did not seem merely frivolous.
Makibashira got off a quiet letter from time to time. A prince was,
after all, a prince.
<W Murasaki Shikibu>{Translated by Edward G.Seidensticker}
<T The Tale of Genji>
<K 5>
<C 44>{Bamboo River}
<N 1>
<P 751>
The story I am about to tell wanders rather far from Genji and his family.
I had it unsolicited from certain obscure women who lived out their years
in Higekuro's house. It may not seem entirely in keeping with the story
of Murasaki, but the women themselves say that there are numerous
inaccuracies in the accounts we have had of Genji's descendants, and put
the blame on women so old that they have become forgetful. I would not
presume to say who is right.
<N 2>
Tamakizura, now a widow, had three sons and two daughters.
Higekuro had had the highest ambitions for them, and had waited eagerly
for them to grow up; and then, suddenly, he was dead. Tamakazura was
lost without him. He had been impatient to see his children in court service
and now of course his plans had come to nothing. People go streaming off
in the direction of power and prestige, and though the treasures and
manors from Higekuro's great days had not been dispersed his house was
now still and silent.
Tamakazura came from a large and influential clan, but on such levels
people tend to be remote, and Higekuro had been a difficult man, some-
what too open in his likes and dislikes. She found that her brothers kept
their distance. Genji's children, on the other hand, continued to treat her
as if she were one of them. Only the empress, Genji's daughter, had
received more careful attention in his will, and Yu~giri was as friendly and
considerate as a brother could possibly have been. He lost no opportunity
to call on her or to write to her.
<N 3>
<P 752>
The sons went through their initiation ceremonies. Tamakazura
wished very much that her husband were still alive, but no one doubted
that they would make respectable careers for themselves all the same. The
daughters were the problem. Higekuro had petitioned the emperor to take
them into court service, and when the emperor was reminded that suffi-
cient time had elapsed for them to have come of age he sent repeatedly to
remind Tamakazura of her husband's wishes. The empress was in a posi-
tion of such unrivaled influence, however, that the other ladies, waiting far
down the line for an occasional sidelong glance, were having a difficult
time of it. And on the other hand Tamakazura would not wish it to seem
that she did not think her daughters up to the competition.
There were friendly inquiries from the Reizei emperor too. He re-
minded her that she had long ago disappointed him.
"Perhaps you think me too old to be in the running, but if you were
to let me have one of them she would be like a daughter to me."
Tamakazura hesitated. She had been fated, it seemed, and the matter
had always puzzled her, to hurt and disappoint the Reizei emperor. Cer-
tainly she had not wanted to. She felt awed and humbled now, and per-
haps she was being given a chance to make amends.
Her daughters had acquired a numerous band of suitors. The young
lieutenant, son of Yu~giri and Kumoinokari, was his father's favorite, a very
fine lad indeed. He was among the more earnest of the suitors. Tamakazura
could not refuse him and his brothers the freedom of her house, for there
were close connections on both sides of the family They had their allies
among the serving women and had no trouble making representations.
Indeed, they had become rather a nuisance, hovering about the house day
and night.
There were letters too from Kumoinokari.
"He is still young and not at all important," said Yu~giri himself, "but
he does have his good points. Have you perhaps noticed them?"
Tamakazura would not be satisfied with an ordinary marriage for the
older girl, but for the younger--well, she asked modest respectability and
not much more. She was beginning to be a little afraid of the lieutenant.
There were ominous rumblings to the effect that he would make off with
one of the girls if he could not have her otherwise. Though his suit was
certainly not beneath consideration, it would not help the prospects of one
daughter if the other were to be abducted.
"I do not like it at all," she said to her women. "You must be very
careful."
These instructions made it difficult for them to go on delivering his
notes.
<N 4>
<P 753>
Kaoru, now fourteen or fifteen, had for some time been so close to the
Reizei emperor that they might have been father and son. He was sober
and mature for his years, a fine young man for whom everyone expected
a brilliant future. Tamakazura would have been happy to list him among
the suitors. Her house was very near the Sanjo~ house where he lived with
his mother, and one or another of her sons was always inviting him over
for a musical evening. Because of the interesting young ladies known to
be in residence, he always found other young men on the premises. They
tended to seem foppish and none had his good looks or confident elegance.
The lieutenant, Yu~giri's son, was of course always loitering about, his good
looks dimmed by Kaoru's. Perhaps because of his nearness to Genji, Kaoru
was held in universally high esteem. Tamakazura's young attendants
thought him splendid. Tamakazura agreed that he was a most agreeable
young man and often received him for a friendly talk.
"Your father was so good to me. The sense of loss is still overpower-
ing, and I find myself looking for keepsakes. There is your brother, the
minister, of course, but he is such an important man that I cannot see him
unless I have a very good reason."
She treated him like a brother and it was in that mood that he came
visiting. She knew that, unlike other young men, he would do nothing rash
or frivolous. His rectitude was such, indeed, that some of the younger
women thought him a little prudish. He did not take at all well to their
teasing.
<N 5>
Early in the New Year Ko~bai came calling. He was Tamakazura's
brother, now Lord Inspector, and it was he who had delighted them long
before with his rendition of "Takasago." With him were, among others,
a son of the late Higekuro who was full brother to Makibashira, now
Ko~bai's wife. Yu~giri also came calling, a very handsome man in grand
ministerial procession, all six of his sons among his attendants. They were
all of them excellent young gentlemen and their careers were progressing
more briskly than those of most of their colleagues. No cause for self-pity
here, one would have said--and yet the lieutenant seemed moody and
withdrawn. The indications were as always that he was his father's favor-
ite.
Tamakazura received Yu~giri from behind curtains. His easy, casual
manner took her back to an earlier day.
"The trouble is that there has to be an explanation for every visit I
make Visits to the palace are an exception, of course, for I must make
them; but the most informal call is so hemmed in by ceremony that it
hardly seems worth the trouble. I cannot tell you how often I have wanted
to come for a talk of old times and have had to reconsider. Please send for
these youngsters of mine whenever they can be of service. They have
instructions to keep reminding you of their availability."
"I am as you see me, a recluse quite cut off from the world. Your very
great kindness somehow makes me all the more aware of how good your
<P 754>
father was to me." She spoke circumspectly of the messages that had come
from the Reizei Palace. "I have been telling myself that a lady who goes
to court without strong allies is asking for trouble."
"I have had reports that the emperor too has been in communication
with you. I scarcely know what to advise. The Reizei emperor is no longer
on the throne, of course, and one may say that his great day is over. Yet
the years have done nothing at all to his remarkable looks. I count over
the list of my own daughters and ask whether one of them might not
qualify, and have reluctantly decided not to enter them in such grand
competition. You know of course that he has a daughter of his own, and
one must always consider her mother's feelings. Indeed, I have heard that
people have been frightened off by exactly that question."
"Oh, but I may assure you that I am interested in the proposal because
she approves very warmly. She has little to occupy her, she has said, and
it would be a great pleasure to help the Reizei emperor make a young lady
feel at home."
Tamakazura's house was now thronging with New Year callers. Yu~giri
went off to the Sanjo~ house of the Third Princess, Kaoru's mother. She had
no reason to feel neglected, for courtiers who had enjoyed the patronage
of her father and brother found it impossible to pass her by. Tamakazura's
three sons, a guards captain, a moderator, and a chamberlain, went with
Yu~giri, who presided over an even grander procession than before.
<N 6>
Kaoru called on Tamakazura that evening. The other young gentle-
men having left--who could have found serious fault with any of them?
--it was as if everything had been arranged to set off his good looks. Yes,
he was unique, said the susceptible young women.
"Oh, that Kaoru. Put him beside our young lady here and you would
really have something."
It may have sounded just a little cheeky, but he was young and
certainly he was very handsome, and his smallest motion sent forth that
extraordinary fragrance. A discerning lady, however deeply cloistered, had
to recognize his superiority.
Tamakazura was in her chapel and invited him to join her. He went
up the east stairway and took a place just outside the blinds. The plum at
the eaves was sending forth its first buds and the warbler was still not quite
able to get through its song without faltering. Something about his manner
made the women want to joke with him, but his replies were rather
brusque.
A woman named Saisho~ offered a poem:
"Come, young buds--a smile is what we need,
To tell us that, taken in hand, you would be more fragrant."
Thinking it good for an impromptu poem, he answered:
<P 755>
"A barren blossomless tree I have heard it called.
At heart it bursts even now into richest bloom.
"Stretch out a hand if you wish to be sure."
"Lovely the color, lovelier yet the fragrance." And it was indeed as
if she meant to find out for herself.
Tamakazura had come forward from the recesses of the chapel. "What
horrid young creatures you are," she said gently. "Do you not know that
you are in the presence of the most proper of young gentlemen?"
<N 7>
Kaoru knew very well that they called him "Lord Proper," and he was
not at all proud of the title.
The chamberlain, Tamakazura's youngest son, was not yet on the
regular court rosters and had no New Year calls to make. Refreshments
were served on trays of delicate sandalwood. Tamakazura was thinking
that though Yu~giri looked more and more like Genji as the years went by,
Kaoru did not really look like him at all. Yet there was an undeniable
<P 756>
nobility in his manner and bearing. Perhaps the young Genji had been like
him. It was the sort of thought that always reduced her to pensive silence.
The women were chattering about the remarkable fragrance he had
left behind.
No, Kaoru did not really like being Lord Proper. Late in the month the
plum blossoms were at their best. Thinking it a good time to show them
all that they had misjudged him, he went off to visit the apartments of the
young chamberlain, Tamakazura's son. Coming in through the garden
gate, he saw that another young gentleman had preceded him. Also in
casual court dress, the other did not want to be seen, but Kaoru recognized
and hailed him. It was Yu~giri's son the lieutenant, very frequently to be
found on the premises. Exciting sounds of lute and Chinese koto were
coming from the west rooms. Kaoru was feeling somewhat uncomfortable
and somewhat guilty as well. The uninvited guest was not his favorite role.
"Come," he said, when there was a pause in the music. "Be my guide.
I am a complete stranger."
Side by side under the plum at the west gallery, they serenaded the
ladies with "A Branch of Plum." As if to invite this yet fresher perfume
inside, someone pushed open a corner door and there was a most skillful
accompaniment on a Japanese koto. Astonished and pleased that a lady
should be so adept at a _ryo_ key, they repeated the song. The lute too was
delightfully fresh and clear. It seemed to be a house given over to elegant
pursuits. Kaoru was less diffident than usual.
A Japanese koto was pushed towards him from under the blinds. Each
of the visitors deferred to the other so insistently that the issue was finally
resolved by Tamakazura, who sent out to Kaoru through her son:
"I have heard that your playing resembles that of my father, the late
chancellor, and would like nothing better than to hear it. The warbler has
favored us this evening. Can you not be persuaded to do as well?"
He would look rather silly biting his finger like a bashful stripling.
Though without enthusiasm, he played a short strain on the koto, from
which he coaxed an admirably rich tone.
Tamakazura had not been close to her father, To~ no Chu~jo~, but she
missed him, and trivial little incidents were always reminding her of him.
And how very much Kaoru did remind her of her late brother Kashiwagi.
She could almost have sworn that it was his koto she was listening to. She
