And when you come to the lowest--well, who really pays much atten-
tion?"
He appeared to know everything. Genji was by now deeply interested.
"You speak of three ranks," he said, "but is it so easy to make the
division? There are well-born ladies who fall in the world and there are
people of no background who rise to the higher ranks and build themselves
fine houses as if intended for them all along. How would you fit such
people into your system?"
At this point two young courtiers, a guards officer and a functionary
in the ministry of rites, appeared on the scene, to attend the emperor in
his retreat. Both were devotees of the way of love and both were good
talkers. To~ no Chu~jo~, as if he had been waiting for them, invited their
views on the question that had just been asked. The discussion progressed,
and included a number of rather unconvincing points.
"Those who have just arrived at high position," said one of the new-
comers, "do not attract the same sort of notice as those who were born to
it. And those who were born to the highest rank but somehow do not have
the right backing--in spirit they may be as proud and noble as ever, but
they cannot hide their deficiencies. And so I think that they should both
be put in your middle rank.
" There are those whose families are not quite of the highest rank but
who go off and work hard in the provinces. They have their place in the
world, though there are all sorts of little differences among them. Some of
them would belong on anyone's list. So it is these days. Myself, I would
take a woman from a middling family over one who has rank and nothing
else. Let us say someone whose father is almost but not quite a councillor.
Someone who has a decent enough reputation and comes from a decent
enough family and can live in some luxury. Such people can be very
pleasant. There is nothing wrong with the household arrangements, and
indeed a daughter can sometimes be set out in a way that dazzles you. I
can think of several such women it would be hard to find fault with. When
they go into court service, they are the ones the unexpected favors have
a way of falling on. I have seen cases enough of it, I can tell you.'
Genji smiled. "And so a person should limit himself to girls with
money?"
"That does not sound like you," said To~ no Chu~jo~.
"When a woman has the highest rank and a spotless reputation,"
continued the other, "but something has gone wrong with her upbringing,
something is wrong in the way she puts herself forward, you wonder how
it can possibly have been allowed to happen. But when all the conditions
are right and the girl herself is pretty enough, she is taken for granted.
There is no cause for the least surprise. Such ladies are beyond the likes
of me, and so I leave them where they are, the highest of the high. There
are surprisingly pretty ladies wasting away behind tangles of weeds, and
hardly anyone even knows of their existence. The first surprise is hard to
forget. There she is, a girl with a fat, sloppy old father and boorish brothers
and a house that seems common at best. Off in the women's rooms is a
proud lady who has acquired bits and snatches of this and that. You get
wind of them, however small the accomplishments may be, and they take
hold of your imagination. She is not the equal of the one who has every-
thing, of course, but she has her charm. She is not easy to pass by."
He looked at his companion, the young man from the ministry of rites.
The latter was silent, wondering if the reference might be to his sisters, just
then coming into their own as subjects for conversation. Genji, it would
seem, was thinking that on the highest levels there were sadly few ladies
to bestow much thought upon. He was wearing several soft white singlets
with an informal court robe thrown loosely over them. As he sat in the
lamplight leaning against an armrest, his companions almost wished that
he were a woman. Even the "highest of the high" might seem an inade-
quate match for him.
They talked on, of the varieties of women.
"A man sees women, all manner of them, who seem beyond re-
proach," said the guards officer, "but when it comes to picking the wife
who must be everything, matters are not simple. The emperor has trouble,
after all, finding the minister who has all the qualifications. A man may
be very wise, but no man can govern by himself. Superior is helped by
subordinate, subordinate defers to superior, and so affairs proceed by
agreement and concession. But when it comes to choosing the woman who
is to be in charge of your house, the qualifications are altogether too many.
A merit is balanced by a defect, there is this good point and that bad point,
and even women who though not perfect can be made to do are not easy
to find. I would not like to have you think me a profligate who has to try
them all. But it is a question of the woman who must be everything, and
it seems best, other things being equal, to find someone who does not
require shaping and training, someone who has most of the qualifications
from the start. The man who begins his search with all this in mind must
be reconciled to searching for a very long time.
"He comes upon a woman not completely and in every way to his
liking but he makes certain promises and finds her hard to give up. The
world praises him for his honest heart and begins to note good points in
the woman too; and why not? But I have seen them all, and I doubt that
there are any genuinely superior specimens among them. What about you
gentlemen so far above us? How is it with you when you set out to choose
your ladies?
"There are those who are young enough and pretty enough and who
take care of themselves as if no particle of dust were allowed to fall upon
them. When they write letters they choose the most inoffensive words, and
the ink is so faint a man can scarcely read them. He goes to visit, hoping
for a real answer. She keeps him waiting and finally lets him have a word
or two in an almost inaudible whisper. They are clever, I can tell you, at
hiding their defects.
"The soft, feminine ones are likely to assume a great deal. The man
seeks to please, and the result is that the woman is presently looking
elsewhere. That is the first difficulty in a woman.
"In the most important matter, the matter of running his household,
a man can find that his wife has too much sensibility, an elegant word and
device for every occasion. But what of the too domestic sort, the wife who
bustles around the house the whole day long, her hair tucked up behind
her ears, no attention to her appearance, making sure that everything is in
order? There are things on his mind, things he has seen and heard in his
comings and goings, the private and public demeanor of his colleagues,
happy things and sad things. Is he to talk of them to an outsider? Of course
not. He would much prefer someone near at hand, someone who will
immediately understand. A smile passes over his face, tears well up. Or
some event at court has angered him, things are too much for him. What
good is it to talk to such a woman? He turns his back on her, and smiles,
and sighs, and murmurs something to himself.'I beg your pardon?' she
says, finally noticing. Her blank expression is hardly what he is looking for.
"When a man picks a gentle, childlike wife, he of course must see to
training her and making up for her inadequacies. Even if at times she seems
a bit unsteady, he may feel that his efforts have not been wasted. When
she is there beside him her gentle charm makes him forget her defects. But
when he is away and sends asking her to perform various services, it
becomes clear, however small the service, that she has no thoughts of her
own in the matter. Her uselessness can be trying.
"I wonder if a woman who is a bit chilly and unfeeling cannot at times
seem preferable."
His manner said that he had known them all; and he sighed at his
inability to hand down a firm decision.
"No, let us not worry too much about rank and beauty. Let us be
satisfied if a woman is not too demanding and eccentric. It is best to settle
on a quiet, steady girl. If she proves to have unusual talent and discrimina-
tion--well, count them an unexpected premium. Do not, on the other
hand, worry too much about remedying her defects. If she seems steady
and not given to tantrums, then the charms will emerge of their own
accord.
"There are those who display a womanly reticence to the world, as if
they had never heard of complaining. They seem utterly calm. And then
when their thoughts are too much for them they leave behind the most
horrendous notes, the most flamboyant poems, the sort of keepsakes cer-
tain to call up dreadful memories, and off they go into the mountains or
to some remote seashore. When I was a child I would hear the women
reading romantic stories, and I would join them in their sniffling and think
it all very sad, all very profound and moving. Now I am afraid that it
suggests certain pretenses.
"It is very stupid, really, to run off and leave a perfectly kind and
sympathetic man. He may have been guilty of some minor dereliction, but
to run off with no understanding at all of his true feelings, with no purpose
other than to attract attention and hope to upset him--it is an unpleasant
sort of memory to have to live with. She gets drunk with admiration for
herself and there she is, a nun. When she enters her convent she is sure
that she has found enlightenment and has no regrets for the vulgar world.
"Her women come to see her.'How very touching,' they say.'How
brave of you.'
"But she no longer feels quite as pleased with herself. The man, who
has not lost his affection for her, hears of what has happened and weeps,
and certain of her old attendants pass this intelligence on to her.'He is a
man of great feeling, you see. What a pity that it should have come to this.'
The woman can only brush aside her newly cropped hair to reveal a face
on the edge of tears. She tries to hold them back and cannot, such are her
regrets for the life she has left behind; and the Buddha is not likely to think
her one who has cleansed her heart of passion. probably she is in more
danger of brimstone now in this fragile vocation than if she had stayed
with us in our sullied world.
"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 some-
what wanting in substance. We have had instances enough of boats aban-
doned to the winds and waves. Do you not agree?"
To~ no Chu~jo~ nodded. "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."
His own sister was a case in point, he was thinking, and he was
somewhat annoyed to note that Genji was silent because he had fallen
asleep. Meanwhile the young guards officer talked on, a dedicated student
of his subject. To~ no Chu~jo~ was determined to hear him out.
"Let us make some comparisons," said the guardsman. "Let us think
of the cabinetmaker. He shapes pieces as he feels like shaping them. They
may be only playthings, with no real plan or pattern. They may all the
same have a certain style for what they are--they may take on a certain
novelty as times change and be very interesting. But when it comes to the
genuine object, something of such undeniable value that a man wants to
have it always with him--the perfection of the form announces that it is
from the hand of a master.
"Or let us look at painting. There are any number of masters in the
academy. It is not easy to separate the good from the bad among those who
work on the basic sketches. But let color be added. The painter of things
no one ever sees, of paradises, of fish in angry seas, raging beasts in foreign
lands, devils and demons -- the painter abandons himself to his fancies and
paints to terrify and astonish. What does it matter if the results seem
somewhat remote from real life? It is not so with the things we know,
mountains, streams, houses near and like our own. The soft, unspoiled,
wooded hills must be painted layer on layer, the details added gently,
quietly, to give a sense of affectionate familiarity. And the foreground too,
the garden inside the walls, the arrangement of the stones and grasses and
waters. It is here that the master has his own power. There are details a
lesser painter cannot imitate.
"Or let us look at calligraphy. A man without any great skill can
stretch out this line and that in the cursive style and give an appearance
of boldness and distinction. The man who has mastered the principles and
writes with concentration may, on the other hand, have none of the eye-
