward Seidensticker, who made the second translation of the Genji, believed that Murasaki Shikibu had not had a planned story structure with an ending as such but would simply have continued writing as long as she could.

Literary context

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Because it was written to entertain the Japanese court of the 11th century, the work presents many difficulties to modern readers. First and foremost, Murasaki's language, Heian-period court Japanese, was highly inflected and had very complex grammar.^[7][8] Another problem is that naming people was considered rude in Heian court society, so none of the characters are named within the work. Instead, the narrator refers to men often by their rank or their station in life, and to women often by the color of their clothing, or by the words used at a meeting, or by the rank of a prominent male relative. This results in different appellations for the same character, depending on the chapter.

Another aspect of the language is the importance of using poetry in conversations.^[9] Modifying or rephrasing a classic poem according to the current situation was expected behavior in Heian court life, and often served to communicate thinly veiled allusions. The poems in the Genji are often in the classic Japanese tanka form. Many of the poems were well known to the intended audience, so usually only the first few lines are given, and the reader is supposed to complete the thought themselves, leaving the rest – which the reader would be expected to know – unspoken.

As with most Heian literature, Genji was written mostly in kana (Japanese phonetic script), specifically hiragana, and not in kanji.^[10] Writing in kanji was at the time a masculine pursuit.^[11][12] Women were generally discreet when using kanji, confining themselves mostly to native Japanese words (yamato kotoba).

Outside of vocabulary related to politics and Buddhism, Genji contains remarkably few Chinese loan words (kango). This has the effect of giving the story a very even smooth flow. However it also introduces confusion: there are a number of homophones (words with the same pronunciation but different meanings); and for modern readers context is not always sufficient to determine which meaning was intended.

Structure

Outline

The novel is traditionally divided into three parts, the first two dealing with the life of Genji and the last with the early years of two of Genji's prominent descendants, Niou and Kaoru. There are also several short transitional chapters which are usually grouped separately and whose authorships are sometimes questioned.

1. Genji's rise and fall
   1. Youth, chapters 1–33: Love, romance, and exile
   2. Success and setbacks, chapters 34–41: A taste of power and the death of his beloved wife
2. The transition (chapters 42–44): Very short episodes following Genji's death
3. Uji, chapters 45–54: Genji's official and secret descendants, Niou and Kaoru

The 54th and last chapter, "The Floating Bridge of Dreams", is sometimes argued by modern scholars to be a separate part from the Uji part. It seems to continue the story from the previous chapters but has an unusually abstract chapter title. It is the only chapter whose title has no clear reference within the text, although this may be due to the chapter being unfinished. This question is made more difficult by the fact that we do not know exactly when the chapters acquired their titles.

List of chapters

The English translations here are taken from the Arthur Waley, the Edward Seidensticker, the Royall Tyler, and the Dennis Washburn translations. It is not known for certain when the chapters acquired their titles. Early mentions of the Tale refer to chapter numbers, or contain alternate titles for some of the chapters. This may suggest that the titles were added later. The titles are largely derived from poetry that is quoted within the text, or allusions to various characters.