The tale of Genji
strictly secret. But somehow or other the Heir Apparent’s grandfather,
the Minister of the Right, and others of his party got wind of
it and became very suspicious. The Emperor then sent for native
fortune-tellers and made trial of them, explaining that because of
certain signs which he had himself observed he had hitherto refrained
from making the boy a prince. With one accord they agreed that he had
acted with great prudence and the Emperor determined not to set the
child adrift upon the world as a prince without royal standing or
influence upon the mother’s side. For he thought ‘My own power is very
insecure. I had best set him to watch on my behalf over the great
Officers of State.’ Thinking that he had thus agreeably settled the
child’s future, he set seriously to work upon his education, and saw
to it that he should be made perfect in every branch of art and
knowledge. He showed such aptitude in all his studies that it seemed a
pity he should remain a commoner and as it had been decided that it
would arouse suspicion if he were made a prince, the Emperor consulted
with certain doctors wise in the lore of the planets and phases of the
moon. And they with one accord recommended that he should be made a
Member of the Minamoto (or Gen) Clan. So this was done. As the years
went by the Emperor did not forget his lost lady; and though many
women were brought to the Palace in the hope that he might take
pleasure in them, he turned from them all, believing that there was
not in the world any one like her whom he had lost. There was at that
time a lady whose beauty was of great repute. She was the fourth
daughter of the previous Emperor, and it was said that her mother, the
Dowager Empress, had brought her up with unrivalled care. A certain
Dame of the Household, who had served the former Emperor, was
intimately acquainted with the young Princess, having known her since
childhood and still having occasion to observe her from without. ‘I
have served in three courts’ said the Dame ‘and in all that time have
seen none who could be likened to the departed lady, save the daughter
of the Empress Mother. She indeed is a lady of rare beauty.’ So she
spoke to the Emperor, and he, much wondering what truth there was in
it, listened with great attention. The Empress Mother heard of this
with great alarm, for she remembered with what open cruelty the
sinister Lady Kōkiden had treated her former rival, and though she did
not dare speak openly of her fears, she was managing to delay the
girl’s presentation, when suddenly she died.
The Emperor, hearing that the bereaved Princess was in a very desolate
condition, sent word gently telling her that he should henceforward
look upon her as though she were one of the Lady Princesses his
daughters. Her servants and guardians and her brother, Prince
Hyōbukyō, thought that life in the Palace might distract her and would
at least be better than the gloomy desolation of her home, and so they
sent her to the Court. She lived in apartments called Fujitsubo
(Wistaria Tub) and was known by this name. The Emperor could not deny
that she bore an astonishing resemblance to his beloved. She was
however of much higher rank, so that everyone was anxious to please
her, and, whatever happened, they were prepared to grant her the
utmost licence: whereas the dead lady had been imperilled by the
Emperor’s favour only because the Court was not willing to accept her.
His old love did not now grow dimmer, and though he sometimes found
solace and distraction in shifting his thoughts from the lady who had
died to the lady who was so much like her, yet life remained for him a
sad business.
Genji (‘he of the Minamoto clan’), as he was now called, was
constantly at the Emperor’s side. He was soon quite at his ease with
the common run of Ladies in Waiting and Ladies of the Wardrobe, so it
was not likely he would be shy with one who was daily summoned to the
Emperor’s apartments. It was but natural that all these ladies should
vie eagerly with one another for the first place in Genji’s
affections, and there were many whom in various ways he admired very
much. But most of them behaved in too grown-up a fashion; only one,
the new princess, was pretty and quite young as well, and though she
tried to hide from him, it was inevitable that they should often meet.
He could not remember his mother, but the Dame of the Household had
told him how very like to her the girl was, and this interested his
childish fancy, and he would like to have been her great friend and
lived with her always. One day the Emperor said to her ‘Do not be
unkind to him. He is interested because he has heard that you are so
like his mother. Do not think him impertinent, but behave nicely to
him. You are indeed so like him in look and features that you might
well be his mother.’
And so, young though he was, fleeting beauty took its hold upon his
thoughts; he felt his first clear predilection.
Kōkiden had never loved this lady too well, and now her old enmity to
Genji sprang up again; her own children were reckoned to be of quite
uncommon beauty, but in this they were no match for Genji, who was so
lovely a boy that people called him Hikaru Genji or Genji the
Shining One; and Princess Fujitsubo, who also had many admirers, was
called Princess Glittering Sunshine.
Though it seemed a shame to put so lovely a child into man’s dress, he
was now twelve years old and the time for his Initiation was come. The
Emperor directed the preparations with tireless zeal and insisted upon
a magnificence beyond what was prescribed. The Initiation of the Heir
Apparent, which had last year been celebrated in the Southern Hall,
was not a whit more splendid in its preparations. The ordering of the
banquets that were to be given in various quarters, and the work of
the Treasurer and Grain Intendant he supervised in person, fearing
lest the officials should be remiss; and in the end all was
perfection. The ceremony took place in the eastern wing of the
Emperor’s own apartments, and the Throne was placed facing towards the
east, with the seats of the Initiate to-be and his Sponsor (the
Minister of the Left) in front.
Genji arrived at the hour of the Monkey.[13] He looked very handsome
with his long childish locks, and the Sponsor, whose duty it had just
been to bind them with the purple filet, was sorry to think that all
this would soon be changed and even the Clerk of the Treasury seemed
loath to sever those lovely tresses with the ritual knife. The
Emperor, as he watched, remembered for a moment what pride the mother
would have taken in the ceremony, but soon drove the weak thought from
his mind.
Duly crowned, Genji went to his chamber and changing into man’s dress
went down into the courtyard and performed the Dance of Homage, which
he did with such grace that tears stood in every eye. And now the
Emperor, whose grief had of late grown somewhat less insistent, was
again overwhelmed by memories of the past.
It had been feared that his delicate features would show to less
advantage when he had put aside his childish dress; but on the
contrary he looked handsomer than ever.
His sponsor, the Minister of the Left, had an only daughter whose
beauty the Heir Apparent had noticed. But now the father began to
think he would not encourage that match, but would offer her to Genji.
He sounded the Emperor upon this, and found that he would be very glad
to obtain for the boy the advantage of so powerful a connection.
When the courtiers assembled to drink the Love Cup, Genji came and
took his place among the other princes. The Minister of the Left came
up and whispered something in his ear; but the boy blushed and could
think of no reply. A chamberlain now came over to the Minister and
brought him a summons to wait upon His Majesty immediately. When he
arrived before the Throne, a Lady of the Wardrobe handed to him the
Great White Inner Garment and the Maid’s Skirt,[14] which were his
ritual due as Sponsor to the Prince. Then, when he had made him drink
out of the Royal Cup, the Emperor recited a poem in which he prayed
that the binding of the purple filet might symbolize the union of
their two houses; and the Minister answered him that nothing should
sever this union save the fading of the purple band. Then he descended
the long stairs and from the courtyard performed the Grand
Obeisance.[15] Here too were shown the horses from the Royal Stables
and the hawks from the Royal Falconry, that had been decreed as
presents for Genji. At the foot of the stairs the Princes and
Courtiers were lined up to receive their bounties, and gifts of every
kind were showered upon them. That day the hampers and fruit baskets
were distributed in accordance with the Emperor’s directions by the
learned Secretary of the Right, and boxes of cake and presents lay
about so thick that one could scarcely move. Such profusion had not
been seen even at the Heir Apparent’s Initiation.
That night Genji went to the Minister’s house, where his betrothal was
celebrated with great splendour. It was thought that the little Prince
looked somewhat childish and delicate, but his beauty astonished
everyone. Only the bride, who was four years older, regarded him as a
mere baby and was rather ashamed of him.
The Emperor still demanded Genji’s attendance at the Palace, so he did
not set up a house of his own. In his inmost heart he was always
thinking how much nicer _she_[16] was than anyone else, and only
wanted to be with people who were like her, but alas no one was the
least like her. Everyone seemed to make a great deal of fuss about
Princess Aoi, his betrothed; but he could see nothing nice about her.
The girl at the Palace now filled all his childish thoughts and this
obsession became a misery to him.
Now that he was a ‘man’ he could no longer frequent the women’s
quarters as he had been wont to do. But sometimes when an
entertainment was a-foot he found comfort in hearing her voice dimly
blending with the sound of zithern or flute and felt his grown-up
existence to be unendurable. After an absence of five or six days he
would occasionally spend two or three at his betrothed’s house. His
father-in-law attributing this negligence to his extreme youth was not
at all perturbed and always received him warmly. Whenever he came the
most interesting and agreeable of the young people of the day were
asked to meet him and endless trouble was taken in arranging games to
amuse him.
The Shigeisa, one of the rooms which had belonged to his mother, was
allotted to him as his official quarters in the Palace, and the
servants who had waited on her were now gathered together again and
formed his suite. His grandmother’s house was falling into decay. The
Imperial Office of Works was ordered to repair it. The grouping of the
trees and disposition of the surrounding hills had always made the
place delightful. Now the basin of the lake was widened and many other
improvements were carried out. ‘If only I were going to live here with
someone whom I liked,’ thought Genji sadly.
Some say that the name of Hikaru the Shining One was given to him in
admiration by the Korean fortune-teller.[17]
[1] This chapter should be read with indulgence. In it Murasaki, still
under the influence of her somewhat childish predecessors, writes in a
manner which is a blend of the Court chronicle with the conventional
fairy-tale.
[2] Famous Emperor of the T‘ang dynasty in China; lived A.D. 685–762.
[3] The child of an Emperor could not be shown to him for several
weeks after its birth.
[4] I.e. be made Heir Apparent.
[5] She herself was of course carried in a litter.
[6] A poem by the Chinese writer Po Chü-i about the death of Yang
Kuei-fei, favourite of the Emperor Ming Huang. _See_ Giles, _Chinese