PINK IN THE TALE OF GENJI

The chapter 26 of the Tale of Genji is named 'Pink' (Dianthus superbus) which comes from the word in a 31‐syllable Japanese poem (tanka) in this chapter.

撫子のとこなつかしき色を見ば もとの垣根を人や尋ねむ

(Prince Genji wrote and sent a tanka to Tamakazura "If your father meet you who is so beautiful as pink, he will miss your mother Yuu-gao and ask you where she is now.")



Beauty, modesty and a gentle disposition—a girl with these qualities is the ideal Japanese woman and is called 'Yamato Nadeshiko', which means 'Japanese Pink'.

We have a kakejiku (hanging scroll) of pink, and hang it up in summer.  Pink is a representative flower of summer, and is also called 'tokonatsu' (常夏 perpetual summer).

A drawing of pink flowers on a hanging scroll.  

A hanging scroll at a tokonoma (an alcove of the traditional Japanese room where a flower arrangement, an art object and a hanging scroll of picture/calligraphy are displayed.  

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The wood-cut print of this chapter is another favorite.  The story of this chapters is summarized as follows.  (July of Prince Genji's 36th year)

The picture shows Kumoi-no-kari taking a nap, and her father looking at her.  

     On a hot summer day, Prince Genji came out to the eastern waterside building.  Together with court nobles and the sons of the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal (a rival of Prince Genji), he ate fresh-water trout and took iced water.  He happened to refer to Ima-Himegimi, a stupid girl who was under the care of the Lord Keeper.  The sons of the Lord Keeper felt ashamed.

     Toward evening, Prince Genji paid a call to Tamakazura, and performed for her the thirteen-sringed Japanese harp.  Bowing her head, she listened intently.  Under the light, she looked so pretty.  Prince Genji had ardent love stirred up in his bosom.  Prince Genji approached her so close as to touch her, under the excuse that he was going to teaxh ger how to play the harp.  To this shocking familiarity of his, Tamakazura had already accustomed herself.

     The sons of the Lord Keeper went home, and told their father that Prince Genji had spoken ill of Ima-Himegimi.  The Lord Keeper seemed displeased at that, saying that Prince Genji's foster-daughter, Tamakazura (a daughter of the late Yuu-gao), was no admirable girl either.  After this, the Lord Keeper went to see how his daughter, Kumoi-no-kari, was getting along.  She was taking a nap in her room.  Through her thin summer dress, her fine skin could be seen.  With a folding fan in her hand, she was lying resting her head on her arm.  Her black hair was not too long and had a a delicacy in itself.  The Lord Keeper clicked his folding fan.  She awoke at the sound, and directed her enraptured eyes upward.  her face which had blushed with shame seemed beautiful to her father.  The Lord Keeper suggested that it was bad manners for a girl to take a nap with her skin visible to others.

     Then, the Lord Keeper made his way to the Northern Building to see Ima-Himegimi.  She was playing backgammon with her maid, Gosechi-no-Kimi.  She spoke too quickly, and that loudly, even of the privy.   At her vulgarity, the Lord Keeper was shocked.  But in his heart, he thought she was innocent and that this innocence of hers might be her charm....

THE TALE OF GENJI

In the Japanese style room of our house, we have hung two wood-cut prints of the Tale of Prince Genji (Genji Monogatari 源氏物語) on the wall.  The theme of both prints is summer.  This room is cooler in summer, and I often sit on tatami (Japanese style carpet) and read books.
Today I introduce my favorite stories of the Tale of Genji.

In 2008 millenary of Genji Monogatari was celebrated in Japan, and in October 2008 I visited Kyoto (the former capital of Japan for more than one thousand years) where the novel had been written by a lady author, Murasaki Shikibu.
We could watch the parade of the festival of Jidai Matsuri （時代祭）.  This festival is held every year on 22nd of October.  The large parade travels from the Imperial Palace to Heian Shrine.  Jidai Matsuri is Japanese for "Festival of Ages", and the participants of the parade are dressed in old costumes from almost every period of Japanese history.  Three photos below show traditional costumes and cars of the Heian Period (794-1185).

I bought some copies of wood-cut prints of Genji Monogatari at the antique shop in Kyoto.  After that I started to read the books translated to modern Japanese, and it took almost six months to read all 54 chapters of the story.

The tale of Prince Genji is a long love novel, and is indeed a unique work characterized by its rich expession of human affection.  The hero of this novel, Prince Genji, is endowed with the wonderful art of love.  He loved very many persons, who reciprocated his love with no less enthusiasm, but he cannnot be described simply as a lady-killer.  Not only handsome, but also very intelligent, he shows himself sometimes very introspective.  This novel can be said to be one of the best romances in Japanese literature.
This unique love romance was translated in part into English by Dr. Kencho Suematsu in 1882, and then the entire English translation of this novel was completed by Dr. Arther Waly (1933).  Since then, it has come to be widely read in Europe and America.

Pictorial representations whose subject matter comes from the Tale of Genji are called Genji-e（picture of Genji 源氏絵）, and they are either a single painting of a particular scene or a series of episodes in various formats such as handscrolls （emaki 絵巻）, booklets （sasshibon 冊子本） or folding screens (byoubu 屏風).  So many pictorial representations have been made since 11th century.
The wood-cut prints I bought were rather new, printed in 1958.

The forth chapter of the story 'Yuu-gao' (夕顔) is one of the popular chapters of Genji Monogatari, and I love it.


In summer and autumn of the seventeenth year of Prince Genji, He met a young woman at the house where white 'Yuu-gao' (bottle gourd 夕顔）flowers bloomed on the fence of the entrance.  They loved each other, and one morning they went in search of a house where they would have more privacy.  All morning and afternoon, they exchanged the happy words of love.  Night finally fell and enveloped the two lovers in warm quietness.  As night deepened, Yuu-gao (the young woman named from the flower of her house) said she was frightened to sleep in the inner chambers, and the two slept in the front room.  Genji had fallen into a deep slumber for some time when he was rudely awakened.  He thought he had heard the jealous voice of the Lady Rokujo who had loved Genji.  He grabbed his sword and called out to awake the people in the house.  The waiting woman and others hurried to his chamber, and they were paralyzed with fear and could do nothing.   After the initial moment of surprise Prince Genji put his hand on Yuu-gao's face.  She was not breathing.  Alarmed Genji rudely shook her but no response came.  She was dead, and was already becoming cold.  "Dearest, come back and let me see your beautiful eyes again" the Prince cried as he threw himself in sorrow over the lifeless body of his lover....

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Shows the astonished hero raising the body of his sweetheart in his arms.  

Bottle gourd flowers （夕顔の花）

This post became too long, and the next story will be in the next post.