The Tale of Genji
& the Language of Japanese Aesthetics
The
Heian Period is celebrated for a literary efflorescence that produced
works at the core of the canon of classical Japanese literature. Many
of their authors are women, an extraordinary development at a time in
world history when few women were even literate....The crown jewel of
Heian literature is the Tale of Genji,
a long fictional narrative by Murasaki Shikibu (fl. late-tenth-early
eleventh century), a court lady who served an empress who was one of
Michinaga’s daughters. The influence of this work on Japanese culture
was enormous and varied. References to the Genji echo throughout Japanese literary history down to the present. [BHJC, 61-4]
Like
most of his peers, Genji, at least in his youth, had
little official business to occupy him at court, where affairs were
controlled
by a few leading Fujiwara ministers. Instead,
he devoted himself to the gentle arts and
especially to the
pursuit of love, an endeavor that involved him in a seemingly endless
string of
romantic entanglements. In Genji’s
circle, the typical love affair was conducted according to exacting
dictates of
taste. Lovers delighted each other by
exchanging poems written on fans or on carefully selected and scented
stationery, which they adorned with delicate sprays of flowers. A faulty handwriting, a missed allusion, or a
poor matching of colors could quickly dampen a courtier’s ardor. On the other hand, the scent of a  delicately
mixed perfume or the haunting notes of a zither on a soft summer night
could
excite his greatest passion and launch him recklessly on a romantic
escapade
whose outcome was more than likely to have embarrassing and even
disastrous
results both for the lovers and for others among the intimately
associated
members of Heian courtier society. [Japanese
Culture, 65] |
- If Genji is always allowing
his passions to get both him and his lovers into trouble, then why is
he such a beloved figure—the so-called “shining prince”?
Miyabi [courtly refinement] was perhaps
the most
inclusive term for describing the aesthetics of the Heian period. It was applied mainly to the quiet pleasures
that, supposedly at least, could be savored only by the aristocrat
whose tastes
had been educated to them—a spray of plum blossoms, the elusive perfume
of a
rare wood, the delicate blending of colors in a robe. In lovemaking, too, the “refined” tastes of
the court were revealed. A man might
first be attracted to a woman by catching a glimpse of her sleeve,
carelessly
but elegantly draped from a carriage window, or by seeing a note in her
calligraphy, or by hearing her play a lute one night in the dark. Later, the lovers would exchange letters and
poems, often attached to a spray of the flower suitable for the season. Such love affairs are most perfectly
portrayed in The Tale of Genji and, even if somewhat idealized
in that
novel, suggest to what lengths a feeling for “refinement” could govern
the
lives of those at court. [SJT, 199]
|
In
this world where aesthetics reigned
supreme, great attention was paid to pleasing the eye. Ladies dressed in numerous robes, one over
the other (twelve was standard), which they displayed at the wrist in
overlapping layers, and the blending of their colors was of the utmost
importance in revealing a lady’s taste. Often
all a man saw of a lady were her
sleeves, left hanging outside her
carriage or spread beyond a screen behind which she remained invisible….
This
concern for appearance also extended to the features of the gentlemen
and
ladies. Both sexes used cosmetics,
applying a white face powder, which in the case of the women was
combined with
a rosy tint. The ladies took great pride
in their long, flowing, glossy hair but plucked their eyebrows and
painted in a
new set. Such
customs are not unfamiliar
to the modern world, but far more difficult for us to appreciate are
the
blackened teeth of the refined Heian beauty….
...[However,] Heian
men often had no clear idea of the appearance of the women they were
wooing, hidden as they were behind screens with only their sleeves
showing. Men fell in love with a woman’s sense of beauty, her poetic
talents, and her calligraphy. As in China, the latter was all-important
beacuse it was thought to reveal a person’s character. The Heian
version of love at first sight was of a gentleman falling hopelessly in
love after catching a glimpse of a few beautifully drawn lines. [BHJC, 67-8]
|
|
“[The commoners]
looked like so many
basket-worms as they crowded together in their hideous clothes, leaving
hardly
an inch of space between themselves and me. I
really felt like pushing them all over sideways.” [BHJC (1st Edition),
55]
|
Motoori Norinaga (1730-1801), the novel’s
greatest
traditional interpreter, admired it above all for its expression of mono-no-aware,
a word frequently used by Lady Murasaki for “that power inherent in
things to
make us respond not intellectually but with an involuntary gasp of
emotion.” It could refer to joyous as
well as sad experiences, but eventually the implications of melancholy
predominated. It involves a realization
of the ephemeral quality of beauty, of all that is best in life,
indeed, of
life itself. Clearly in this concept
there are resonances of Buddhist teaching, which views life as an
illusion,
insubstantial as a dream. To the
Japanese, it was a beautiful but fleeting dream, and sadness was itself
a
necessary dimension of beauty. [BHJC, 64]
.
Ki no
Tsurayuki, in his preface to the Kokinshu, was the first to
describe the workings of this
aesthetic(mono-no-aware). For
example, when inquiring…whether anyone
can resist singing—or composing poetry—upon “hearing the warbler sing
among the
blossoms and the frog in his fresh waters,” Tsurayuki said, in effect,
that
people are emotional entities and will intuitively and spontaneously
respond in
song and verse when they perceive things and are moved. The most basic sense of mono no aware
is the capacity to be moved by things, whether they are the beauties of
nature
or the feelings of people, a capacity that Tsurayuki, at least,
believed would
directly lead to aesthetic expression. [Japanese Culture, 61]
.
 What
Confucianism deems good Buddhism may not; and what Buddhism considers
good Confucianism might regard as evil. Likewise, references to good
and evil in the Tale may not correspond to Confucian or Buddhist
concepts of good and evil. Then what is good or evil in the realm
of human psychology and ethics according to the Tale of
Genji? Generally speaking, those who know the meaning of the
sorrow of human existence, i.e., those who are in sympathy and in
harmony with human sentiments, are regarded as good; and those who are
not aware of the poignancy of human existence, i.e., those who are not
in sympathy and not in harmony with human sentiments, are regarded as
bad....Man’s feelings do not always follow the dictates of his
mind. They arise in man in spite of himself and are difficult to
control. In the instance of Prince Genji, his interest in and
rendezvous with Utsusemi, Oborozukiyo, and the Consort Fujitsubo are
acts of extraordinary iniquity and immorality according to the
Confucian and Buddhist points of view. It would be difficult to call
Prince Genji a good man, however numerous his other good
qualities. But the Tale does not dwell on his iniquitous and
immoral acts, but rather recites over and over again his profound
awareness of the sorrow of existence, and represents him as a good man
who combines in himself all good things in man. [Sources of Japanese
Tradition (1st edition), 533-4] |
.
|
.
 |
.
Heian Religion
In religion...the two
great movements inaugurated in the early eighth century, the Tendai
Buddhism introduced by Saicho and the Esoteric Buddhism ably propagated
by Kukai, were imports from China significantly adapted by their
Japanese proponents. Nevertheless, their progress was advanced by close
association with the court, and their characteristic forms of
expression increasingly reflected the court’s prevailing attitudes and
manner of life. Thus, although both these forms of Buddhism were
egalitarian in theory—that is, as outgrowths of the Mahayana teaching,
they stressed that all men had the potential for Buddhahood—in the
Japanese setting, their activities were strongly conditioned by the
aristocratic nature of court society. [SJT, 124]
.
When
Emperor Kanmu turned his back on Nara and moved his capital at the end
of the eighth century, he curtailed the political power of the old
schools, but Buddhism continued to grow and flourish. It also continued
to enjoy imperial patronage. Kanmu himself supported the priest Saicho
(767-822) who, dissatisfied with the worldliness of the Nara
priesthood, had founded a small temple in 788 on Mt. Hiei northeast of
Kyoto. In 804 Saicho traveled to China to advance his understanding of
the faith....[I]n China he studied the doctrines of the Tendai
(Tiantai) school....
.
Contemporary
with Saicho was Kukai (774-835), founder of the other major school of
Heian Buddhism, Shingon. He, too, studied in China and benefited from
imperial patronage, although in his case it came not from Emperor Kanmu
but from that emperor’s successors. Like Saicho, he established his
main monastery on a mountain, choosing Mt. Koya on the Kii Peninsula,
far removed from the capital....Central to Shingon teachings and
observances is Dainichi (Vairocana), the cosmic Buddha whose....name
Dainichi (Great Sun) invited identification with the Sun Goddess
claimed as ancestress by the imperial family, and Shingo proved
hospitable to local deities through its concept of duality. This
concept held that a single truth manifests itself under two aspects,
the noumenal and the phenomenal, so Dainichi and the Sun Goddess could
be considered as two forms of one identical truth....
.
| From the eighth century onward, and increasingly during the Heian Period, aspects of kami
worship were combined with new and old Buddhist doctrines and deities,
producing new configurations of ritual practice, sacred space, and
systems of thought. All of these were strongly influenced by the
esoteric practice of incorporating other beliefs into the Shingon
spiritual hierarchy. [BHJC, 61] |
.
...One
reason for the appeal of Shingon was the mystery of its rites. From the
beginning, people in Japan had been drawn to Buddhism at least partly
by the magical elements connected with Buddhist observances, such as
incantations, divination, exorcism, and medicinal use of herbs. Now
they were impressed by the mysterious elements in the secret rituals
performed in the interior of Shingon temples, hidden from all but the
most deeply initiated of the priests. The elites of Heian Japan, with
their taste for pageantry, were also attracted by the richness of the
colorful Shingon rites. [BHJC, 57-8]
|
|
