Japanese Culture: Identity and Tradition

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\title{The Tale of Genji}
\author{Mathieu Tozer}
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\section{Introduction}
First I'll talk about the Heian court world, which also gives us the setting for the Genji story, within which the author also lived out her life. After that we'll look at the story itself - themes and language etc.\\\\emph{Hand Around Book}\\\This book covers the story and its authors, including information about the heian period and Murasaki's position within it. There's heaps of beautiful ancient screen and scroll paintings of the story.\\\
\emph{Yamato is the highest part of the country:\The mountains are green walls;\Nestling in its hills, its terraces\lie range upon range -\How lovely is the land of Yamato}\\\(Kojiki, Poem 30)

``When shall I, a ragged, rustic outcast,\See again the blossoms of the city?"\\\
``Quickly the blossoms fall. Though spring departs,\You will come again, I know, to a city of flowers.\\\
``wept and wept as I made my slow way homewards.\It is a world in which nothing lasts forever.\\\
\section{Heian Jidai}
noted for its art and especially in poetry and literature

150 years after Chinese writing was introduced, Buddhism was.
Constitution based on the Chinese one was made in 604.
The continental culture adapted by the Japanese eagerly.

So there was this flow of culture from China
Enthusiasm of faith and power kindled by Buddhism in Japan made every branch of art and culture blossom.
\subsection{Capital at Heian-kyo}
nara then heian-kyo (get away from buddhism) They moved the capital to Heian-kyo from Nara, to get the court away from Bhuddist influence. I'm sure we're all fairly familiar with this part of Heian Jidai so I won't dwell on it.

They built some wonderful things and produced the first art and cultures unique to Japan, one piece of this being the Genji Monogatari, others being the Bhuddha at Toudaiji...

This is why we call it the 'golden age'.

\subsection{Court}


They developed a court culture with values and concepts uniquely Japanese rather than derived from imperial China. This culture reached their pinnacle in the book considered to be the greatest classic of Japanese literature, the Genji monogatari (Tales of the Genji) by Lady Murasaki Shikibu. Which we will talk about later.

\subsection{Small Aristocracy}

It was modelled of china, but on a smaller scale.
Japan was actually quite small compared to China, which numbered about 65 million people, and Japan perhaps 5 million. The Heian court and system had been modelled of the Chinese Tang government. However of the six thousand employees of the imperial court, four thousand administered the imperial house, So they weren't really concerned with managing the outlying 66, virtually autonomous provinces.

The provincial governors, those who were 4th or 5th ranking in the Heian court, were sneered at because they ended up coming back from their 3 year posts in the provinces speaking and acting like a bumpkin, and because they spent time out of the capital. They wouldn't be able to keep up with the lingo anymore. So they considered 3 years in the county an exile of sorts.

So what I'm trying to communicate here is the sheer closedness of the heian court.

We'll talk more about what it was like to be one of these aristocrats later, as Murasaki herself and the characters in her tale were a part of this society.

\subsection{Fujiwara}

The clan of the Fujiwara began to control the Emperor closely in the heian peroiod a shrewd move since the Taika reform theoretically gave all final power to the emperor. From 856 until 1086, the Fujiwara were, for all practical purposes, the government of Japan. Murasaki belonged to a lower ranking branch of the Fujiwara clan. So she was born into a life of privilege.

\subsection{Women}
This is where we start to look at the world that the author of Genji came from.

Female Aristocrats were house bound behind screens and travel was done in ox driven carts with only a slit to look out from. Maybe this is why they became infatuated with fantastic tales like the 18th century English Women.

Women could only escape the tedium of life by becoming a lady in waiting for the empress or another royal, where they could pursue gentlemen in court and have a good deal of fun.

Hair was the only part of a woman gentlemen saw, so women wore their hair longer than they were tall, and poetry, calligraphy, breeding and good clothing were to be admired. Sleeves falling from the side of a carriage or from behind a screen, and a skillfully written or sensitive poem is what a man would fall for. But then they were polygamous, and had one principal, political wife, plus concubines, + they were able to play the field also. But womern were meant to know only two men - their father and their husband. So obvioiusly jealousy must have been rampant, although it was an emotion that was meant to be supressed.

Affairs would consist of a 'morning-after-poem' and then continue with other poetic banter sent by messenger from man to woman.

``It is the day of the donning of summer robes,
And must there be a renewal of memories?"

He sent back:

``Thin as the locust's wing, these summer robes,
Reminders of the fragility of life."

So perhaps that was a break up!?

Murasaki entered court life after having a child, and was no doubt immersed in this exclusive, secluded lifestyle.

\subsubsection{Women and Language}
We'll look at the language of Genji later, but under the category of women it is notable to discuss it also.

Chinese was used in court by the men only, however Murasaki was learned in it because her father let her study it. Men considered the use Japanese when writing beneath them, and was only used by women. Later, hiragana became to be known as `women's hand'.

\subsection{Leisure}
They were shut off from the world, and who were obsessed with breeding, rank, and who were acutely aware of the beauty on nature, and enjoyed studying and practising arts such as poetry, calligraphy, music and clothing.

\subsection{Samurai}

While on one hand the Heian period was indeed an unusually long period of peace, it can also be argued that the period weakened Japan economically and led to poverty for all but a tiny few of its inhabitants. The aristocratic beneficiaries of Heian culture, the Yokibito meaning the Good People, numbered about five thousand in a land of perhaps five million. One reason the samurai were able to take power was that the ruling nobility proved incompetent at managing Japan and its provinces. By the year 1000 the government no longer knew how to issue currency and money was gradually disappearing . The lack of a solid medium of economic exchange is implicitly illustrated in novels of the time, for instance messengers are rewarded with useful objects, e.g. an old silk kimono, rather than paid a fee. The Fujiwara rulers also failed to maintain adequate police forces, which left robbers free to prey on travellers. This is again implicitly illustrated in novels by the terror that night travel inspired in the main characters.

Just sumarise this section.

\section{Murasaki Shikibu}

\subsection{Personal History}
Describe her childhood, marriage, child, court life, personal history
\subsection{Position in the court}
Calligraphy and the court heirarchy were important to Murasaki.
\subsection{Other works of Shikibu's}
\subsection{memoir MS nikki, shu (poems)}
\subsection{pervious works in Japan}
the pillow book
And that's pretty much all we've got to go on to know who she was and what she was like.

\section{Genji Monogatari}
\subsection{Story}
Genji Monogatari, ``The Tale of Genji
An early 11th century. Finished in it's current form in 1021.

The main character is Hikaru Genji, and the whole tale follows his birth, childhood, adulthood right up to his death, and the story continues with his ofspring. The story talks a lot about his many love interests, but also about deeper themes such as his
leaving the place of one's birth, and returning after adventure and exile and romance to become a king.

`Murasaki' is the heroine, the most attractive lady in the court
Genji moves from one woman to another in his early days, then to extended relationships when he is older.
He's a dancer, a singer and a poet.
\subsection{start, beginning, end}
The author is interested in her characters.

There are speculations everywhere which describe why the story is still relevant to modern readers.

1. success story
2. continuing success mixed with failure
3. Story of failure - redemption of evil karma, consequence of jealousy anger and irresponsibility.

``The tale concentrates on his romantic life and describes the customs of the aristocratic society of the time. Much is made of Genji's good looks. His most important personality trait is the loyalty he shows to all the women in his life, as he never abandons any of his wives. When he finally becomes the most powerful man in the capital, he moves into a palace and provides for each of them. (Wikipedia).

The novel is traditionally divided in three parts, the first two dealing with the life of Genji, and the last dealing with the early years of two of Genji's prominent descendants, Niou and Kaoru. (Wikipedia)


A large work, divided up into over 40 volumes.
SCALE: 400+ characters, all related to one another somehow and detailed in the book.
It's mostly chronological
Coherent development of characters and events

Not actual people or autobiographical. Characters are perhaps partyly based on people
\subsection{Themes}
Central themes:
The nebulous, unreal quality of the world around us.
The idea that our life here is a `bridge of dreams'. We cross from one state of existence to the next.
Death
Melancholy dominates the novel and its characters. And survivors are imbued with the gloom of the place (Uji).
regaining ones birthright
through transgression and affairs
becoming a successful man
experiencing failure
Historical theme of Fujiwara Power, human theme of impermanence, and realistic psychological detail. Means that it is a novel.
\subsection{Literary Vices}
Uses anticipation or buildup.
Repetition of situations and relationships between characters. 'Sustained imagery' helps to tie together parts of the novel that are separated by many years.
Irony by making the reader know about truths that the characters themselves don't know about yet.
The readers enjoy keeping these secrets before the characters do.

\subsection{The heroine of Murasaki}
Did Murasaki base her work anyone in paricular??Murasaki is the heroine of the novel, obviously herself.
\subsection{First Novel}
First case of novelistic fiction the world had ever seen.
A non epic, non dramatic fiction concerned with the shifting values and motives of what we now call interpersonal relations.
\subsection{Popular with ladies of the court}
Because of the feminist aspect of the writing? Heian court was a man's world, where men were more brutal than Genji. Genji never forgot about any of the women he had ever known, was good looking, a true gentleman, and, of course, pure fantasy.
\subsection{Language}
Japan had developed no scrip of it's own. Things were written with Chinese characters, partly with semantic and partly with phonetic meaning.

\subsubsection{poetic style}
This is where I get to read some poetry to you

?The tolling of the temple bell.?Call of the wild geese?rush of the waterfall?wailing of the wind in the oak trees??Murasaki was always interested in the different effects that the same scene could have on different characters.??``How fare you by those far-off shores?(Lost no doubt in doleful thoughts)?While the never-ending rains?Swell the fierce waves that surge outside your hourse?"??and in reply??``So smoothly glide my boat?That if it were to merge into the waves?Who would there be to say he saw a ripple on the water's face?"??``Though this poor body sink into the waves,?My sinful name, alas, will not stay down,?But float up to the water's top for all to know."??There is a lot to do with the roaring of the river.??``Not even her faintesdt shadow shows upon the river's face,?Only my swelling tears that no dam will keep back."
\subsubsection{'in' language}
The language of the novel is the greatest barrier. It was written in pure Japanese, and since then Chinese words and contructions have been imported (not to mention Western ones now too). It's like an ordinary Englishman trying to comprehend Beowulf.??Because proper names are rigourously avoided, the speaker is harly ever indicated. Mutually exclusive categories that we take for granted in European languages?Past and present tense?affirmation and question?singular and plural?male and female (as identified by personal names and pronouns)?doubt and certainty?whether the sentence is pos or neg!?All thse have little relevance in Heian Japanese.??This is a reluctance to be specific, partly due to connexion between this literatice and classical Japanese poetry.

.?It also results from the 'closed' nature of upper-class Heian society. Murasaki's society always preffered the allusion to the statement, the hint to the explanation. Not only in poety, but in day to day conversations, diaries. It was a small, closed society (the Heian court). Just hinting was enought to convey a meaning, and any systematic exposition of one's thoughts is regarded as otiose, even boorish.?Language also becomes shorthand, and defines who are 'in'. This phenomenon can be seen in any small, closed group.?

The melodic phrasing og the language began with love poems. The old love duets of the young were called 'song hedges' (utagaki); first pet-formed quite spontenaeously, they were later transmitted as part of the cultural heritage.

Heian authors had fewer words to work with, in particular adjectives. This can make reading obscure for people in a later age.??So translators have to be careful. Any strictly accurate translation that leaves in the obscurities makes the text unreadable, so things have to be more specific.

\subsection{Audience:}
Was written to entertain court women in the 11th century.
Court language was complicated and had difficult grammar, and people were referred to by their rank (for men) and the colour of their clothing (for women) and through other indirect ways.
They use poetry in conversations.

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. <== I love this! She would only say the first few lines, and the reader was expected to know the rest. (Like saying 'A rolling stone...'
The Culture and Society that gave rise to the story:


\subsection{difficulties for modern readers and for translations of + morally complex}
Some people think that the modern reader is too far removed to really understand what is going on, but the writer thinks that it is acctually the opposite, where we can enter the thoughts and emotions of the novel. We can understand the connexion between beauty and sorrow that is a central theme of the novel.
\subsection{Other versions}
popular with artists
ancient
illustrated scrolls 100 yrs after
movies / '87 anime
\subsection{Studies}
extensively studied
The work has been used as the basis for not only study of the work itself, but also study of Heian court ceremony and music.
Yoshino Scholars treated the novel as a work of art, whereas in Kyoto is was considered as a basis for study of history and lingustics.??But the work was written by an artist, and therefore it should be treated as a work of art, not as a source of information.

There are thousands of quotations of literature and history in her novel, which are important to her imagery.

\subsection{extensively available online}
If you're going to read it, this site looks like it could spice up the reading of the work http://www.taleofgenji.org/

If you are planning on reading the tale, I can point you to a del.icio.us search for the tag genji, where there are a list of links to html formatted texts of genji divided by chapter, in the modern, orinigal (good luck) and English versions. I haven't read it yet but...


\subsection{criticisms}
does not accurately describe heian life

Truth and facts are limiting so she used imagination.
Nothing in the novel talks about the economic system that kept this aristocracy in power, or about the politics that went on at the Heian court (the real politics).??She and her female counterparts wouldn't have had any reliable information on this anyway really. Murasaki wrote about the sides of life that she knew about.??She also writes about what it is like to be a jealous woman in a polgamous society where jealousy is the most scorned of all emotions.
?Does the novel as a whole present a reasonably faithful picture of Heian society??The people in the story present only a minature proportion of the inhabitants of tenth-century Japan. (the aristocracy) ~ a few thousand.??Heian-kyou contrasted greatly with the barbarism of the surrounding land.Glittering mansions with squalid huts. While we cannot take what is described in the literature as the 100 percent truth (as it is probably embellished) the comparison is in some ways valid.??``Her novel does not attempt to give a full picture of a period (few successful novelists do); but it does provide an authentic picture of a beautiful and intriguing world.
It's an imaginative reconstruction of a tiny, over civilised world which flourished when Europe was sunk in barbarism.


\subsection{references}


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