![]() During the Heian period, proper names were considered too blunt for polite use. Murasaki refers to each character by their title rather than by a name. It even challenged Japanese scholars to the point where they adopted nicknames for the hundreds of characters in the tale. Murasaki’s lack of direct statements makes the Tale of Genji challenging. Indirection defined the Heian nobility, much to our confusion. Genji shows how great the difference was between the genders by having characters fall in love with each other based on their handwriting. They would converse through fabric blinders dividing rooms. The period expected women to remain separate from men. In Heian Japan, Women were not allowed to speak Chinese. Noble men used the Chinese language similar to how Medieval European nobles and priests used Latin. Genji extends this list by being good at perfume making as well. A noble was expected to be well versed in literature, poetry, painting, dancing, calligraphy, and more. The Japanese Imperial Court emulated Chinese fashion and customs while they pursued the arts. Chiefly, a fascination in Chinese culture marked the Heian period. We must understand the Heian period to understand Genji. Basil Hall Chamberlain and other early Western Japanese scholars viewed it as “long-winded” and “devoid of interest” (Phillips, 2010). Because of its assumptions and design, many Westerners outside of modernist circles viewed the work as trite. As Prince Genji remarks in the story: “Sometimes I stand and listen to the stories they read to my little one,” Reading stories aloud was a part of Heian period noble lifestyle. Genji is a part of romance literature designed to be read aloud by women to pass the time. The story makes assumptions that noble women of the Heian period would grasp, but these assumptions leave the rest of us feeling lost. As a monogatari, or fictional story, Genji targets noble women. Genji is a dense, difficult work to decipher. Readers of Genji won’t be surprised at how little is known about Murasaki and how many legends circulated about her. The legend pegs her as a scholar of Tendai Buddhism. She also conveyed the essence of then notion of “concentration and insight” to the scholar-priest of the mount of Tendai, and cultivated the essence of the Buddhist way. Because her father Tametoki was a wise scholar, from a young age she read and studied books, and mastered the texts of Japan and China. Murasaki Shikibu is the daughter of Tametoki, the governor of Echizen. The “Bunkai Bag of Wisdom for Women’s Education” (1749) prefaces one of her legends with (Hirato, 1997): In almost all of them, she expresses loyalty her husband, regardless of the situation. Stories surrounding Murasaki rarely include romantic relationships. Ironically, the legends draw a contrast to the dalliances found throughout the Tale of Genji. Sadly, that’s the only thing we know that’s certain. 978-1014) lived as a lady-in-waiting in the Imperial Court during the Heian period (794-1185) (Hirota, 1997). The Tale of Genji stands as a cornerstone in Japanese literature and world romantic literature, but we know little about the author. In 1925, Arthur Waley’s translation of the work released, shocking novelists of the time (Phillips, 2010). The novel remained unknown in the West until after the Meiji Restoration and the rise of modernism in literature. New York: Dover Publicationsīack in the 11th century, a Japanese woman wrote the world’s first modern novel. (1996) The Classic Tradition of Haiku: An Anthology. I’ve included a few of those in this selection. Zen Buddhism appears throughout haiku, and a specific branch of poetry, called jisei, or death poem, were written just before the writer died in battle or committed ritual suicide. This poetry conveys layers of meaning by using natural imagery. Unlike Western poetry, haiku rarely rhymes. Haiku is a traditional Japanese poem consisting of three lines and 17 syllables.
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