at the storm that we could not get her out of bed this morning."
"It was an awful storm. I meant to stay with you, but my grandmother
was in such a state that I really couldn't. And how did our dollhouses come
through?"
The women laughed. "Even the breeze from a fan sends her into a
terror, and last night we thought the roof would come down on us any
minute. The dollhouses required a great deal of battening and shoring."
"Do you have a scrap of paper? Anything will do. And maybe I could
borrow an inkstone from one of you?"
A woman went to one of her mistress's cupboards and came back with
several rolls of paper laid out on a writing box.
"This is too good." But he thought of the Akashi lady and decided
that he need not feel overawed. He wrote his letter, choosing a purple
tissue paper. He ground the ink carefully and was very handsome as he
gazed meditatively at the tip of his brush. Yet his poem had a somewhat
stiff and academic sound to it:
"Even on a night of raging tempests
I did not forget the one whom I do not forget."
He tied it to a rush broken by the wind.
"The lieutenant of Katano," said the women, "was always careful to
have the flower or the grass match the paper."
"I do not seem up to these fine distinctions. What flower or grass
would you suggest?" He had few words for these women and kept them
at a distance.
He wrote another note and gave both to a cavalry officer who in turn
passed them on, with whispered instructions, to a pretty little page and a
guardsman accustomed to such services. The young women were over-
come with curiosity.
They were busy getting the rooms in order, for word had come that
their mistress was returning. After the other beauties he had seen in recent
hours, Yu~giri wondered what floral image his sister would call to mind. She
<P 466>
had not much interested him, but now he took a crouched position behind
a swinging door and, pulling a blind over himself, looked through an
opening in the curtains. She came into the room. He was annoyed at the
furniture that stood in the way and at all the women passing back and
forth. But she was charming, a tiny thing in a lavender robe, her hair,
which did not yet reach to her feet, spreading out like a fan. She had
blossomed wonderfully in the two years since he had last seen her. What
a beauty she would presently be! He had likened the other two ladies to
the cherry and the yamabuki--and might he liken his sister to the wisteria?
There was just such elegance in wisteria trailing from a high tree and
waving in the breeze. How good if he could look upon these ladies quite
as he wished, morning and night. He saw no reason why he should not,
since it was all in the family, but Genji had other ideas and was very strict
about keeping him away from them--and so created restless yearnings in
this most proper of young men.
Going now to Sanjo~, he found his grandmother at her devotions. The
young women who waited upon her were far above the ordinary, but in
manner and appearance they could not compete with the women at
Rokujo~. Yet a nunnery could have its own sort of somber beauty.
Lamps were lighted. To~ no Chu~jo~ came for a quiet talk with his
mother.
Everything made the old lady weep. "It seems altogether too much
that you should keep Kumoinokari from me."
"I will have her come and see you very soon. She is all tangled up in
problems of her own making and has lost so much weight that we worry
about her. I often think that a man does better not to have daughters.
Everything they do brings new worries."
He seemed to have an old grievance in mind. His mother concluded
sadly that it would be well not to pursue the matter.
"I have found another daughter," he smiled, "a somewhat outlandish
and unmanageable one."
"How very curious. I would certainly not have expected you to pro-
duce that sort of daughter."
"I do have my troubles," he replied (or so one is told). "I must arrange
for you to meet your new granddaughter one of these days."
<W Murasaki Shikibu>{Translated by Edward G.Seidensticker}
<T The Tale of Genji>
<K 3>
<C 29>{The Royal Outing}
<N 1>
<P 467>
Genji would have liked to put Tamakazura's affairs in order, but the Silent
Waterfall of his longing produced complications. It was beginning to
seem that Murasaki's fears had been well founded and that Genji would
be the subject of scandalous rumors. To~ no Chu~jo~ was a man who liked
to have things clear and in the open. He could not bear subterfuge. How
sheepish a son-in-law he himself would be, thought Genji, on the day
when everything was revealed to his friend!
<N 2>
In the Twelfth Month there was a royal outing to Oharano. Like
everyone else, the ladies of Rokujo~ set out in their carriages to watch. The
procession, very splendid even for a royal outing, left the palace early in
the morning and proceeded south along Suzaku and west on Gojo~. Car-
riages lined the streets all the way to the river Katsura. The princes and
high officials were beautifully fitted out. Their guards and grooms, very
good-looking and of generally matching heights, were in the finest of
livery. All the ministers and councillors and indeed the whole court had
turned out for the occasion, the higher ranks dressed uniformly in yellow-
green robes and lavender singlets. Even the skies seemed intent on favoring
the occasion, for there were flurries of snow. The princes and high courriers
in charge of the falcons were in fine hunting dress. The falconers from the
<P 468>
guards were even more interesting, all in printed robes of most fanciful
design. Everything was very grand and very novel, and the carriages of the
spectators fought for places. Some among the spindly carriages of the lesser
ladies emerged from the struggle with broken wheels. The better carriages
had gathered at the approaches to the floating bridge.
Tamakazura was among the spectators. As she surveyed the splendid
courtiers in such intense competition, it was her verdict that no one com-
pared with the emperor in his red robes. He looked neither to the right nor
to the left. Then there was her own father, To~ no Chu~jo~ (almost no one
knew that he was her father). He was handsome and dignified, in the prime
of manhood, though of course circumscribed in his dress by the codes
relating to his office. He was quite the finest of the courtiers--but her eye
returned to the royal palanquin. The generals and captains and other high
officials who had most of the young women swooning interested her very
little. Yes, the emperor was the best of them--though Genji so resembled
him that they might have been mistaken for each other. Perhaps it was
only her imagination that the emperor was a shade the grander of the two.
She was sure that she would have to look very far, in any case, to find their
equal. She had thought, because of Genji and Yu~giri, that men of good
<P 469>
family were all endowed with superior looks, but the competition today
exacted casualties in such numbers that she was inclined to dismiss most
of the men she saw as scarcely human. Prince Hotaru was present, as also
was General Higekuro, always very solemn and important, and today in
very grand uniform, quiver and all. His face was dark and his beard heavy,
and she did not think him pleasing--though it would have been too much
to expect his roughness to meet the standards of carefully tended
femininity. She sniffed contemptuously. Genji had suggested that she go
to court. She had heard much about the embarrassments and insults which
a court lady must be prepared to put up with, but now she wondered
whether it might not after all be rather nice to serve His Majesty, though
not as one of the ladies of the bedchamber.
The procession reached Oharano, where awnings had been put out.
The high courtiers changed to informal court dress and hunting dress.
Refreshments were brought from Genji's Rokujo~ mansion. The emperor
had invited Genji to join the hunt, but Genji had replied that a defilement
made it impossible for him to go out. By a guards officer the emperor sent
a brace of pheasants tied to a leafy branch. I shall not seek to record the
contents of the royal letter, but this was the poem:
<P 470>
"Deep in the snows of this Mount Oshio
Are ancient pheasant tracks. Would you might see them."
But I wonder if in fact precedent can be found for inviting a chancellor
to be in attendance upon a royal hunt.
Genji received the messenger very ceremoniously and sent back this
answer:
"The snows beneath the pines of Oshio
Have never known so mighty a company."
These are the bits I gathered, and I may not have recorded them
accurately.
Genji wrote to Tamakazura the next day. "I suppose you saw the
emperor? Did you find yourself inclining a little in the direction I have
suggested?"
It was a cozy, friendly sort of note on prim white paper, containing
none of the usual innuendos. It pleased her and yet she smiled wryly. He
had been very clever at reading her thoughts.
"It was all rather confused and unclear," she wrote back.
"Amid deep snows upon a day of clouds
How does one see the radiance far above?"
<N 3>
Genji showed the letter to Murasaki. "I have, as you see, suggested
that she go to court, but I already have the empress there and should
perhaps refrain from sending another lady so soon. And if I were to reveal
the secret to her father he would be faced with complications because of
his other daughter. A girl who can do as she pleases is of course very eager
to go to court once she has had a glimpse of His Majesty."
"Don't you think," she said, smiling, "that however handsome His
Majesty may be, it is good for girls to be a little less forward?"
"You may say so, but I should imagine that you yourself would be
first in line."
He got off an answer:
"The crimson glow is there in a cloudless sky.
Have you let yourself be blinded by the snow?
"You must make up your mind."
There was first the matter of her initiation ceremonies. He was already
making preparations, collecting the masterpieces of the finest craftsmen in
the land. Ceremonies in which he had a part had a way of becoming very
grand even when he did not pay much attention to them, and he was
paying a great deal of attention to these, which were to be his occasion for
informing To~ no Chu~jo~.
<N 4>
<P 471>
They were set for the Second Month. Even after a lady has reached
adulthood and attracted considerable attention, it is not necessary, so long
as she is living a quiet life at home, that she step forward and announce
herself to the gods, and so Tamakazura's position had remained ambigu-
ous. But now, if Genji's plans were to be realized, there was a danger of
offending the god of Kasuga, patron of the Fujiwara family. Her true
identity must be revealed. Not wishing to leave behind a name for furtive-
ness and duplicity because he had kept the secret so long, Genji even now
considered alternative measures. Adoptions were not at all unusual these
days among commoners. He finally decided, however, that the bond be-
tween parent and child is not easily severed and that To~ no Chu~jo~ must
be told everything. He wrote asking that To~ no Chu~jo~ do him the honor
of tying the ceremonial apron. The answer came back that Princess Omiya
had been ill since late the preceding year and was not improving and that
it would be unseemly for To~ no Chu~jo~ to make ceremonial appearances.
Yu~giri was, moreover, living at Sanjo~ to be with his grandmother and
would not find it convenient to divide his attentions.
And so what was to be done? Life is uncertain. Princess Omiya might
die, and Tamakazura would be guilty of sacrilege if she did not go into
mourning for her grandmother. The princess must be informed. Genji set
out for Sanjo~, ostensibly to inquire after her health.
<N 5>
It was no longer possible for him to go out inconspicuously. His
excursions these days tended to be even grander than royal outings. At the
sight of him, so handsome that he scarcely seemed of this world, Princess
Omiya felt her afflictions leave her. She got out of bed to receive him. She
was very weak and needed the support of an armrest, but her speech was
clear.
"What a pleasure it is to see that you are not as ill as I had feared?"
said Genji." My informant seems to have been an alarmist. He led me to
fear the very worst. I do not even go to court these days except on very
special occasions. I stay shut up at home quite as if I had no public duties,
and lead an indolent, useless existence. Some men go on working when
they are so bent with age that they can hardly carry themselves about. I
was not born with great talents, and now I have added laziness to my
disabilities."
"It is a very long time since I first became aware that old age had
overtaken me," replied the princess, "but since the beginning of the year
I have felt that I do not have much longer to live. It has made me very sad
to think that I might not see you again. And here you are, and death does
not seem so near after all. I have lived a long life and have no very great
wish to live longer. The dearest ones have gone on ahead of me, and the
others seem intent on showing me what a mistake it is to live so long. I
have been quietly making my preparations. Yu~giri has been the exception.
He is wonderfully kind and attentive. His problems have held me back and
made me want to live on."
Her voice was trembling. Her remarks might have sounded like the
