Hanami and Life in the Heian Period

– The Tale of Genji (源氏物語) and The Pillow Book (枕草子) –

The Heian period

● Heian period 平安時代: 795-1185 (capital: present-day Kyōto)
● Fujiwara regency, the aristocracy (yokibito)
● peak of the Imperial Court culture: poetry, art, literature
○ The Pillow Book (cca. 990), waka anthologies
○ Sei Shōnagon, Ariwara no Narihira, Ono no Komachi, Izumi Shikibu, Saigyō, Fujiwara
no Teika
○ mono no aware

GENJI MONOGATARI (Murasaki Shikibu)

● 54 chapters, 1008 (?)
● written chapter by chapter in installments, as
Murasaki delivered the tale to aristocratic women
● elements found in a modern novel: a central
character; major and minor characters; well-
developed characterization of all the major
players →a sequence of events covering the
central character's lifetime and beyond
● no plot (characters just grow older)
● parts:
1. Genji's rise and fall
i. Youth, chapters 1–33: Love,
romance, and exile
ii. 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

● translations:
○ Suematsu Kenchō (1882)
○ Arthur Waley (1921-1933)
○ Edward Seidensticker (1976)
○ Royall Tyler (2001)
○ Dennis Washburn (2015)
● translations in modern Japanese: Yosano Akiko, Tanizaki Jun’ichirō, Enchi Fumiko etc.

Further reading:
● Bargen, Doris G. (1997). A Woman’s Weapon: Spirit Possession in The Tale of Genji. University of Hawai’i Press
● Cranston, Edwin A. (1971). “Murasaki’s Art of Fiction.” Japan Quarterly 18.2: 207-213.
● Field, Norma. (1987). The Splendor of Longing in The Tale of Genji. Princeton University Press
● Okada, H. Richard. (1991). Figures of Resistance: Language, Poetry, and Narrating in The Tale of Genji and
Other Mid-Heian Texts. Duke University Press
● Schalow, Paul Gordon. (2007). A Poetics of Courtly Male Friendship in Heian Japan. University of Hawai’i Press
● Shirane, Haruo. (1987). The Bridge of Dreams: A Poetics of The Tale of Genji. Stanford University Press
Fragment 1
The bond between husband and wife is a strong one. Suppose the man had hunted her out and
brought her back. The memory of her acts would still be there, and inevitably, sooner or later, it would
be cause for rancor. When there are crises, incidents, a woman should try to overlook them, for better
or for worse, and make the bond into something durable. The wounds will remain, with the woman and
with the man, when there are crises such as I have described. It is very foolish for a woman to let a little
dalliance upset her so much that she shows her resentment openly. He has his adventures - but if he has
fond memories of their early days together, his and hers, she may be sure that she matters. A commotion
means the end of everything. She should be quiet and generous, and when something comes up that
quite properly arouses her resentment she should make it known by delicate hints. The man will feel
guilty and with tactful guidance he will mend his ways. Too much lenience can make a woman seem
charmingly docile and trusting, but it can also make her seem somewhat wanting in substance. We have
had instances enough of boats abandoned to the winds and waves.
It may be difficult when someone you are especially fond of, someone beautiful and charming,
has been guilty of an indiscretion, but magnanimity produces wonders. They may not always work, but
generosity and reasonableness and patience do on the whole seem best.

Fragment 2
The hanging gate, of something like trelliswork, was propped on a pole, and he could see that
the house was tiny and flimsy. He felt a little sorry for the occupants of such a place - and then asked
himself who in this world had a temporary shelter.
Where in all this world shall I call home?
A temporary shelter is my home. (Anonymous, Kokinshū 987)
A hut, a jeweled pavilion, they were the same. A pleasantly green vine was climbing a board
wall. The white flowers, he said to himself, had a rather self-satisfied look about them.
'I must ask the lady far yonder," he said, as if to himself.
I must ask the lady far yonder
What flower it is off there that blooms so white. (Anonymous, Kokinshū 1007)
An attendant came up, bowing deeply. “The white flowers far off yonder are known as 'evening
faces," he said. "A very human sort of name - and what a shabby place they have picked to bloom in."
It was as the man said. The neighborhood was a poor one, chiefly of small houses. Some were
leaning precariously, and there were "evening faces" at the sagging eaves.
‘A hapless sort of flower. Pick one off for me, will you?’
The man went inside the raised gate and broke off a flower. A pretty little girl in long, unlined
yellow trousers of raw silk came out through a sliding door that seemed too good for the surroundings.
Beckoning to the man, she handed him a heavily scented white fan.
‘Put it on this. It isn't much of a fan, but then it isn't much of a flower either.’

Fragment 3
We are not told of things that happened to specific people exactly as they happened; but the
beginning is when there are good things and bad things, things that happen in this life which one never
tires of seeing and hearing about, things which one cannot bear not to tell of and must pass on for all
generations. If the storyteller wishes to speak well, then he chooses the good things; and if he wishes to
hold the reader’s attention he chooses bad things, extraordinarily bad things. Good things and bad things
alike, they are things of this world and no other.
Writers in other countries approach the matter differently. Old stories in our own are different
from new. There are differences in the degree of seriousness. But to dismiss them as lies is itself to
depart from the truth. Even in the writ which the Buddha drew from his noble heart are parables, devices
for pointing obliquely at the truth. To the ignorant they may seem to operate at cross purposes. The
Greater Vehicle is full of them, but the general burden is always the same. The difference between
enlightenment and confusion is of about the same order as the difference between the good and the bad
in a romance. If one takes the generous view, then nothing is empty and useless.
THE PILLOW BOOK (Sei Shōnagon)
・Sei Shōnagon 清少納言 (966~1017?) served as a lady-in-
waiting for Empress Sadako (Teishi) 定子 at the imperial court
in the Heian period
- her actual name might be Kiyohara Nagiko 清原諾子
- her father was a middle-ranking courtier and waka 和
歌 poet
- lived in the same period as Murasaki Shikibu (rivals)
→ Empress Akiko (Shōshi) 彰子

Makura no sōshi 枕草子

・completed in 1002 (?), it is a collection of “idle notes” - the
zuihitsu 随筆 genre in Japanese literature
- later: Kamo no Chōmei's Hōjōki 方丈記 (“An Account
of My Hut”) and Yoshida Kenkō's Tsurezuregusa 徒然
草 (“Essays in Idleness”)
・ personal thoughts and opinions, interesting events at the
court, gossip, lists of various things, diary entries, advice on
conversation or letter writing etc.
- the order of the chapters might have been changed by scribes – several versions of the
manuscript
・representative for the concept of okashi をかし, a counterpart to mono no aware 物の哀れ

***

春はあけぼの。やうやう白くなり行く、山ぎは少しあかりて、紫だちたる雲の細くたなび
きたる。
夏は夜。月のころはさらなり。やみもなほ、ほたるの多く飛びちがひたる。また、ただ一
つ二つなど、ほのかにうち光りて行くもをかし。雨など降るもをかし。
秋は夕暮。夕日のさして山の端いと近うなりたるに、烏の寝どころへ行くとて、三つ四
つ、二つ三つなど飛びいそぐさへあはれなり。まいて雁などのつらねたるが、いと小さく見
ゆるはいとをかし。日入りはてて、風の音、虫の音など、はたいふべきにあらず。
冬はつとめて。雪の降りたるはいふべきにもあらず。霜のいと白きも、またさらでも、い
と寒きに、火などいそぎおこして、炭もてわたるもいとつきづきし。昼になりて、ぬるくゆ
るびもて行けば、火桶の火も白き灰がちになりてわろし。

1. In Spring It Is the Dawn

In spring it is the dawn that is most beautiful. As the light creeps over the hills, their outlines are
dyed a faint red and wisps of purplish cloud trail over them.
In summer the nights. Not only when the moon shines, but on dark nights too, as the fireflies flit
to and fro, and even when it rains, how beautiful it is!
In autumn, the evenings, when the glittering sun sinks close to the edge of the hills and the crows
fly back to their nests in threes and fours and twos; more charming still is a file of wild geese, like
specks in the distant sky. When the sun has set, one's heart is moved by the sound of the wind and the
hum of the insects.
In winter the early mornings. It is beautiful indeed when snow has fallen during the night, but
splendid too when the ground is white with frost; or even when there is no snow or frost, but it is simply
very cold and the attendants hurry from room to room stirring up the fires and bringing charcoal, how
well this fits the season's mood! But as noon approaches and the cold wears off, no one bothers to keep
the braziers alight, and soon nothing remains but piles of white ashes.”

64. Surprising and Distressing Things

While one is cleaning a decorative comb, something catches in the teeth and the comb breaks.
A carriage overturns. One would have imagined that such a solid, bulky object would remain
forever on its wheels. It all seems like a dream – astonishing and senseless.
A child or grown-up blurts out something that is bound to make people uncomfortable.
All night long one has been waiting for a man who one thought was sure to arrive. At dawn, just
when one has forgotten about him for a moment and dozed off, a crow caws loudly. One wakes up with
a start and sees that it is daytime – most astonishing.
One of the bowmen in an archery contest stands trembling for a log time before shooting; when
finally he does release his arrow, it goes in the wrong direction.

71. Rare Things

A son-in-law who's praised by his wife's father. Likewise, a wife who's loved by her mother-in-
law.
A pair of silver tweezers that can actually pull out hairs properly.
A retainer who doesn't speak ill of his master.
A person who is without a single quirk. Someone who's superior in both appearance and
character, and who's remained utterly blameless throughout his long dealings with the world.
You never find an instance of two people living together who continue to be overawed by each
other's excellence and always treat each other with scrupulous care and respect, so such a relationship
is obviously a great rarity.
Copying out a tale or a volume of poems without smearing any ink on the book you're copying
from. If you're copying it from some beautiful bound book, you try to take immense care, but somehow
you always manage to get ink on it.
Two women, let alone a man and a woman, who vow themselves to each other forever, and
actually manage to remain on good terms to the end.

134. Letters are Commonplace

Letters are commonplace enough, yet what splendid things they are! When someone is in a distant
province and one is worried about him, and then a letter suddenly arrives, one feels as though one
were seeing him face to face. Again, it is a great comfort to have expressed one's feelings in a letter
even though one knows it cannot yet have arrived. If letters did not exist, what dark depressions would
come over one! When one has been worrying about something and wants to tell a certain person about
it, what a relief it is to put it all down in a letter! Still greater is one's joy when a reply arrives. At that
moment a letter really seems like an elixir of life.

Further reading:
● Cavanaugh, Carole. (1992). “Text and Textile: Unweaving the Female Subject in Heian Writing.” positions 4.3: 593-
636
● Fukumori, Naomi. (1997). “Sei Shōnagon’s Makura no sōshi: A Re-visionary History.” Journal of the Association of
Teachers of Japanese 31.1: 1-44
● Kristeva, Tzvetana. (1994). “The pillow hook ("the pillow book" as an "open work")”, Japan Review, No. 5, pp. 15-54
● Sarra, Edith. (1999). Fictions of Femininity: Literary Inventions of Gender in Japanese Court Women’s Memoirs.
Stanford University Press
● Suzuki, Tomi. (2000). “Gender and Genre: Modern Literary Histories and Women’s Diary Literature.” Inventing the
Classics: Modernity, National Identity, and Japanese Literature, ed. Haruo Shirane and Tomi Suzuki. Stanford
University Press, pp. 71-95.
● Yoshie, Akiko, and Janet R. Goodwin. (2005) “Gender in Early Classical Japan Marriage, Leadership, and Political
Status in Village and Palace.” Monumenta Nipponica 60, no. 4 (Winter 2005): 437-479