The first great wave of Chinese cultural influences began to transform
Japanese civilization during the 6th and 7th centuries:
- Confucianism entered Japan in 513, when Paekche (a Korean state) sent a “scholar of the Five Classics.”
- Buddhism arrived in 538, when Paekche sent a Buddha image, sutras, and other Buddhist accoutrements.
- Taika Reforms
(645): Power shifted from the Soga to the Fujiwara clan, initially under the leadership of Fujiwara no Kamatari, who attempted to more fully centralize the government on the model of Tang China.
By the end of the 7th century significant changes began to take effect,
most notably with regard to the adoption of the early Tang
“equal-field” system, which imposed light taxes payable in grain and/or
local products, as well as a heavier labor
tax (i.e. building roads, bridges, etc.).
 The Heian Era (794-1185):
Representing the first great flourishing of Japanese culture, the
decadence of aristocratic court life was vividly captured by the two
great novels of the period: The Tale of Genji
by Murasaki Shikubu (c. 973-1013) and The
Pillow Book by Murasaki’s contemporary (and rival at court), Sei
Shonagon.
VIDEO
Japanese History and Literature
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Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji) is considered to be the supreme masterpiece of Japanese literature. The author, Murasaki Shikibu, borrowed much from earlier monogatari and collections of waka,
and especially from the diaries of court ladies, but her novel rises in
solitary grandeur like a great mountain over lesser hills. In every age
since The Tale of Genji was
first written and circulated at the court it has been accorded special
respect, and it would not be possible to list all the other works of
Japanese literature it has inspired....The Tale of Genji
is not only the quintessence of the aristocratic culture of Heian
Japan, but has affected the aesthetic and emotional life of the entire
Japanese people for a millennium. [Donald Keene, Seeds of the Heart (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), 477-8]
The World’s First Novel?
According to Arthur Waley: “Murasaki,
like the novelist of today, is not principally
interested in the events of the story, but rather in the effect which
these
events may have upon the minds of her characters. Such books as
hers
it is convenient, I think, to call ‘novels,’ while reserving for other
works
of fiction the name ‘story’ or ‘romance.’”
[Seeds of the Heart, 508]
| We tend to remember, even more than the plot of The Tale of Genji,
the characters created by Murasaki Shikibu. This in itself was an
extraordinary achievement: nothing in any of the earlier monogatari
prepares us for these characters. Only in the diaries does one come
across people with the complexity of real human beings and who can be
conceived of as having an existence apart from the book. Genji himself
is not especially complex, but on almost every page devoted to him
there is some little touch that makes us believe in him. [Seeds in the Heart, 495] |
The Shining Prince
Genji’s
Beauty
| No one could see him without pleasure. He
was
like the flowering tree under whose shade even the rude mountain
peasant delights to rest. And so great was the fascination he
exercised that those who knew him longed to offer him whatever was
dearest to them. One who had
a favorite daughter would ask for nothing better than to make her
Genji’s handmaiden. Another who had an exquisite sister was ready
for her to serve in his household, though it were at the most menial
tasks. Still less could these ladies (i.e. the ladies who served
the Rokujo Lady) who on
such occasions as this were privileged to converse with him and stare
at
him as much as they pleased, and were moreover, young people of much
sensibility—how could they fail to delight in his company and note with
much uneasiness that his visits were becoming far less frequent than
before. [Donald Keene, Anthology of Japanese Literature (New York: Grove Press, 1994), 112] |
Donald Keene explains Genji’s irresistible charm in his discussion of
the novel in Seeds of the Heart:
| Genji responds
perfectly to each
woman. He is a genius at lovemaking, and if he had lived in a
society where monogamy was strictly enforced or if, deciding that
Murasaki was an ideal wife, he had never looked at another woman, the
world would have been the poorer. Unlike Don Giovanni, he not
only woos and wins each lady but he makes each feel sure of his love,
and each is content with her small part of his life. When Genji
lays out the plans for his Rokujo Palace, there are apartments not only
for the women he still loves but for Suetsumuhana and even for the Lady
from the Village of Falling Flowers, a woman much older than himself
who was one of the less important concubines of his father. [Seeds
in the
Heart, 500-1] |
We can see his sensitivity in the following passage:
[After the
living spirit of one of Genji’s lovers, Lady Rokujo, kills Genji’s wife out of jealousy, she
decides to accompany
her daughter who is going off to become a priestess at Ise, the shrine
of
the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu. Unable to allow her to leave, Genji
meets
her at a small shrine on the outskirts of the Kyoto]: The autumn
flowers
were fading; along the reeds by the river the shrill voices of many
insects
blended with the mournful fluting of the wind in the pines. Scarcely
distinguishable from these somewhere in the distance rose and fell a
faint,
enticing sound of human music….They came at last to a group of very
temporary-looking
wooden huts surrounded by a flimsy brushwood fence. The archways,
built
of unstripped wood, stood out black and solemn against the sky. Within
the enclosure a number of priests were walking up and down with a
preoccupied
air. There was something portentous in their manner of addressing
one
another and in their way of loudly clearing their throats before they
spoke.
In the Hall of Offerings there was a dim flicker of firelight, but
elsewhere
no single sign of life. So this was the place where he had left
one
who was from the start in great distress of mind, to shift for herself
week
after week, month after month! Suddenly he realized with a
terrible
force all that she must have suffered....
[After spending the night
together,
we see the perfect example of Heian “bedside manner” in the early
morning
when he leaves his lover]: At last the night ended in such a dawn
as
seemed to have been fashioned for their especial delight. ‘Sad is
any
parting at the red of dawn; but never since the world began, gleamed
day
so tragically in the autumn sky.’ And as he recited these verses,
aghast
to leave her, he stood hesitating and laid her hand tenderly in his. [Seeds
of the Heart, 498-9] |
Motoori
Norinaga on
Genji
 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. [Wm. Theodore de Bary, et al., Sources of Japanese
Tradition, 1st edition (New York: Columbia University Press, 1958), 533-4]
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