is a classic work of
Japanese literatureEarly works of Japanese literature were heavily influenced by cultural contact with China and Chinese literature, often written in Classical Chinese. Indian literature also had an influence through the diffusion of Buddhism in Japan...
attributed to the Japanese noblewoman
Murasaki ShikibuMurasaki Shikibu was a Japanese novelist, poet and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court during the Heian period. She is best known as the author of The Tale of Genji, written in Japanese between about 1000 and 1012...
in the early 11th century, around the peak of the
Heian periodThe is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. The period is named after the capital city of Heian-kyō, or modern Kyōto. It is the period in Japanese history when Buddhism, Taoism and other Chinese influences were at their height...
. It is sometimes called the world's first
novelA novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
, the first modern novel, the first
psychological novelA psychological novel, also called psychological realism, is a work of prose fiction which places more than the usual amount of emphasis on interior characterization, and on the motives, circumstances, and internal action which springs from, and develops, external action...
or the first novel still to be considered a classic. While universally considered a masterpiece, its precise classification and influence in both Western and Eastern Canon has been a matter of debate (see
Stature below).
The first partial translation of
Genji Monogatari into English was by
Suematsu KenchōViscount was a Japanese politician, intellectual and author, who lived in the Meiji and Taishō periods. Apart from his activity in the Japanese government, he also wrote several important works on Japan in English...
. A free translation of all but one chapter was produced by
Arthur WaleyArthur David Waley CH, CBE was an English orientalist and sinologist.-Life:Waley was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, as Arthur David Schloss, son of the economist David Frederick Schloss...
.
Edward SeidenstickerEdward George Seidensticker was a noted scholar and translator of Japanese literature. He was particularly known for his English version of The Tale of Genji , which is counted among the preferred modern translations...
made the first complete translation into English, using a more literal method than Waley. The most recent English translation, by
Royall TylerRoyall Tyler is a Japanologist. He is a descendant of the American playwright Royall Tyler . He was born in London, England, and grew up in Massachusetts, England, Washington D.C., and Paris, France. Between 1990 and 2000 he taught at the Australian National University. He was Reader at that...
(2001), also tries to be faithful to the original text.
Introduction
The
Genji was written chapter by chapter in installments, as Murasaki delivered the tale to women of the aristocracy (the
yokibito). It has many elements found in a modern
novelA novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
: a central character and a very large number of major and minor characters, well-developed characterization of all the major players, a sequence of events happening over a period of time covering the central character's lifetime and beyond. The work does not make use of a plot; instead, much as in real life, events just happen and characters evolve simply by growing older. One remarkable feature of the
Genji, and of Murasaki's skill, is its internal consistency, despite a
dramatis personaeDramatis Personae is a poetry collection by Robert Browning. It was published in 1864.- Background :Browning wrote the collection in London, where he had returned with his son after his wife's death. It was his first publication after a nine-year hiatus...
of some four hundred characters. For instance, all characters age in step and all the family and feudal relationships are consistent among all chapters.
One complication for readers and translators of the
Genji is that almost none of the characters in the original text is given an explicit name. The characters are instead referred to by their function or role (e.g. Minister of the Left), an
honorificThe Japanese language has many honorifics, parts of speech which show respect, and their use is mandatory in many social situations. Honorifics in Japanese may be used to emphasize social distance or disparity in rank, or to emphasize social intimacy or similarity in rank.The system of honorifics...
(e.g. His Excellency), or their relation to other characters (e.g. Heir Apparent), which may all change as the novel progresses. This lack of names stems from Heian-era court manners that would have made it unacceptably familiar and blunt to freely mention a character's name. Modern readers and translators have, to a greater or lesser extent, used various nicknames to keep track of the many characters. See List of The Tale of Genji characters.
Stature
The Tale of Genji is an important work of Japanese literature, and numerous modern authors have cited it as inspiration. It is noted for its internal consistency, psychological depiction, and characterization. The novelist
Yasunari Kawabatawas a Japanese short story writer and novelist whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award...
said in his
Nobel PrizeThe Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
acceptance speech: "
The Tale of Genji in particular is the highest pinnacle of Japanese literature. Even down to our day there has not been a piece of fiction to compare with it."
The
Genji is also often referred to as "the first novel", though there is considerable debate over this — some of the debate involving whether
Genji can even be considered a "novel". Some consider the psychological insight, complexity and unity of the work to qualify it for "novel" status while simultaneously disqualifying earlier works of prose fiction. Others see these arguments as subjective and unconvincing. Related claims, perhaps in an attempt to sidestep these debates, are that
Genji is the "first psychological novel" or "
historical novelAccording to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...
", "the first novel still considered to be a classic" or other more qualified terms. However, critics have almost consistently described
The Tale of Genji as the oldest, first, and/or greatest novel in Japanese literature, though enthusiastic proponents may have later neglected the qualifying category of
in Japanese literature, leading to the debates over the book's place in world literature. Even in Japan, the
Tale of Genji is not universally embraced; the lesser known
Ochikubo Monogatari, also known as The Tale of Ochikubo, is a story from the Heian period which is similar to the famous fairy tale Cinderella.Ochikubo Monogatari was written during the later part of the 10th century by an unknown author. It is known as the oldest remaining tale in Japanese literature to include...
has been proposed as the "world's first full-length novel", even though its author is unknown. Despite these debates,
The Tale of Genji enjoys solid respect among the works of literature, and its influence on Japanese literature has been compared to that of
Philip SidneySir Philip Sidney was an English poet, courtier and soldier, and is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan Age...
's
Arcadia on English literature.
The novel and other works by Lady Murasaki are staple reading material in the curricula of Japanese schools. The Bank of Japan issued the 2000
YenThe is the official currency of Japan. It is the third most traded currency in the foreign exchange market after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a reserve currency after the U.S. dollar, the euro and the pound sterling...
banknote in her honor, featuring a scene from the novel based on the 12th century illustrated handscroll.
Authorship
The debate over how much of the
Genji was actually written by
Murasaki ShikibuMurasaki Shikibu was a Japanese novelist, poet and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court during the Heian period. She is best known as the author of The Tale of Genji, written in Japanese between about 1000 and 1012...
has gone on for centuries and is unlikely to ever be settled unless some major archival discovery is made. It is generally accepted that the tale was finished in its present form by 1021, when the author of the
Sarashina NikkiThe is a memoir written by Lady Sarashina , a lady-in-waiting of Heian-period Japan. Her work stands out for its descriptions of her travels and pilgrimages and is unique in the literature of the period, as well as one of the first in the genre of travel writing...
wrote a famous diary entry about her joy at acquiring a complete copy of the tale. She writes that there are over fifty chapters and mentions a character introduced near the end of the work, so if other authors besides Murasaki Shikibu did work on the tale, the work was done very near to the time of her writing.
Murasaki Shikibu's own diaryThe Diary of Lady Murasaki records the daily life of the Heian era lady-in-waiting and writer, Lady Murasaki Shikibu, author of The Tale of Genji...
includes a reference to the tale, and indeed the application to herself of the name 'Murasaki' in an allusion to the main female character. That entry confirms that some if not all of the diary was available in 1008 when internal evidence suggests convincingly that the entry was written.
Lady Murasaki is said to have written the character of Genji based on the Minister on the Left at the time she was at court. Other translators, such as Tyler, mention the fact that the character Murasaki no ue, that Genji eventually takes as his wife is based on Murasaki Shikibu herself. Interestingly Murasaki Shikibu started writing the novel with Suma- chapter 12 and Akashi -chapter 13 before she wrote the rest of the book.
Yosano Akikowas the pen-name of a Japanese author, poet, pioneering feminist, pacifist, and social reformer, active in the late Meiji period as well as the Taishō and early Showa periods of Japan. Her name at birth was Otori Shô. She is one of the most famous, and most controversial, post-classical woman poets...
, the first author to make a modern translation of the
Genji, believed that Murasaki Shikibu had only written chapters 1 to 33, and that chapters 35 to 54 were written by her daughter Daini no Sanmi. Other scholars have also doubted the authorship of chapters 42 to 54 (particularly 44, which contains rare examples of continuity mistakes).
According to
Royall TylerRoyall Tyler is a Japanologist. He is a descendant of the American playwright Royall Tyler . He was born in London, England, and grew up in Massachusetts, England, Washington D.C., and Paris, France. Between 1990 and 2000 he taught at the Australian National University. He was Reader at that...
's introduction to his English translation of the work, recent computer analysis has turned up "statistically significant" discrepancies of style between chapters 45–54 and the rest, and also among the early chapters.
Plot
The work recounts the life of a son of the Japanese emperor, known to readers as
Hikaru Genjiis the protagonist of Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji. In the story, he is described as the most handsome man in the world and he attracts all women. Genji is the second son of Emperor Kiritsubo , but he is delegated to civilian life for political reasons and begins a career as an imperial...
, or "Shining Genji". For political reasons, Genji is relegated to commoner status (by being given the surname Minamoto) and begins a career as an imperial officer. The tale concentrates on Genji's romantic life and describes the customs of the aristocratic society of the time. Much is made of Genji's good looks.
Genji was the second son of a certain ancient emperor ("Emperor Kiritsubo") and a low-ranking but beloved concubine (known to the readers as Lady Kiritsubo). His mother dies when Genji is three years old, and the Emperor cannot forget her. The Emperor Kiritsubo then hears of a woman ("
Lady FujitsuboLady Fujitsubo is a fictional character in Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji .Daughter of a previous emperor and thus imperial princess, Fujitsubo enters the service of Kiritsubo Emperor at age 16, mainly because of her resemblance to the deceased Kiritsubo Consort...
"), formerly a princess of the preceding emperor, who resembles his deceased concubine, and she later she becomes one of his wives. Genji loves her first as a stepmother, but later as a woman. They fall in love with each other, but it is forbidden. Genji is frustrated because of his forbidden love to the Lady Fujitsubo and is on bad terms with his wife (
Aoi no Ueis a fictional character in The Tale of Genji . Daughter of the Minister of the Left and Genji’s first principal wife, she marries Genji when she is sixteen and he only twelve. Proud and distant to her husband, Aoi is constantly aware of the age difference between them and very much hurt by...
). He also engages in a series of unfulfilling love affairs with other women. In most cases, his advances are rebuffed, his lover dies suddenly during the affair, or he finds his lover to be dull and his feelings change. In one case, he sees a beautiful young woman through an open window, enters her room without permission, and proceeds to seduce her. Recognizing him as a man of unchallengeable power, she makes no resistance.
Genji visits Kitayama, the northern rural hilly area of Kyoto, where he finds a beautiful ten-year-old girl. He is fascinated by this little girl ("
MurasakiMurasaki refers to both the heroine of the Genji Monogatari , and the book's author, Murasaki Shikibu. Curiously, in both cases the name is a pseudonym, and the real names are unknown....
"), and discovers that she is a niece of the Lady Fujitsubo. Finally he kidnaps her, brings her to his own palace and educates her to be his ideal lady; that is, like the Lady Fujitsubo. During this time Genji also meets the Lady Fujitsubo secretly, and she bears his son, Reizei. Everyone except the two lovers believes the father of the child is the Emperor Kiritsubo. Later, the boy becomes the
Crown PrinceA crown prince or crown princess is the heir or heiress apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The wife of a crown prince is also titled crown princess....
and Lady Fujitsubo becomes the Empress, but Genji and Lady Fujitsubo swear to keep their secret.
Genji and his wife Lady Aoi reconcile, and she gives birth to a son but dies soon after. Genji is sorrowful, but finds consolation in Murasaki, whom he marries. Genji's father, the Emperor Kiritsubo, dies. He is succeeded by his son Suzaku, whose mother ("Kokiden"), together with Kiritsubo's political enemies (including the "Minister of the Right") takes power in the court. Then another of Genji's secret love affairs is exposed: Genji and a concubine of the Emperor Suzaku, Genji's brother, are discovered when they meet in secret. The Emperor Suzaku confides his personal amusement at Genji's exploits with the woman ("Oborozukiyo"), but is duty-bound to punish his half-brother. Genji is thus exiled to the town of
Sumais one of 9 wards of Kobe City in Japan. It has an area of 30.0 km², and a population of 168,400 .There is a white sandy beach in this ward, which attracts tourists to the Kansai region for sun bathing and popular events during the summer season. The same beach has appeared in the classic...
in rural
Harima provinceor Banshu was a province of Japan in the part of Honshū that is the southwestern part of present-day Hyōgo Prefecture. Harima bordered on Tajima, Tamba, Settsu, Bizen, and Mimasaka Provinces. Its capital was Himeji....
(now part of
Kobe, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...
in
Hyōgo Prefectureis a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region on Honshū island. The capital is Kobe.The prefecture's name was previously alternately spelled as Hiogo.- History :...
). There, a prosperous man known as the Akashi Novice (because he is from
Akashiis a city located in southern Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, on the Seto Inland Sea west of Kobe.As of April 1, 2011, the city has an estimated population of 290,776, with 117,392 households, and a population density of 5,907.68 persons per km²...
in
Settsu provincewas a province of Japan, which today comprises the eastern part of Hyōgo Prefecture and the northern part of Osaka Prefecture. It was also referred to as or .Osaka and Osaka Castle were the main center of the province.-History:...
) entertains Genji, and Genji has a love affair with Akashi's daughter. She gives birth to a Genji's only daughter, who will later become the Empress.
In the Capital, the Emperor Suzaku is troubled by dreams of his late father, Kiritsubo, and something begins to affect his eyes. Meanwhile, his mother, Kokiden, grows ill, which weakens her powerful sway over the throne. Thus the Emperor orders Genji pardoned, and he returns to Kyoto. His son by Lady Fujitsubo, Reizei, becomes the emperor, and Genji finishes his imperial career. The new Emperor Reizei knows Genji is his real father, and raises Genji's rank to the highest possible.
However, when Genji turns 40 years old, his life begins to decline. His political status does not change, but his love and emotional life are slowly damaged. He marries another wife, the "Third Princess" (known as
Onna san no miya in the Seidensticker version, or
Nyōsan in Waley's). Genji's nephew, Kashiwagi, later forces himself on the "Third Princess" and she bears Kaoru (who, in a similar situation to that of Reizei, is legally known as the son of Genji). Genji's new marriage changes his relationship with Murasaki, who becomes a nun (bikuni).
Genji's beloved Murasaki dies. In the following chapter,
Maboroshi ("Illusion"), Genji contemplates how fleeting life is. Immediately after
Maboroshi, there is a chapter entitled
Kumogakure ("Vanished into the Clouds") which is left blank, but implies the death of Genji.
The rest of the work is known as the "Uji Chapters". These chapters follow Kaoru and his best friend, Niou. Niou is an imperial prince, the son of Genji's daughter, the current Empress now that Reizei has abdicated the throne, while Kaoru is known to the world as Genji's son but is in fact fathered by Genji's nephew. The chapters involve Kaoru and Niou's rivalry over several daughters of an imperial prince who lives in Uji, a place some distance away from the capital. The tale ends abruptly, with Kaoru wondering if the lady he loves is being hidden away by Niou. Kaoru has sometimes been called the first
anti-heroIn fiction, an antihero is generally considered to be a protagonist whose character is at least in some regards conspicuously contrary to that of the archetypal hero, and is in some instances its antithesis in which the character is generally useless at being a hero or heroine when they're...
in literature.
See also List of The Tale of Genji characters
Completion
The tale ends abruptly, in mid-sentence. Opinions vary on whether the ending was the intended ending of the author.
Arthur WaleyArthur David Waley CH, CBE was an English orientalist and sinologist.-Life:Waley was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, as Arthur David Schloss, son of the economist David Frederick Schloss...
, who made the first English translation of the whole of
The Tale of Genji, believed that the work as we have it was finished.
Ivan MorrisIvan Ira Esme Morris was a British author and teacher in the field of Japanese Studies.Ivan Morris was born in London, of mixed American and Swedish parentage, to Ira Victor Morris and Edita Morris. He studied at Gordonstoun, before graduating from Phillips Academy...
, author of
The World of the Shining Prince, believed that it was not complete, with later chapters missing.
Edward SeidenstickerEdward George Seidensticker was a noted scholar and translator of Japanese literature. He was particularly known for his English version of The Tale of Genji , which is counted among the preferred modern translations...
, who made the second translation of the
Genji, believed that it was not finished, and that Murasaki Shikibu did not have a planned story structure with an "ending" and would simply have gone on writing as long as she could.
Literary context
Because it was written to entertain the Japanese court of the eleventh century, the work presents many difficulties to modern readers. First and foremost, Murasaki's language,
Heian PeriodThe is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. The period is named after the capital city of Heian-kyō, or modern Kyōto. It is the period in Japanese history when Buddhism, Taoism and other Chinese influences were at their height...
court Japanese, was highly inflected and had very complex grammar. Another problem is that naming people was considered rude in Heian court society, so none of the characters are named within the work; instead, the narrator refers to men often by their rank or their station in life, and to women often by the color of their clothing, or by the words used at a meeting, or by the rank of a prominent male relative. This results in different appellations for the same character depending on the chapter.
Another aspect of the language is the importance of using
poetryPoetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
in conversations. Modifying or rephrasing a classic poem according to the current situation was expected behavior in Heian court life, and often served to communicate thinly veiled allusions. The poems in the
Genji are often in the classic Japanese tanka form. Many of the poems were well known to the intended audience, so usually only the first few lines are given and the reader is supposed to complete the thought themselves, much like today we could say "when in Rome..." and leave the rest of the saying ("...do as the Romans do") unspoken.
As with most Heian literature, the
Genji was probably written mostly (or perhaps entirely) in
kanaKana are the syllabic Japanese scripts, as opposed to the logographic Chinese characters known in Japan as kanji and the Roman alphabet known as rōmaji...
(Japanese phonetic script) and not in Chinese characters because it was written by a woman for a female audience. Writing in Chinese characters was at the time a masculine pursuit; women were generally discreet when using Chinese symbols, confining themselves mostly to native Japanese words (
yamato kotobaare native Japanese words, meaning those words in Japanese that have been inherited from Old Japanese, rather than being borrowed at some stage. They are also known as...
).
Outside of vocabulary related to politics and Buddhism, the
Genji contains remarkably few Chinese loan words (kango). This has the effect of giving the story a very even, smooth flow. However, it also introduces confusion: there are a number of homophones (words with the same pronunciation but different meanings), and for modern readers, context is not always sufficient to determine which meaning was intended.
Murasaki was neither the first nor the last writer of the Heian period, nor was the
Genji the earliest example of a "
monogatari". Rather, the
Genji stands above other tales of the time in the same way that
William ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's plays outshine other Elizabethan drama.
Japanese
The complexities of the style mentioned in the previous section make it unreadable by the average Japanese person without dedicated study of the language of the tale.
Therefore translations into modern Japanese and other languages solve these problems by modernizing the language, unfortunately losing some of the meaning, and by giving names to the characters, usually the traditional names used by academics. This gives rise to anachronisms; for instance Genji's first wife is named Aoi because she is known as the lady of the Aoi chapter, in which she dies.
Both scholars and writers have tried translating it. The first translation into modern Japanese was made by the poet
Yosano Akikowas the pen-name of a Japanese author, poet, pioneering feminist, pacifist, and social reformer, active in the late Meiji period as well as the Taishō and early Showa periods of Japan. Her name at birth was Otori Shô. She is one of the most famous, and most controversial, post-classical woman poets...
. Other known translations were done by the novelists Jun'ichirō Tanizaki and Fumiko Enchi.
Because of the cultural difference, reading an annotated version of the
Genji is quite common, even among Japanese. There are several annotated versions by novelists, including Seiko Tanabe, Osamu Hashimoto and Jakucho Setouchi. Many works, including a
mangaManga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
series and different television dramas, are derived from
The Tale of Genji. There have been at least five manga adaptations of the
Genji. A manga version by
Waki Yamatois a Japanese manga artist. She debuted in 1966 with the short story Dorobou Tenshi.Since this debut, Yamato steadily created and published a variety of works in the genre of shōjo manga...
,
Asakiyumemishi (
The Tale of Genjiis a Japanese manga version of Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji by Waki Yamato.It follows nearly the same plot with some modern adaptation. It was originally published from 1980 to 1993. It spanned thirteen volumes and was published by Kodansha...
in English), is widely read among Japanese youth, and
another versionis a Japanese manga version of Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji by Maki Miyako. In 1989, it received the 34th Shogakukan Manga Award for general manga.-See also:*List of characters from The Tale of Genji...
, by Miyako Maki, won the
Shogakukan Manga AwardThe is one of Japan's major manga awards, sponsored by Shogakukan Publishing. It has been awarded annually for serialized manga since 1955 and features candidates from a number of publishers.The current award categories are:...
in 1989.
Most Japanese high-school students read selections of the
Genji (the original, not a translation) in their Japanese classes.
English translations
In 2008,
WorldCatWorldCat is a union catalog which itemizes the collections of 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories which participate in the Online Computer Library Center global cooperative...
identifies 88 editions of this book. The five major translations into English are each slightly different — mirroring the personal choices of the translator and the period in which the translation was made. Each version has its merits, its detractors and its advocates; and each is distinguished by the name of the translator. For example, the less widely circulated version translated by
Marutei Tsurunenis the first foreign-born Japanese of European origin serving as a member of the Diet of Japan. He is a member of the Democratic Party of Japan, where he serves as Director General of the International Department. He is currently serving in the House of Councillors.- Biography :Tsurunen was born...
would typically be referred to as "the Tsurunen
Genji".
The generally recognized "best" translations were created by
Suematsu KenchōViscount was a Japanese politician, intellectual and author, who lived in the Meiji and Taishō periods. Apart from his activity in the Japanese government, he also wrote several important works on Japan in English...
,
Arthur WaleyArthur David Waley CH, CBE was an English orientalist and sinologist.-Life:Waley was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, as Arthur David Schloss, son of the economist David Frederick Schloss...
, Edward G. Seidensticker,
Helen McCulloughHelen Craig McCullough was an eminent scholar of classical Japanese poetry and prose. Born in California, she graduated from Berkeley in 1939 with a degree in political science. After the outbreak of World War II, she entered the U.S. Navy’s Japanese Language School in Boulder, Colorado...
and
Royall TylerRoyall Tyler is a Japanologist. He is a descendant of the American playwright Royall Tyler . He was born in London, England, and grew up in Massachusetts, England, Washington D.C., and Paris, France. Between 1990 and 2000 he taught at the Australian National University. He was Reader at that...
.
Major English translations in chronological order
- "The Suematsu Genji" — Suematsu's Genji was the first translation into English, but is considered of poor quality and is not often read today. Significantly, only a few chapters were completed.
- Suematsu, Kenchō. (1882). The Tale of Genji. London: Trubner.
- "The Waley Genji" — Waley's Genji is considered a great achievement for his time, although some purists have criticized Waley's changes to the original. Others have criticized as overly-free the manner in which Waley translated the original text. However, when the Waley Genji was first published, it could not have been more eagerly received. For example, Time explained that "the reviewers' floundering tributes indicate something of its variegated appeal. In limpid prose The Tale combines curiously modern social satire with great charm of narrative. Translator Waley has done service to literature in salvaging to the Occident this masterpiece of the Orient."
- Murasaki, Shikibu. (1926–33). The Tale of Genji (tr. Arthur Waley). London: George Allen & Unwin. OCLC 24043629
- The Seidensticker Genji — Seidensticker's Genji is an attempt to correct what were perceived to have been Waley's failings without necessarily making his translation obsolete. Seidensticker hews more closely to the original text, but in the interests of readability, he takes some liberties. For example, he identifies the cast of characters by name so that the narrative can be more easily followed by a broad-based audience of Western readers.
- Murasaki Shikibu. (1976). The Tale of Genji (tr. Edward G. Seidensticker). New York: Alfred A. Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. is a New York publishing house, founded by Alfred A. Knopf, Sr. in 1915. It was acquired by Random House in 1960 and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group at Random House. The publishing house is known for its borzoi trademark , which was designed by co-founder...
. 10-ISBN 0-394-48328-6; 13-ISBN 978-0-394-48328-3 (cloth) — 10-ISBN 0-394-73530-7; 13-ISBN 978-0-394-73530-6 (paper)
- The McCullough Genji:
- McCullough, Helen Craig. (1994). Genji & Heike: Selections from The Tale of Genji and The Tale of the Heike. Stanford: Stanford University Press
The Stanford University Press is the publishing house of Stanford University. In 1892, an independent publishing company was established at the university. The first use of the name "Stanford University Press" in a book's imprinting occurred in 1895...
. 10-ISBN 0-8047-2257-9; 13-ISBN 978-0-8047-2257-5 (cloth) — 10-ISBN 0-8047-2258-7; 13-ISBN 978-0-8047-2258-2 (paper)
- The Tyler Genji — Tyler's Genji contains more extensive explanatory footnotes and commentary than the previous translations, describing the numerous poetical allusions and cultural aspects of the tale. Tyler consciously attempted to mimic the original style in ways that the previous translations did not. For example, this version doesn't use names for most characters, identifying them instead by their titles in a manner which was conventional in the context of the 11th century original text. Tyler's version "makes a special virtue of attending to a certain ceremonial indirectness in the way the characters address one another. The great temptation for a translator is to say the unsaid things, and Tyler never gives in to it."
- 4,400 pages of English edition (translation by Edward Seidensticker
Edward George Seidensticker was a noted scholar and translator of Japanese literature. He was particularly known for his English version of The Tale of Genji , which is counted among the preferred modern translations...
) of BrailleThe Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two...
version of The Tale of Genji is completed in 2008 by five Japanese housewives in Setagaya, Tokyois one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo in Japan. It is also the name of a neighborhood within the ward. The ward calls itself the City of Setagaya in English...
as voluntary work in 5 years. This BrailleThe Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two...
version had been donated to "Japan Braille Library (日本点字図書館)" and the Library of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
of United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and it is/will be downloaded through the internet.
Structure
The novel is traditionally divided in three parts, the first two dealing with the life of Genji, and the last dealing with the early years of two of Genji's prominent descendants, Niou and Kaoru. There are also several short transitional chapters which are usually grouped separately and whose authorship is sometimes questioned.
- Genji's rise and fall
- Youth, chapters 1–33: Love, romance, and exile
- Success and setbacks, chapters 34–41: A taste of power and the death of his beloved wife
- The transition (chapters 42–44): Very short episodes following Genji's death
- Uji, chapters 45–54: Genji's official and secret descendants, Niou and Kaoru
The 54th and last chapter "The Floating Bridge of Dreams" is sometimes argued to be a separate part from the Uji part by modern scholars. It seems to continue the story from the previous chapters, but has an unusually abstract chapter title. It is the only chapter whose title has no clear reference within the text, but this may be because the chapter is unfinished. (This question is more difficult because we do not know exactly when the chapters acquired their titles.)
List of chapters
The English translations here are taken from the Edward Seidensticker and the Royall Tyler translations. The first version refers to Seidensticker's edition, the second, to Tyler's. It is not known for certain when the chapters acquired their titles. Early mentions of the Tale refer to chapter numbers, or contain alternate titles for some of the chapters. This may suggest that the titles were added later. The titles are largely derived from poetry that is quoted within the text, or allusions to various characters.
|-
! Chapter
! Japanese
! Seidensticker
! Tyler
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| 1
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{{Other uses}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Nihongo|
The Tale of Genji|源氏物語|Genji Monogatari}} is a classic work of
Japanese literatureEarly works of Japanese literature were heavily influenced by cultural contact with China and Chinese literature, often written in Classical Chinese. Indian literature also had an influence through the diffusion of Buddhism in Japan...
attributed to the Japanese noblewoman
Murasaki ShikibuMurasaki Shikibu was a Japanese novelist, poet and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court during the Heian period. She is best known as the author of The Tale of Genji, written in Japanese between about 1000 and 1012...
in the early 11th century, around the peak of the
Heian periodThe is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. The period is named after the capital city of Heian-kyō, or modern Kyōto. It is the period in Japanese history when Buddhism, Taoism and other Chinese influences were at their height...
. It is sometimes called the world's first
novelA novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
, the first modern novel, the first
psychological novelA psychological novel, also called psychological realism, is a work of prose fiction which places more than the usual amount of emphasis on interior characterization, and on the motives, circumstances, and internal action which springs from, and develops, external action...
or the first novel still to be considered a classic. While universally considered a masterpiece, its precise classification and influence in both Western and Eastern Canon has been a matter of debate (see
Stature below).
The first partial translation of
Genji Monogatari into English was by
Suematsu KenchōViscount was a Japanese politician, intellectual and author, who lived in the Meiji and Taishō periods. Apart from his activity in the Japanese government, he also wrote several important works on Japan in English...
. A free translation of all but one chapter was produced by
Arthur WaleyArthur David Waley CH, CBE was an English orientalist and sinologist.-Life:Waley was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, as Arthur David Schloss, son of the economist David Frederick Schloss...
.
Edward SeidenstickerEdward George Seidensticker was a noted scholar and translator of Japanese literature. He was particularly known for his English version of The Tale of Genji , which is counted among the preferred modern translations...
made the first complete translation into English, using a more literal method than Waley. The most recent English translation, by
Royall TylerRoyall Tyler is a Japanologist. He is a descendant of the American playwright Royall Tyler . He was born in London, England, and grew up in Massachusetts, England, Washington D.C., and Paris, France. Between 1990 and 2000 he taught at the Australian National University. He was Reader at that...
(2001), also tries to be faithful to the original text.
Introduction
The
Genji was written chapter by chapter in installments, as Murasaki delivered the tale to women of the aristocracy (the
yokibito). It has many elements found in a modern
novelA novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
: a central character and a very large number of major and minor characters, well-developed characterization of all the major players, a sequence of events happening over a period of time covering the central character's lifetime and beyond. The work does not make use of a plot; instead, much as in real life, events just happen and characters evolve simply by growing older. One remarkable feature of the
Genji, and of Murasaki's skill, is its internal consistency, despite a
dramatis personaeDramatis Personae is a poetry collection by Robert Browning. It was published in 1864.- Background :Browning wrote the collection in London, where he had returned with his son after his wife's death. It was his first publication after a nine-year hiatus...
of some four hundred characters. For instance, all characters age in step and all the family and feudal relationships are consistent among all chapters.
One complication for readers and translators of the
Genji is that almost none of the characters in the original text is given an explicit name. The characters are instead referred to by their function or role (e.g. Minister of the Left), an
honorificThe Japanese language has many honorifics, parts of speech which show respect, and their use is mandatory in many social situations. Honorifics in Japanese may be used to emphasize social distance or disparity in rank, or to emphasize social intimacy or similarity in rank.The system of honorifics...
(e.g. His Excellency), or their relation to other characters (e.g. Heir Apparent), which may all change as the novel progresses. This lack of names stems from Heian-era court manners that would have made it unacceptably familiar and blunt to freely mention a character's name. Modern readers and translators have, to a greater or lesser extent, used various nicknames to keep track of the many characters. See List of The Tale of Genji characters.
Stature
{{cquote|
The Tale of Genji, as translated by
Arthur WaleyArthur David Waley CH, CBE was an English orientalist and sinologist.-Life:Waley was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, as Arthur David Schloss, son of the economist David Frederick Schloss...
, is written with an almost miraculous naturalness, and what interests us is not the exoticism — the horrible word — but rather the human passions of the novel. Such interest is just: Murasaki's work is what one would quite precisely call a
psychological novelA psychological novel, also called psychological realism, is a work of prose fiction which places more than the usual amount of emphasis on interior characterization, and on the motives, circumstances, and internal action which springs from, and develops, external action...
. [...] I dare to recommend this book to those who read me. The English translation that has inspired this brief insufficient note is called
The Tale of Genji.|30px|30px|
Jorge Luis BorgesJorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
|The Total Library}}
The Tale of Genji is an important work of Japanese literature, and numerous modern authors have cited it as inspiration. It is noted for its internal consistency, psychological depiction, and characterization. The novelist
Yasunari Kawabatawas a Japanese short story writer and novelist whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award...
said in his
Nobel PrizeThe Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
acceptance speech: "
The Tale of Genji in particular is the highest pinnacle of Japanese literature. Even down to our day there has not been a piece of fiction to compare with it."
The
Genji is also often referred to as "the first novel", though there is considerable debate over this — some of the debate involving whether
Genji can even be considered a "novel". Some consider the psychological insight, complexity and unity of the work to qualify it for "novel" status while simultaneously disqualifying earlier works of prose fiction. Others see these arguments as subjective and unconvincing. Related claims, perhaps in an attempt to sidestep these debates, are that
Genji is the "first psychological novel" or "
historical novelAccording to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...
", "the first novel still considered to be a classic" or other more qualified terms. However, critics have almost consistently described
The Tale of Genji as the oldest, first, and/or greatest novel in Japanese literature, though enthusiastic proponents may have later neglected the qualifying category of
in Japanese literature, leading to the debates over the book's place in world literature. Even in Japan, the
Tale of Genji is not universally embraced; the lesser known
Ochikubo Monogatari, also known as The Tale of Ochikubo, is a story from the Heian period which is similar to the famous fairy tale Cinderella.Ochikubo Monogatari was written during the later part of the 10th century by an unknown author. It is known as the oldest remaining tale in Japanese literature to include...
has been proposed as the "world's first full-length novel", even though its author is unknown. Despite these debates,
The Tale of Genji enjoys solid respect among the works of literature, and its influence on Japanese literature has been compared to that of
Philip SidneySir Philip Sidney was an English poet, courtier and soldier, and is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan Age...
's
Arcadia on English literature.
The novel and other works by Lady Murasaki are staple reading material in the curricula of Japanese schools. The Bank of Japan issued the 2000
YenThe is the official currency of Japan. It is the third most traded currency in the foreign exchange market after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a reserve currency after the U.S. dollar, the euro and the pound sterling...
banknote in her honor, featuring a scene from the novel based on the 12th century illustrated handscroll.
Authorship
The debate over how much of the
Genji was actually written by
Murasaki ShikibuMurasaki Shikibu was a Japanese novelist, poet and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court during the Heian period. She is best known as the author of The Tale of Genji, written in Japanese between about 1000 and 1012...
has gone on for centuries and is unlikely to ever be settled unless some major archival discovery is made. It is generally accepted that the tale was finished in its present form by 1021, when the author of the
Sarashina NikkiThe is a memoir written by Lady Sarashina , a lady-in-waiting of Heian-period Japan. Her work stands out for its descriptions of her travels and pilgrimages and is unique in the literature of the period, as well as one of the first in the genre of travel writing...
wrote a famous diary entry about her joy at acquiring a complete copy of the tale. She writes that there are over fifty chapters and mentions a character introduced near the end of the work, so if other authors besides Murasaki Shikibu did work on the tale, the work was done very near to the time of her writing.
Murasaki Shikibu's own diaryThe Diary of Lady Murasaki records the daily life of the Heian era lady-in-waiting and writer, Lady Murasaki Shikibu, author of The Tale of Genji...
includes a reference to the tale, and indeed the application to herself of the name 'Murasaki' in an allusion to the main female character. That entry confirms that some if not all of the diary was available in 1008 when internal evidence suggests convincingly that the entry was written.
Lady Murasaki is said to have written the character of Genji based on the Minister on the Left at the time she was at court. Other translators, such as Tyler, mention the fact that the character Murasaki no ue, that Genji eventually takes as his wife is based on Murasaki Shikibu herself. Interestingly Murasaki Shikibu started writing the novel with Suma- chapter 12 and Akashi -chapter 13 before she wrote the rest of the book.
Yosano Akikowas the pen-name of a Japanese author, poet, pioneering feminist, pacifist, and social reformer, active in the late Meiji period as well as the Taishō and early Showa periods of Japan. Her name at birth was Otori Shô. She is one of the most famous, and most controversial, post-classical woman poets...
, the first author to make a modern translation of the
Genji, believed that Murasaki Shikibu had only written chapters 1 to 33, and that chapters 35 to 54 were written by her daughter Daini no Sanmi. Other scholars have also doubted the authorship of chapters 42 to 54 (particularly 44, which contains rare examples of continuity mistakes).
According to
Royall TylerRoyall Tyler is a Japanologist. He is a descendant of the American playwright Royall Tyler . He was born in London, England, and grew up in Massachusetts, England, Washington D.C., and Paris, France. Between 1990 and 2000 he taught at the Australian National University. He was Reader at that...
's introduction to his English translation of the work, recent computer analysis has turned up "statistically significant" discrepancies of style between chapters 45–54 and the rest, and also among the early chapters.
Plot
The work recounts the life of a son of the Japanese emperor, known to readers as
Hikaru Genjiis the protagonist of Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji. In the story, he is described as the most handsome man in the world and he attracts all women. Genji is the second son of Emperor Kiritsubo , but he is delegated to civilian life for political reasons and begins a career as an imperial...
, or "Shining Genji". For political reasons, Genji is relegated to commoner status (by being given the surname Minamoto) and begins a career as an imperial officer. The tale concentrates on Genji's romantic life and describes the customs of the aristocratic society of the time. Much is made of Genji's good looks.
Genji was the second son of a certain ancient emperor ("Emperor Kiritsubo") and a low-ranking but beloved concubine (known to the readers as Lady Kiritsubo). His mother dies when Genji is three years old, and the Emperor cannot forget her. The Emperor Kiritsubo then hears of a woman ("
Lady FujitsuboLady Fujitsubo is a fictional character in Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji .Daughter of a previous emperor and thus imperial princess, Fujitsubo enters the service of Kiritsubo Emperor at age 16, mainly because of her resemblance to the deceased Kiritsubo Consort...
"), formerly a princess of the preceding emperor, who resembles his deceased concubine, and she later she becomes one of his wives. Genji loves her first as a stepmother, but later as a woman. They fall in love with each other, but it is forbidden. Genji is frustrated because of his forbidden love to the Lady Fujitsubo and is on bad terms with his wife (
Aoi no Ueis a fictional character in The Tale of Genji . Daughter of the Minister of the Left and Genji’s first principal wife, she marries Genji when she is sixteen and he only twelve. Proud and distant to her husband, Aoi is constantly aware of the age difference between them and very much hurt by...
). He also engages in a series of unfulfilling love affairs with other women. In most cases, his advances are rebuffed, his lover dies suddenly during the affair, or he finds his lover to be dull and his feelings change. In one case, he sees a beautiful young woman through an open window, enters her room without permission, and proceeds to seduce her. Recognizing him as a man of unchallengeable power, she makes no resistance.
Genji visits Kitayama, the northern rural hilly area of Kyoto, where he finds a beautiful ten-year-old girl. He is fascinated by this little girl ("
MurasakiMurasaki refers to both the heroine of the Genji Monogatari , and the book's author, Murasaki Shikibu. Curiously, in both cases the name is a pseudonym, and the real names are unknown....
"), and discovers that she is a niece of the Lady Fujitsubo. Finally he kidnaps her, brings her to his own palace and educates her to be his ideal lady; that is, like the Lady Fujitsubo. During this time Genji also meets the Lady Fujitsubo secretly, and she bears his son, Reizei. Everyone except the two lovers believes the father of the child is the Emperor Kiritsubo. Later, the boy becomes the
Crown PrinceA crown prince or crown princess is the heir or heiress apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The wife of a crown prince is also titled crown princess....
and Lady Fujitsubo becomes the Empress, but Genji and Lady Fujitsubo swear to keep their secret.
Genji and his wife Lady Aoi reconcile, and she gives birth to a son but dies soon after. Genji is sorrowful, but finds consolation in Murasaki, whom he marries. Genji's father, the Emperor Kiritsubo, dies. He is succeeded by his son Suzaku, whose mother ("Kokiden"), together with Kiritsubo's political enemies (including the "Minister of the Right") takes power in the court. Then another of Genji's secret love affairs is exposed: Genji and a concubine of the Emperor Suzaku, Genji's brother, are discovered when they meet in secret. The Emperor Suzaku confides his personal amusement at Genji's exploits with the woman ("Oborozukiyo"), but is duty-bound to punish his half-brother. Genji is thus exiled to the town of
Sumais one of 9 wards of Kobe City in Japan. It has an area of 30.0 km², and a population of 168,400 .There is a white sandy beach in this ward, which attracts tourists to the Kansai region for sun bathing and popular events during the summer season. The same beach has appeared in the classic...
in rural
Harima provinceor Banshu was a province of Japan in the part of Honshū that is the southwestern part of present-day Hyōgo Prefecture. Harima bordered on Tajima, Tamba, Settsu, Bizen, and Mimasaka Provinces. Its capital was Himeji....
(now part of
Kobe, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...
in
Hyōgo Prefectureis a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region on Honshū island. The capital is Kobe.The prefecture's name was previously alternately spelled as Hiogo.- History :...
). There, a prosperous man known as the Akashi Novice (because he is from
Akashiis a city located in southern Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, on the Seto Inland Sea west of Kobe.As of April 1, 2011, the city has an estimated population of 290,776, with 117,392 households, and a population density of 5,907.68 persons per km²...
in
Settsu provincewas a province of Japan, which today comprises the eastern part of Hyōgo Prefecture and the northern part of Osaka Prefecture. It was also referred to as or .Osaka and Osaka Castle were the main center of the province.-History:...
) entertains Genji, and Genji has a love affair with Akashi's daughter. She gives birth to a Genji's only daughter, who will later become the Empress.
In the Capital, the Emperor Suzaku is troubled by dreams of his late father, Kiritsubo, and something begins to affect his eyes. Meanwhile, his mother, Kokiden, grows ill, which weakens her powerful sway over the throne. Thus the Emperor orders Genji pardoned, and he returns to Kyoto. His son by Lady Fujitsubo, Reizei, becomes the emperor, and Genji finishes his imperial career. The new Emperor Reizei knows Genji is his real father, and raises Genji's rank to the highest possible.
However, when Genji turns 40 years old, his life begins to decline. His political status does not change, but his love and emotional life are slowly damaged. He marries another wife, the "Third Princess" (known as
Onna san no miya in the Seidensticker version, or
Nyōsan in Waley's). Genji's nephew, Kashiwagi, later forces himself on the "Third Princess" and she bears Kaoru (who, in a similar situation to that of Reizei, is legally known as the son of Genji). Genji's new marriage changes his relationship with Murasaki, who becomes a nun (bikuni).
Genji's beloved Murasaki dies. In the following chapter,
Maboroshi ("Illusion"), Genji contemplates how fleeting life is. Immediately after
Maboroshi, there is a chapter entitled
Kumogakure ("Vanished into the Clouds") which is left blank, but implies the death of Genji.
The rest of the work is known as the "Uji Chapters". These chapters follow Kaoru and his best friend, Niou. Niou is an imperial prince, the son of Genji's daughter, the current Empress now that Reizei has abdicated the throne, while Kaoru is known to the world as Genji's son but is in fact fathered by Genji's nephew. The chapters involve Kaoru and Niou's rivalry over several daughters of an imperial prince who lives in Uji, a place some distance away from the capital. The tale ends abruptly, with Kaoru wondering if the lady he loves is being hidden away by Niou. Kaoru has sometimes been called the first
anti-heroIn fiction, an antihero is generally considered to be a protagonist whose character is at least in some regards conspicuously contrary to that of the archetypal hero, and is in some instances its antithesis in which the character is generally useless at being a hero or heroine when they're...
in literature.
See also List of The Tale of Genji characters
Completion
The tale ends abruptly, in mid-sentence. Opinions vary on whether the ending was the intended ending of the author.
Arthur WaleyArthur David Waley CH, CBE was an English orientalist and sinologist.-Life:Waley was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, as Arthur David Schloss, son of the economist David Frederick Schloss...
, who made the first English translation of the whole of
The Tale of Genji, believed that the work as we have it was finished.
Ivan MorrisIvan Ira Esme Morris was a British author and teacher in the field of Japanese Studies.Ivan Morris was born in London, of mixed American and Swedish parentage, to Ira Victor Morris and Edita Morris. He studied at Gordonstoun, before graduating from Phillips Academy...
, author of
The World of the Shining Prince, believed that it was not complete, with later chapters missing.
Edward SeidenstickerEdward George Seidensticker was a noted scholar and translator of Japanese literature. He was particularly known for his English version of The Tale of Genji , which is counted among the preferred modern translations...
, who made the second translation of the
Genji, believed that it was not finished, and that Murasaki Shikibu did not have a planned story structure with an "ending" and would simply have gone on writing as long as she could.
Literary context
{{Unreferenced section|date=October 2011}}
Because it was written to entertain the Japanese court of the eleventh century, the work presents many difficulties to modern readers. First and foremost, Murasaki's language,
Heian PeriodThe is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. The period is named after the capital city of Heian-kyō, or modern Kyōto. It is the period in Japanese history when Buddhism, Taoism and other Chinese influences were at their height...
court Japanese, was highly inflected and had very complex grammar. Another problem is that naming people was considered rude in Heian court society, so none of the characters are named within the work; instead, the narrator refers to men often by their rank or their station in life, and to women often by the color of their clothing, or by the words used at a meeting, or by the rank of a prominent male relative. This results in different appellations for the same character depending on the chapter.
Another aspect of the language is the importance of using
poetryPoetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
in conversations. Modifying or rephrasing a classic poem according to the current situation was expected behavior in Heian court life, and often served to communicate thinly veiled allusions. The poems in the
Genji are often in the classic Japanese tanka form. Many of the poems were well known to the intended audience, so usually only the first few lines are given and the reader is supposed to complete the thought themselves, much like today we could say "when in Rome..." and leave the rest of the saying ("...do as the Romans do") unspoken.
As with most Heian literature, the
Genji was probably written mostly (or perhaps entirely) in
kanaKana are the syllabic Japanese scripts, as opposed to the logographic Chinese characters known in Japan as kanji and the Roman alphabet known as rōmaji...
(Japanese phonetic script) and not in Chinese characters because it was written by a woman for a female audience. Writing in Chinese characters was at the time a masculine pursuit; women were generally discreet when using Chinese symbols, confining themselves mostly to native Japanese words (
yamato kotobaare native Japanese words, meaning those words in Japanese that have been inherited from Old Japanese, rather than being borrowed at some stage. They are also known as...
).
Outside of vocabulary related to politics and Buddhism, the
Genji contains remarkably few Chinese loan words (kango). This has the effect of giving the story a very even, smooth flow. However, it also introduces confusion: there are a number of homophones (words with the same pronunciation but different meanings), and for modern readers, context is not always sufficient to determine which meaning was intended.
Murasaki was neither the first nor the last writer of the Heian period, nor was the
Genji the earliest example of a "
monogatari". Rather, the
Genji stands above other tales of the time in the same way that
William ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's plays outshine other Elizabethan drama.
Japanese
The complexities of the style mentioned in the previous section make it unreadable by the average Japanese person without dedicated study of the language of the tale.
Therefore translations into modern Japanese and other languages solve these problems by modernizing the language, unfortunately losing some of the meaning, and by giving names to the characters, usually the traditional names used by academics. This gives rise to anachronisms; for instance Genji's first wife is named Aoi because she is known as the lady of the Aoi chapter, in which she dies.
Both scholars and writers have tried translating it. The first translation into modern Japanese was made by the poet
Yosano Akikowas the pen-name of a Japanese author, poet, pioneering feminist, pacifist, and social reformer, active in the late Meiji period as well as the Taishō and early Showa periods of Japan. Her name at birth was Otori Shô. She is one of the most famous, and most controversial, post-classical woman poets...
. Other known translations were done by the novelists Jun'ichirō Tanizaki and Fumiko Enchi.
Because of the cultural difference, reading an annotated version of the
Genji is quite common, even among Japanese. There are several annotated versions by novelists, including Seiko Tanabe, Osamu Hashimoto and Jakucho Setouchi. Many works, including a
mangaManga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
series and different television dramas, are derived from
The Tale of Genji. There have been at least five manga adaptations of the
Genji. A manga version by
Waki Yamatois a Japanese manga artist. She debuted in 1966 with the short story Dorobou Tenshi.Since this debut, Yamato steadily created and published a variety of works in the genre of shōjo manga...
,
Asakiyumemishi (
The Tale of Genjiis a Japanese manga version of Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji by Waki Yamato.It follows nearly the same plot with some modern adaptation. It was originally published from 1980 to 1993. It spanned thirteen volumes and was published by Kodansha...
in English), is widely read among Japanese youth, and
another versionis a Japanese manga version of Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji by Maki Miyako. In 1989, it received the 34th Shogakukan Manga Award for general manga.-See also:*List of characters from The Tale of Genji...
, by Miyako Maki, won the
Shogakukan Manga AwardThe is one of Japan's major manga awards, sponsored by Shogakukan Publishing. It has been awarded annually for serialized manga since 1955 and features candidates from a number of publishers.The current award categories are:...
in 1989.
Most Japanese high-school students read selections of the
Genji (the original, not a translation) in their Japanese classes.
English translations
In 2008,
WorldCatWorldCat is a union catalog which itemizes the collections of 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories which participate in the Online Computer Library Center global cooperative...
identifies 88 editions of this book. The five major translations into English are each slightly different — mirroring the personal choices of the translator and the period in which the translation was made. Each version has its merits, its detractors and its advocates; and each is distinguished by the name of the translator. For example, the less widely circulated version translated by
Marutei Tsurunenis the first foreign-born Japanese of European origin serving as a member of the Diet of Japan. He is a member of the Democratic Party of Japan, where he serves as Director General of the International Department. He is currently serving in the House of Councillors.- Biography :Tsurunen was born...
would typically be referred to as "the Tsurunen
Genji".
The generally recognized "best" translations were created by
Suematsu KenchōViscount was a Japanese politician, intellectual and author, who lived in the Meiji and Taishō periods. Apart from his activity in the Japanese government, he also wrote several important works on Japan in English...
,
Arthur WaleyArthur David Waley CH, CBE was an English orientalist and sinologist.-Life:Waley was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, as Arthur David Schloss, son of the economist David Frederick Schloss...
, Edward G. Seidensticker,
Helen McCulloughHelen Craig McCullough was an eminent scholar of classical Japanese poetry and prose. Born in California, she graduated from Berkeley in 1939 with a degree in political science. After the outbreak of World War II, she entered the U.S. Navy’s Japanese Language School in Boulder, Colorado...
and
Royall TylerRoyall Tyler is a Japanologist. He is a descendant of the American playwright Royall Tyler . He was born in London, England, and grew up in Massachusetts, England, Washington D.C., and Paris, France. Between 1990 and 2000 he taught at the Australian National University. He was Reader at that...
.
Major English translations in chronological order
- "The Suematsu Genji" — Suematsu's Genji was the first translation into English, but is considered of poor quality and is not often read today. Significantly, only a few chapters were completed.
- Suematsu, Kenchō. (1882). The Tale of Genji. London: Trubner.
- "The Waley Genji" — Waley's Genji is considered a great achievement for his time, although some purists have criticized Waley's changes to the original. Others have criticized as overly-free the manner in which Waley translated the original text. However, when the Waley Genji was first published, it could not have been more eagerly received. For example, Time explained that "the reviewers' floundering tributes indicate something of its variegated appeal. In limpid prose The Tale combines curiously modern social satire with great charm of narrative. Translator Waley has done service to literature in salvaging to the Occident this masterpiece of the Orient."
- Murasaki, Shikibu. (1926–33). The Tale of Genji (tr. Arthur Waley). London: George Allen & Unwin. OCLC 24043629
- The Seidensticker Genji — Seidensticker's Genji is an attempt to correct what were perceived to have been Waley's failings without necessarily making his translation obsolete. Seidensticker hews more closely to the original text, but in the interests of readability, he takes some liberties. For example, he identifies the cast of characters by name so that the narrative can be more easily followed by a broad-based audience of Western readers.
- Murasaki Shikibu. (1976). The Tale of Genji (tr. Edward G. Seidensticker). New York: Alfred A. Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. is a New York publishing house, founded by Alfred A. Knopf, Sr. in 1915. It was acquired by Random House in 1960 and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group at Random House. The publishing house is known for its borzoi trademark , which was designed by co-founder...
. 10-ISBN 0-394-48328-6; 13-ISBN 978-0-394-48328-3 (cloth) — 10-ISBN 0-394-73530-7; 13-ISBN 978-0-394-73530-6 (paper)
- The McCullough Genji:
- McCullough, Helen Craig. (1994). Genji & Heike: Selections from The Tale of Genji and The Tale of the Heike. Stanford: Stanford University Press
The Stanford University Press is the publishing house of Stanford University. In 1892, an independent publishing company was established at the university. The first use of the name "Stanford University Press" in a book's imprinting occurred in 1895...
. 10-ISBN 0-8047-2257-9; 13-ISBN 978-0-8047-2257-5 (cloth) — 10-ISBN 0-8047-2258-7; 13-ISBN 978-0-8047-2258-2 (paper)
- The Tyler Genji — Tyler's Genji contains more extensive explanatory footnotes and commentary than the previous translations, describing the numerous poetical allusions and cultural aspects of the tale. Tyler consciously attempted to mimic the original style in ways that the previous translations did not. For example, this version doesn't use names for most characters, identifying them instead by their titles in a manner which was conventional in the context of the 11th century original text. Tyler's version "makes a special virtue of attending to a certain ceremonial indirectness in the way the characters address one another. The great temptation for a translator is to say the unsaid things, and Tyler never gives in to it."
- 4,400 pages of English edition (translation by Edward Seidensticker
Edward George Seidensticker was a noted scholar and translator of Japanese literature. He was particularly known for his English version of The Tale of Genji , which is counted among the preferred modern translations...
) of BrailleThe Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two...
version of The Tale of Genji is completed in 2008 by five Japanese housewives in Setagaya, Tokyois one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo in Japan. It is also the name of a neighborhood within the ward. The ward calls itself the City of Setagaya in English...
as voluntary work in 5 years. This BrailleThe Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two...
version had been donated to "Japan Braille Library (日本点字図書館)" and the Library of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
of United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and it is/will be downloaded through the internet.
Structure
The novel is traditionally divided in three parts, the first two dealing with the life of Genji, and the last dealing with the early years of two of Genji's prominent descendants, Niou and Kaoru. There are also several short transitional chapters which are usually grouped separately and whose authorship is sometimes questioned.
- Genji's rise and fall
- Youth, chapters 1–33: Love, romance, and exile
- Success and setbacks, chapters 34–41: A taste of power and the death of his beloved wife
- The transition (chapters 42–44): Very short episodes following Genji's death
- Uji, chapters 45–54: Genji's official and secret descendants, Niou and Kaoru
The 54th and last chapter "The Floating Bridge of Dreams" is sometimes argued to be a separate part from the Uji part by modern scholars. It seems to continue the story from the previous chapters, but has an unusually abstract chapter title. It is the only chapter whose title has no clear reference within the text, but this may be because the chapter is unfinished. (This question is more difficult because we do not know exactly when the chapters acquired their titles.)
List of chapters
The English translations here are taken from the Edward Seidensticker and the Royall Tyler translations. The first version refers to Seidensticker's edition, the second, to Tyler's. It is not known for certain when the chapters acquired their titles. Early mentions of the Tale refer to chapter numbers, or contain alternate titles for some of the chapters. This may suggest that the titles were added later. The titles are largely derived from poetry that is quoted within the text, or allusions to various characters.
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! Tyler
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{{Other uses}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Nihongo|
The Tale of Genji|源氏物語|Genji Monogatari}} is a classic work of
Japanese literatureEarly works of Japanese literature were heavily influenced by cultural contact with China and Chinese literature, often written in Classical Chinese. Indian literature also had an influence through the diffusion of Buddhism in Japan...
attributed to the Japanese noblewoman
Murasaki ShikibuMurasaki Shikibu was a Japanese novelist, poet and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court during the Heian period. She is best known as the author of The Tale of Genji, written in Japanese between about 1000 and 1012...
in the early 11th century, around the peak of the
Heian periodThe is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. The period is named after the capital city of Heian-kyō, or modern Kyōto. It is the period in Japanese history when Buddhism, Taoism and other Chinese influences were at their height...
. It is sometimes called the world's first
novelA novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
, the first modern novel, the first
psychological novelA psychological novel, also called psychological realism, is a work of prose fiction which places more than the usual amount of emphasis on interior characterization, and on the motives, circumstances, and internal action which springs from, and develops, external action...
or the first novel still to be considered a classic. While universally considered a masterpiece, its precise classification and influence in both Western and Eastern Canon has been a matter of debate (see
Stature below).
The first partial translation of
Genji Monogatari into English was by
Suematsu KenchōViscount was a Japanese politician, intellectual and author, who lived in the Meiji and Taishō periods. Apart from his activity in the Japanese government, he also wrote several important works on Japan in English...
. A free translation of all but one chapter was produced by
Arthur WaleyArthur David Waley CH, CBE was an English orientalist and sinologist.-Life:Waley was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, as Arthur David Schloss, son of the economist David Frederick Schloss...
.
Edward SeidenstickerEdward George Seidensticker was a noted scholar and translator of Japanese literature. He was particularly known for his English version of The Tale of Genji , which is counted among the preferred modern translations...
made the first complete translation into English, using a more literal method than Waley. The most recent English translation, by
Royall TylerRoyall Tyler is a Japanologist. He is a descendant of the American playwright Royall Tyler . He was born in London, England, and grew up in Massachusetts, England, Washington D.C., and Paris, France. Between 1990 and 2000 he taught at the Australian National University. He was Reader at that...
(2001), also tries to be faithful to the original text.
Introduction
The
Genji was written chapter by chapter in installments, as Murasaki delivered the tale to women of the aristocracy (the
yokibito). It has many elements found in a modern
novelA novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
: a central character and a very large number of major and minor characters, well-developed characterization of all the major players, a sequence of events happening over a period of time covering the central character's lifetime and beyond. The work does not make use of a plot; instead, much as in real life, events just happen and characters evolve simply by growing older. One remarkable feature of the
Genji, and of Murasaki's skill, is its internal consistency, despite a
dramatis personaeDramatis Personae is a poetry collection by Robert Browning. It was published in 1864.- Background :Browning wrote the collection in London, where he had returned with his son after his wife's death. It was his first publication after a nine-year hiatus...
of some four hundred characters. For instance, all characters age in step and all the family and feudal relationships are consistent among all chapters.
One complication for readers and translators of the
Genji is that almost none of the characters in the original text is given an explicit name. The characters are instead referred to by their function or role (e.g. Minister of the Left), an
honorificThe Japanese language has many honorifics, parts of speech which show respect, and their use is mandatory in many social situations. Honorifics in Japanese may be used to emphasize social distance or disparity in rank, or to emphasize social intimacy or similarity in rank.The system of honorifics...
(e.g. His Excellency), or their relation to other characters (e.g. Heir Apparent), which may all change as the novel progresses. This lack of names stems from Heian-era court manners that would have made it unacceptably familiar and blunt to freely mention a character's name. Modern readers and translators have, to a greater or lesser extent, used various nicknames to keep track of the many characters. See List of The Tale of Genji characters.
Stature
{{cquote|
The Tale of Genji, as translated by
Arthur WaleyArthur David Waley CH, CBE was an English orientalist and sinologist.-Life:Waley was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, as Arthur David Schloss, son of the economist David Frederick Schloss...
, is written with an almost miraculous naturalness, and what interests us is not the exoticism — the horrible word — but rather the human passions of the novel. Such interest is just: Murasaki's work is what one would quite precisely call a
psychological novelA psychological novel, also called psychological realism, is a work of prose fiction which places more than the usual amount of emphasis on interior characterization, and on the motives, circumstances, and internal action which springs from, and develops, external action...
. [...] I dare to recommend this book to those who read me. The English translation that has inspired this brief insufficient note is called
The Tale of Genji.|30px|30px|
Jorge Luis BorgesJorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
|The Total Library}}
The Tale of Genji is an important work of Japanese literature, and numerous modern authors have cited it as inspiration. It is noted for its internal consistency, psychological depiction, and characterization. The novelist
Yasunari Kawabatawas a Japanese short story writer and novelist whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award...
said in his
Nobel PrizeThe Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
acceptance speech: "
The Tale of Genji in particular is the highest pinnacle of Japanese literature. Even down to our day there has not been a piece of fiction to compare with it."
The
Genji is also often referred to as "the first novel", though there is considerable debate over this — some of the debate involving whether
Genji can even be considered a "novel". Some consider the psychological insight, complexity and unity of the work to qualify it for "novel" status while simultaneously disqualifying earlier works of prose fiction. Others see these arguments as subjective and unconvincing. Related claims, perhaps in an attempt to sidestep these debates, are that
Genji is the "first psychological novel" or "
historical novelAccording to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...
", "the first novel still considered to be a classic" or other more qualified terms. However, critics have almost consistently described
The Tale of Genji as the oldest, first, and/or greatest novel in Japanese literature, though enthusiastic proponents may have later neglected the qualifying category of
in Japanese literature, leading to the debates over the book's place in world literature. Even in Japan, the
Tale of Genji is not universally embraced; the lesser known
Ochikubo Monogatari, also known as The Tale of Ochikubo, is a story from the Heian period which is similar to the famous fairy tale Cinderella.Ochikubo Monogatari was written during the later part of the 10th century by an unknown author. It is known as the oldest remaining tale in Japanese literature to include...
has been proposed as the "world's first full-length novel", even though its author is unknown. Despite these debates,
The Tale of Genji enjoys solid respect among the works of literature, and its influence on Japanese literature has been compared to that of
Philip SidneySir Philip Sidney was an English poet, courtier and soldier, and is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan Age...
's
Arcadia on English literature.
The novel and other works by Lady Murasaki are staple reading material in the curricula of Japanese schools. The Bank of Japan issued the 2000
YenThe is the official currency of Japan. It is the third most traded currency in the foreign exchange market after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a reserve currency after the U.S. dollar, the euro and the pound sterling...
banknote in her honor, featuring a scene from the novel based on the 12th century illustrated handscroll.
Authorship
The debate over how much of the
Genji was actually written by
Murasaki ShikibuMurasaki Shikibu was a Japanese novelist, poet and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court during the Heian period. She is best known as the author of The Tale of Genji, written in Japanese between about 1000 and 1012...
has gone on for centuries and is unlikely to ever be settled unless some major archival discovery is made. It is generally accepted that the tale was finished in its present form by 1021, when the author of the
Sarashina NikkiThe is a memoir written by Lady Sarashina , a lady-in-waiting of Heian-period Japan. Her work stands out for its descriptions of her travels and pilgrimages and is unique in the literature of the period, as well as one of the first in the genre of travel writing...
wrote a famous diary entry about her joy at acquiring a complete copy of the tale. She writes that there are over fifty chapters and mentions a character introduced near the end of the work, so if other authors besides Murasaki Shikibu did work on the tale, the work was done very near to the time of her writing.
Murasaki Shikibu's own diaryThe Diary of Lady Murasaki records the daily life of the Heian era lady-in-waiting and writer, Lady Murasaki Shikibu, author of The Tale of Genji...
includes a reference to the tale, and indeed the application to herself of the name 'Murasaki' in an allusion to the main female character. That entry confirms that some if not all of the diary was available in 1008 when internal evidence suggests convincingly that the entry was written.
Lady Murasaki is said to have written the character of Genji based on the Minister on the Left at the time she was at court. Other translators, such as Tyler, mention the fact that the character Murasaki no ue, that Genji eventually takes as his wife is based on Murasaki Shikibu herself. Interestingly Murasaki Shikibu started writing the novel with Suma- chapter 12 and Akashi -chapter 13 before she wrote the rest of the book.
Yosano Akikowas the pen-name of a Japanese author, poet, pioneering feminist, pacifist, and social reformer, active in the late Meiji period as well as the Taishō and early Showa periods of Japan. Her name at birth was Otori Shô. She is one of the most famous, and most controversial, post-classical woman poets...
, the first author to make a modern translation of the
Genji, believed that Murasaki Shikibu had only written chapters 1 to 33, and that chapters 35 to 54 were written by her daughter Daini no Sanmi. Other scholars have also doubted the authorship of chapters 42 to 54 (particularly 44, which contains rare examples of continuity mistakes).
According to
Royall TylerRoyall Tyler is a Japanologist. He is a descendant of the American playwright Royall Tyler . He was born in London, England, and grew up in Massachusetts, England, Washington D.C., and Paris, France. Between 1990 and 2000 he taught at the Australian National University. He was Reader at that...
's introduction to his English translation of the work, recent computer analysis has turned up "statistically significant" discrepancies of style between chapters 45–54 and the rest, and also among the early chapters.
Plot
The work recounts the life of a son of the Japanese emperor, known to readers as
Hikaru Genjiis the protagonist of Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji. In the story, he is described as the most handsome man in the world and he attracts all women. Genji is the second son of Emperor Kiritsubo , but he is delegated to civilian life for political reasons and begins a career as an imperial...
, or "Shining Genji". For political reasons, Genji is relegated to commoner status (by being given the surname Minamoto) and begins a career as an imperial officer. The tale concentrates on Genji's romantic life and describes the customs of the aristocratic society of the time. Much is made of Genji's good looks.
Genji was the second son of a certain ancient emperor ("Emperor Kiritsubo") and a low-ranking but beloved concubine (known to the readers as Lady Kiritsubo). His mother dies when Genji is three years old, and the Emperor cannot forget her. The Emperor Kiritsubo then hears of a woman ("
Lady FujitsuboLady Fujitsubo is a fictional character in Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji .Daughter of a previous emperor and thus imperial princess, Fujitsubo enters the service of Kiritsubo Emperor at age 16, mainly because of her resemblance to the deceased Kiritsubo Consort...
"), formerly a princess of the preceding emperor, who resembles his deceased concubine, and she later she becomes one of his wives. Genji loves her first as a stepmother, but later as a woman. They fall in love with each other, but it is forbidden. Genji is frustrated because of his forbidden love to the Lady Fujitsubo and is on bad terms with his wife (
Aoi no Ueis a fictional character in The Tale of Genji . Daughter of the Minister of the Left and Genji’s first principal wife, she marries Genji when she is sixteen and he only twelve. Proud and distant to her husband, Aoi is constantly aware of the age difference between them and very much hurt by...
). He also engages in a series of unfulfilling love affairs with other women. In most cases, his advances are rebuffed, his lover dies suddenly during the affair, or he finds his lover to be dull and his feelings change. In one case, he sees a beautiful young woman through an open window, enters her room without permission, and proceeds to seduce her. Recognizing him as a man of unchallengeable power, she makes no resistance.
Genji visits Kitayama, the northern rural hilly area of Kyoto, where he finds a beautiful ten-year-old girl. He is fascinated by this little girl ("
MurasakiMurasaki refers to both the heroine of the Genji Monogatari , and the book's author, Murasaki Shikibu. Curiously, in both cases the name is a pseudonym, and the real names are unknown....
"), and discovers that she is a niece of the Lady Fujitsubo. Finally he kidnaps her, brings her to his own palace and educates her to be his ideal lady; that is, like the Lady Fujitsubo. During this time Genji also meets the Lady Fujitsubo secretly, and she bears his son, Reizei. Everyone except the two lovers believes the father of the child is the Emperor Kiritsubo. Later, the boy becomes the
Crown PrinceA crown prince or crown princess is the heir or heiress apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The wife of a crown prince is also titled crown princess....
and Lady Fujitsubo becomes the Empress, but Genji and Lady Fujitsubo swear to keep their secret.
Genji and his wife Lady Aoi reconcile, and she gives birth to a son but dies soon after. Genji is sorrowful, but finds consolation in Murasaki, whom he marries. Genji's father, the Emperor Kiritsubo, dies. He is succeeded by his son Suzaku, whose mother ("Kokiden"), together with Kiritsubo's political enemies (including the "Minister of the Right") takes power in the court. Then another of Genji's secret love affairs is exposed: Genji and a concubine of the Emperor Suzaku, Genji's brother, are discovered when they meet in secret. The Emperor Suzaku confides his personal amusement at Genji's exploits with the woman ("Oborozukiyo"), but is duty-bound to punish his half-brother. Genji is thus exiled to the town of
Sumais one of 9 wards of Kobe City in Japan. It has an area of 30.0 km², and a population of 168,400 .There is a white sandy beach in this ward, which attracts tourists to the Kansai region for sun bathing and popular events during the summer season. The same beach has appeared in the classic...
in rural
Harima provinceor Banshu was a province of Japan in the part of Honshū that is the southwestern part of present-day Hyōgo Prefecture. Harima bordered on Tajima, Tamba, Settsu, Bizen, and Mimasaka Provinces. Its capital was Himeji....
(now part of
Kobe, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...
in
Hyōgo Prefectureis a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region on Honshū island. The capital is Kobe.The prefecture's name was previously alternately spelled as Hiogo.- History :...
). There, a prosperous man known as the Akashi Novice (because he is from
Akashiis a city located in southern Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, on the Seto Inland Sea west of Kobe.As of April 1, 2011, the city has an estimated population of 290,776, with 117,392 households, and a population density of 5,907.68 persons per km²...
in
Settsu provincewas a province of Japan, which today comprises the eastern part of Hyōgo Prefecture and the northern part of Osaka Prefecture. It was also referred to as or .Osaka and Osaka Castle were the main center of the province.-History:...
) entertains Genji, and Genji has a love affair with Akashi's daughter. She gives birth to a Genji's only daughter, who will later become the Empress.
In the Capital, the Emperor Suzaku is troubled by dreams of his late father, Kiritsubo, and something begins to affect his eyes. Meanwhile, his mother, Kokiden, grows ill, which weakens her powerful sway over the throne. Thus the Emperor orders Genji pardoned, and he returns to Kyoto. His son by Lady Fujitsubo, Reizei, becomes the emperor, and Genji finishes his imperial career. The new Emperor Reizei knows Genji is his real father, and raises Genji's rank to the highest possible.
However, when Genji turns 40 years old, his life begins to decline. His political status does not change, but his love and emotional life are slowly damaged. He marries another wife, the "Third Princess" (known as
Onna san no miya in the Seidensticker version, or
Nyōsan in Waley's). Genji's nephew, Kashiwagi, later forces himself on the "Third Princess" and she bears Kaoru (who, in a similar situation to that of Reizei, is legally known as the son of Genji). Genji's new marriage changes his relationship with Murasaki, who becomes a nun (bikuni).
Genji's beloved Murasaki dies. In the following chapter,
Maboroshi ("Illusion"), Genji contemplates how fleeting life is. Immediately after
Maboroshi, there is a chapter entitled
Kumogakure ("Vanished into the Clouds") which is left blank, but implies the death of Genji.
The rest of the work is known as the "Uji Chapters". These chapters follow Kaoru and his best friend, Niou. Niou is an imperial prince, the son of Genji's daughter, the current Empress now that Reizei has abdicated the throne, while Kaoru is known to the world as Genji's son but is in fact fathered by Genji's nephew. The chapters involve Kaoru and Niou's rivalry over several daughters of an imperial prince who lives in Uji, a place some distance away from the capital. The tale ends abruptly, with Kaoru wondering if the lady he loves is being hidden away by Niou. Kaoru has sometimes been called the first
anti-heroIn fiction, an antihero is generally considered to be a protagonist whose character is at least in some regards conspicuously contrary to that of the archetypal hero, and is in some instances its antithesis in which the character is generally useless at being a hero or heroine when they're...
in literature.
See also List of The Tale of Genji characters
Completion
The tale ends abruptly, in mid-sentence. Opinions vary on whether the ending was the intended ending of the author.
Arthur WaleyArthur David Waley CH, CBE was an English orientalist and sinologist.-Life:Waley was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, as Arthur David Schloss, son of the economist David Frederick Schloss...
, who made the first English translation of the whole of
The Tale of Genji, believed that the work as we have it was finished.
Ivan MorrisIvan Ira Esme Morris was a British author and teacher in the field of Japanese Studies.Ivan Morris was born in London, of mixed American and Swedish parentage, to Ira Victor Morris and Edita Morris. He studied at Gordonstoun, before graduating from Phillips Academy...
, author of
The World of the Shining Prince, believed that it was not complete, with later chapters missing.
Edward SeidenstickerEdward George Seidensticker was a noted scholar and translator of Japanese literature. He was particularly known for his English version of The Tale of Genji , which is counted among the preferred modern translations...
, who made the second translation of the
Genji, believed that it was not finished, and that Murasaki Shikibu did not have a planned story structure with an "ending" and would simply have gone on writing as long as she could.
Literary context
{{Unreferenced section|date=October 2011}}
Because it was written to entertain the Japanese court of the eleventh century, the work presents many difficulties to modern readers. First and foremost, Murasaki's language,
Heian PeriodThe is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. The period is named after the capital city of Heian-kyō, or modern Kyōto. It is the period in Japanese history when Buddhism, Taoism and other Chinese influences were at their height...
court Japanese, was highly inflected and had very complex grammar. Another problem is that naming people was considered rude in Heian court society, so none of the characters are named within the work; instead, the narrator refers to men often by their rank or their station in life, and to women often by the color of their clothing, or by the words used at a meeting, or by the rank of a prominent male relative. This results in different appellations for the same character depending on the chapter.
Another aspect of the language is the importance of using
poetryPoetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
in conversations. Modifying or rephrasing a classic poem according to the current situation was expected behavior in Heian court life, and often served to communicate thinly veiled allusions. The poems in the
Genji are often in the classic Japanese tanka form. Many of the poems were well known to the intended audience, so usually only the first few lines are given and the reader is supposed to complete the thought themselves, much like today we could say "when in Rome..." and leave the rest of the saying ("...do as the Romans do") unspoken.
As with most Heian literature, the
Genji was probably written mostly (or perhaps entirely) in
kanaKana are the syllabic Japanese scripts, as opposed to the logographic Chinese characters known in Japan as kanji and the Roman alphabet known as rōmaji...
(Japanese phonetic script) and not in Chinese characters because it was written by a woman for a female audience. Writing in Chinese characters was at the time a masculine pursuit; women were generally discreet when using Chinese symbols, confining themselves mostly to native Japanese words (
yamato kotobaare native Japanese words, meaning those words in Japanese that have been inherited from Old Japanese, rather than being borrowed at some stage. They are also known as...
).
Outside of vocabulary related to politics and Buddhism, the
Genji contains remarkably few Chinese loan words (kango). This has the effect of giving the story a very even, smooth flow. However, it also introduces confusion: there are a number of homophones (words with the same pronunciation but different meanings), and for modern readers, context is not always sufficient to determine which meaning was intended.
Murasaki was neither the first nor the last writer of the Heian period, nor was the
Genji the earliest example of a "
monogatari". Rather, the
Genji stands above other tales of the time in the same way that
William ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's plays outshine other Elizabethan drama.
Japanese
The complexities of the style mentioned in the previous section make it unreadable by the average Japanese person without dedicated study of the language of the tale.
Therefore translations into modern Japanese and other languages solve these problems by modernizing the language, unfortunately losing some of the meaning, and by giving names to the characters, usually the traditional names used by academics. This gives rise to anachronisms; for instance Genji's first wife is named Aoi because she is known as the lady of the Aoi chapter, in which she dies.
Both scholars and writers have tried translating it. The first translation into modern Japanese was made by the poet
Yosano Akikowas the pen-name of a Japanese author, poet, pioneering feminist, pacifist, and social reformer, active in the late Meiji period as well as the Taishō and early Showa periods of Japan. Her name at birth was Otori Shô. She is one of the most famous, and most controversial, post-classical woman poets...
. Other known translations were done by the novelists Jun'ichirō Tanizaki and Fumiko Enchi.
Because of the cultural difference, reading an annotated version of the
Genji is quite common, even among Japanese. There are several annotated versions by novelists, including Seiko Tanabe, Osamu Hashimoto and Jakucho Setouchi. Many works, including a
mangaManga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
series and different television dramas, are derived from
The Tale of Genji. There have been at least five manga adaptations of the
Genji. A manga version by
Waki Yamatois a Japanese manga artist. She debuted in 1966 with the short story Dorobou Tenshi.Since this debut, Yamato steadily created and published a variety of works in the genre of shōjo manga...
,
Asakiyumemishi (
The Tale of Genjiis a Japanese manga version of Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji by Waki Yamato.It follows nearly the same plot with some modern adaptation. It was originally published from 1980 to 1993. It spanned thirteen volumes and was published by Kodansha...
in English), is widely read among Japanese youth, and
another versionis a Japanese manga version of Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji by Maki Miyako. In 1989, it received the 34th Shogakukan Manga Award for general manga.-See also:*List of characters from The Tale of Genji...
, by Miyako Maki, won the
Shogakukan Manga AwardThe is one of Japan's major manga awards, sponsored by Shogakukan Publishing. It has been awarded annually for serialized manga since 1955 and features candidates from a number of publishers.The current award categories are:...
in 1989.
Most Japanese high-school students read selections of the
Genji (the original, not a translation) in their Japanese classes.
English translations
In 2008,
WorldCatWorldCat is a union catalog which itemizes the collections of 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories which participate in the Online Computer Library Center global cooperative...
identifies 88 editions of this book. The five major translations into English are each slightly different — mirroring the personal choices of the translator and the period in which the translation was made. Each version has its merits, its detractors and its advocates; and each is distinguished by the name of the translator. For example, the less widely circulated version translated by
Marutei Tsurunenis the first foreign-born Japanese of European origin serving as a member of the Diet of Japan. He is a member of the Democratic Party of Japan, where he serves as Director General of the International Department. He is currently serving in the House of Councillors.- Biography :Tsurunen was born...
would typically be referred to as "the Tsurunen
Genji".
The generally recognized "best" translations were created by
Suematsu KenchōViscount was a Japanese politician, intellectual and author, who lived in the Meiji and Taishō periods. Apart from his activity in the Japanese government, he also wrote several important works on Japan in English...
,
Arthur WaleyArthur David Waley CH, CBE was an English orientalist and sinologist.-Life:Waley was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, as Arthur David Schloss, son of the economist David Frederick Schloss...
, Edward G. Seidensticker,
Helen McCulloughHelen Craig McCullough was an eminent scholar of classical Japanese poetry and prose. Born in California, she graduated from Berkeley in 1939 with a degree in political science. After the outbreak of World War II, she entered the U.S. Navy’s Japanese Language School in Boulder, Colorado...
and
Royall TylerRoyall Tyler is a Japanologist. He is a descendant of the American playwright Royall Tyler . He was born in London, England, and grew up in Massachusetts, England, Washington D.C., and Paris, France. Between 1990 and 2000 he taught at the Australian National University. He was Reader at that...
.
Major English translations in chronological order
- "The Suematsu Genji" — Suematsu's Genji was the first translation into English, but is considered of poor quality and is not often read today. Significantly, only a few chapters were completed.
- Suematsu, Kenchō. (1882). The Tale of Genji. London: Trubner.
- "The Waley Genji" — Waley's Genji is considered a great achievement for his time, although some purists have criticized Waley's changes to the original. Others have criticized as overly-free the manner in which Waley translated the original text. However, when the Waley Genji was first published, it could not have been more eagerly received. For example, Time explained that "the reviewers' floundering tributes indicate something of its variegated appeal. In limpid prose The Tale combines curiously modern social satire with great charm of narrative. Translator Waley has done service to literature in salvaging to the Occident this masterpiece of the Orient."
- Murasaki, Shikibu. (1926–33). The Tale of Genji (tr. Arthur Waley). London: George Allen & Unwin. OCLC 24043629
- The Seidensticker Genji — Seidensticker's Genji is an attempt to correct what were perceived to have been Waley's failings without necessarily making his translation obsolete. Seidensticker hews more closely to the original text, but in the interests of readability, he takes some liberties. For example, he identifies the cast of characters by name so that the narrative can be more easily followed by a broad-based audience of Western readers.
- Murasaki Shikibu. (1976). The Tale of Genji (tr. Edward G. Seidensticker). New York: Alfred A. Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. is a New York publishing house, founded by Alfred A. Knopf, Sr. in 1915. It was acquired by Random House in 1960 and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group at Random House. The publishing house is known for its borzoi trademark , which was designed by co-founder...
. 10-ISBN 0-394-48328-6; 13-ISBN 978-0-394-48328-3 (cloth) — 10-ISBN 0-394-73530-7; 13-ISBN 978-0-394-73530-6 (paper)
- The McCullough Genji:
- McCullough, Helen Craig. (1994). Genji & Heike: Selections from The Tale of Genji and The Tale of the Heike. Stanford: Stanford University Press
The Stanford University Press is the publishing house of Stanford University. In 1892, an independent publishing company was established at the university. The first use of the name "Stanford University Press" in a book's imprinting occurred in 1895...
. 10-ISBN 0-8047-2257-9; 13-ISBN 978-0-8047-2257-5 (cloth) — 10-ISBN 0-8047-2258-7; 13-ISBN 978-0-8047-2258-2 (paper)
- The Tyler Genji — Tyler's Genji contains more extensive explanatory footnotes and commentary than the previous translations, describing the numerous poetical allusions and cultural aspects of the tale. Tyler consciously attempted to mimic the original style in ways that the previous translations did not. For example, this version doesn't use names for most characters, identifying them instead by their titles in a manner which was conventional in the context of the 11th century original text. Tyler's version "makes a special virtue of attending to a certain ceremonial indirectness in the way the characters address one another. The great temptation for a translator is to say the unsaid things, and Tyler never gives in to it."
- 4,400 pages of English edition (translation by Edward Seidensticker
Edward George Seidensticker was a noted scholar and translator of Japanese literature. He was particularly known for his English version of The Tale of Genji , which is counted among the preferred modern translations...
) of BrailleThe Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two...
version of The Tale of Genji is completed in 2008 by five Japanese housewives in Setagaya, Tokyois one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo in Japan. It is also the name of a neighborhood within the ward. The ward calls itself the City of Setagaya in English...
as voluntary work in 5 years. This BrailleThe Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two...
version had been donated to "Japan Braille Library (日本点字図書館)" and the Library of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
of United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and it is/will be downloaded through the internet.
Structure
The novel is traditionally divided in three parts, the first two dealing with the life of Genji, and the last dealing with the early years of two of Genji's prominent descendants, Niou and Kaoru. There are also several short transitional chapters which are usually grouped separately and whose authorship is sometimes questioned.
- Genji's rise and fall
- Youth, chapters 1–33: Love, romance, and exile
- Success and setbacks, chapters 34–41: A taste of power and the death of his beloved wife
- The transition (chapters 42–44): Very short episodes following Genji's death
- Uji, chapters 45–54: Genji's official and secret descendants, Niou and Kaoru
The 54th and last chapter "The Floating Bridge of Dreams" is sometimes argued to be a separate part from the Uji part by modern scholars. It seems to continue the story from the previous chapters, but has an unusually abstract chapter title. It is the only chapter whose title has no clear reference within the text, but this may be because the chapter is unfinished. (This question is more difficult because we do not know exactly when the chapters acquired their titles.)
List of chapters
The English translations here are taken from the Edward Seidensticker and the Royall Tyler translations. The first version refers to Seidensticker's edition, the second, to Tyler's. It is not known for certain when the chapters acquired their titles. Early mentions of the Tale refer to chapter numbers, or contain alternate titles for some of the chapters. This may suggest that the titles were added later. The titles are largely derived from poetry that is quoted within the text, or allusions to various characters.
|-
! Chapter
! Japanese
! Seidensticker
! Tyler
|-
| 1
| {{Nihongo|
Kiritsubo|桐壺>
}
| "Paulownia Court"
| "Paulownia Pavilion"
|-
| 2
| {{Nihongo|
Hahakigi|帚木||}}
| colspan="2" align="center"| "Broom Tree"
|-
| 3
| {{Nihongo|
Utsusemi|空蝉||}}
| "Shell of the Locust"
| "Cicada Shell"
|-
| 4
| {{Nihongo|Yūgao|夕顔||}}
| "Evening Faces"
| "Twilight Beauty"
|-
| 5
| {{Nihongo|
Wakamurasaki|若紫||}}
| "Lavender"
| "Young Murasaki"
|-
| 6
| {{Nihongo|
Suetsumuhanais the archaic Japanese word for the safflower. It is known now as .It is also the name of a female character in Murasaki Shikibu's epic novel The Tale of Genji. The sixth chapter of it is named after her. She is also known as the Safflower Princess. In some English translations she appears as...
|末摘花||}}
| colspan="2" align="center"| "Safflower"
|-
| 7
| {{Nihongo|
Momiji no Ga|紅葉賀||}}
| "Autumn Excursion"
| "Beneath the Autumn Leaves"
|-
| 8
| {{Nihongo|
Hana no En|花宴||}}
| "Festival of the Cherry Blossoms"
| "Under the Cherry Blossoms"
|-
| 9
| {{Nihongo|
Aoi|葵||}}
| "Heartvine"
| "Heart-to-Heart"
|-
| 10
| {{Nihongo|
Sakaki|榊||}}
| "Sacred Tree"
| "Green Branch"
|-
| 11
| {{Nihongo|
Hana Chiru Sato|花散里||}}
| "Orange Blossoms"
| "Falling Flowers"
|-
| 12
| {{Nihongo|
Sumais one of 9 wards of Kobe City in Japan. It has an area of 30.0 km², and a population of 168,400 .There is a white sandy beach in this ward, which attracts tourists to the Kansai region for sun bathing and popular events during the summer season. The same beach has appeared in the classic...
|須磨||}}
| colspan="2" align="center"| "Suma"
|-
| 13
| {{Nihongo|
Akashiis a city located in southern Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, on the Seto Inland Sea west of Kobe.As of April 1, 2011, the city has an estimated population of 290,776, with 117,392 households, and a population density of 5,907.68 persons per km²...
|明石||}}
| colspan="2" align="center"| "Akashi"
|-
| 14
| {{Nihongo|
Miotsukushi|澪標||}}
| "Channel Buoys"
| "Pilgrimage to Sumiyoshi"
|-
| 15
| {{Nihongo|
Yomogiu|蓬生||}}
| "Wormwood Patch"
| "Waste of Weeds"
|-
| 16
| {{Nihongo|
Sekiya|関屋||}}
| "Gatehouse"
| "At The Pass"
|-
| 17
| {{Nihongo|
E Awase|絵合||}}
| colspan="2" align="center"| "Picture Contest"
|-
| 18
| {{Nihongo|
Matsukaze|松風||}}
| colspan="2" align="center"| "Wind in the Pines"
|-
| 19
| {{Nihongo|
Usugumo|薄雲||}}
| "Rack of Clouds"
| "Wisps of Cloud"
|-
| 20
| {{Nihongo|
Asagao|朝顔||}}
| "Morning Glory"
| "Bluebell"
|-
| 21
| {{Nihongo|
Otome|乙女||}}
| "Maiden"
| "Maidens"
|-
| 22
| {{Nihongo|
Tamakazura|玉鬘||}}
| "Jeweled Chaplet"
| "Tendril Wreath"
|-
| 23
| {{Nihongo|
Hatsune|初音||}}
| "First Warbler"
| "Warbler's First Song"
|-
| 24
| {{Nihongo|
Kochō|胡蝶||}}
| colspan="2" align="center"| "Butterflies"
|-
| 25
| {{Nihongo|
Hotaru|螢||}}
| colspan="2" align="center"| "Fireflies"
|-
| 26
| {{Nihongo|
Tokonatsu|常夏||}}
| "Wild Carnation"
| "Pink"
|-
| 27
| {{Nihongo|
Kagaribi|篝火||}}
| "Flares"
| "Cressets"
|-
| 28
| {{Nihongo|
Nowaki|野分||}}
| colspan="2" align="center"| "Typhoon"
|-
| 29
| {{Nihongo|
Miyuki|行幸||}}
| "Royal Outing"
| "Imperial Progress"
|-
| 30
| {{Nihongo|
Fujibakama|藤袴||}}
| "Purple Trousers"
| "Thoroughwort Flowers"
|-
| 31
| {{Nihongo|
Makibashira|真木柱||}}
| "Cypress Pillar"
| "Handsome Pillar"
|-
| 32
| {{Nihongo|
Mume ga E|梅枝||}}
| "Branch of Plum"
| "Plum Tree Branch"
|-
| 33
| {{Nihongo|
Fuji no Uraba|藤裏葉||}}
| "Wisteria Leaves"
| "New Wisteria Leaves"
|-
| 34
| {{Nihongo|
Wakana: Jō|若菜上||}}
| "New Herbs, Part I"
| "Spring Shoots I"
|-
| 35
| {{Nihongo|
Wakana: Ge|若菜下||}}
| "New Herbs, Part II"
| "Spring Shoots II"
|-
| 36
| {{Nihongo|
Kashiwagi|柏木||}}
| colspan="2" align="center"| "Oak Tree"
|-
| 37
| {{Nihongo|
Yokobue|横笛||}}
| colspan="2" align="center"| "Flute"
|-
| 38
| {{Nihongo|
Suzumushi|鈴虫||}}
| colspan="2" align="center"| "Bell Cricket"
|-
| 39
| {{Nihongo|
Yūgiri|夕霧||}}
| colspan="2" align="center"| "Evening Mist"
|-
| 40
| {{Nihongo|
Minori|御法||}}
| "Rites"
| "Law"
|-
| 41
| {{Nihongo|
Maboroshi|幻||}}
| "Wizard"
| "Seer"
|-
| X
| {{Nihongo|
Kumogakure|雲隠||}}
|
| "Vanished into the Clouds"
|-
| 42
| {{Nihongo|
Niō Miya|匂宮||}}
| "His Perfumed Highness"
| "Perfumed Prince"
|-
| 43
| {{Nihongo|
Kōbai|紅梅||}}
| "Rose Plum"
| "Red Plum Blossoms"
|-
| 44
| {{Nihongo|
Takekawa|竹河||}}
| colspan="2" align="center"| "Bamboo River"
|-
| 45
| {{Nihongo|
Hashihime|橋姫||}}
| "Lady at the Bridge"
| "Maiden of the Bridge"
|-
| 46
| {{Nihongo|
Shī ga Moto|椎本||}}
| colspan="2" align="center"| "Beneath the Oak"
|-
| 47
| {{Nihongo|
Agemaki|総角||}}
| colspan="2" align="center"| "Trefoil Knots"
|-
| 48
| {{Nihongo|
Sawarabi|早蕨||}}
| "Early Ferns"
| "Bracken Shoots"
|-
| 49
| {{Nihongo|
Yadorigi|宿木||}}
| colspan="2" align="center"| "Ivy"
|-
| 50
| {{Nihongo|
Azumaya|東屋||}}
| colspan="2" align="center"| "Eastern Cottage"
|-
| 51
| {{Nihongo|
UkifuneUkifune , meaning "drifting boat" or "floating boat", is the title of the chapter of The Tale of Genji that revolves around the character of the same name. She is the unrecognized daughter of the Eighth Prince of Japan in the novel , and is the half sister of Oigimi and Nakanokimi...
|浮舟||}}
| "Boat upon the Waters"
| "A Drifting Boat"
|-
| 52
| {{Nihongo|
Kagerō|蜻蛉||}}
| "Drake Fly"
| "Mayfly"
|-
| 53
| {{Nihongo|
Tenarai|手習||}}
| colspan="2" align="center"| "Writing Practice"
|-
| 54
| {{Nihongo|
Yume no Ukihashi|夢浮橋||}}
| colspan="2" align="center"| "Floating Bridge of Dreams"
|}
The additional chapter between 41 and 42 in some manuscripts is called 雲隠 (
Kumogakure) which means "Vanished into the Clouds" — the chapter is a title only, and is probably intended to evoke Genji's death. Some scholars have posited the existence of a chapter between 1 and 2 which is now lost, which would have introduced some characters that (as it stands now) appear very abruptly.
Later authors have composed additional chapters, most often either between 41 and 42, or after the end.
Manuscripts
The original manuscript written by Murasaki Shikibu no longer exists. Numerous copies, totaling around 300 according to Ikeda Kikan, exist with differences between each. It is thought that Shikibu often went back and edited early manuscripts introducing discrepancies with earlier copies.
The various manuscripts are classified into three categories:
In the 13th century, two major attempts by Minamoto no Chikayuki and Fujiwara Teika were made to edit and revise the differing manuscripts. The Chikayuki manuscript is known as the
Kawachibon; edits were many beginning in 1236 and completing in 1255. The Teika manuscript is known as the
Aobyōshibon; its edits are more conservative and thought to better represent the original. These two manuscripts were used as the basis for many future copies.
The
Beppon category represents all other manuscripts not belonging to either
Kawachibon or
Aobyōshibon. This includes older but incomplete manuscripts, mixed manuscripts derived from both
Kawachibon and
Aobyōshibon, and commentaries.
On March 10, 2008, it was announced that a late Kamakura period manuscript was found in Kyōto. It is the sixth chapter "Suetsumuhana" and is 65 pages in length. Most remaining manuscripts are based on copies of the Teika manuscript which introduced revisions in the original. This newly discovered manuscript belongs to a different lineage and was not influenced by Teika. Professor Yamamoto Tokurō, who examined the manuscript said, "This is a precious discovery as Kamakura manuscripts are so rare." Professor Katō Yōsuke said, "This is an important discovery as it asserts that non-Teika manuscripts were being read during the Kamakura period."
On October 29, 2008,
Konan Women's Universityis a private women's college in Higashinada-ku, Kobe, Hyōgo, Japan. The predecessor of the school was founded in 1920, and it was chartered as a junior college in 1955. In 1964 it became a four-year college.-External links:*...
announced that a mid-Kamakura period manuscript was found.
It is the 32nd chapter,
Umegae, and is recognized as the oldest extant copy of this chapter dating between 1240–80. This
beppon manuscript is 74 pages in length and differs from Aobyōshi manuscripts in at least four places, raising the "possibility that the contents may be closer to the undiscovered Murasaki Shikibu original manuscript".
Illustrated scroll
A twelfth century scroll, the
Genji Monogatari EmakiThe , also called The Tale of Genji Scroll, is a pictorial hand scroll of the Japanese literature piece The Tale of Genji. The word emaki comes from the word "emakimono" meaning "picture scrolls".-History:...
, contains illustrated scenes from the Genji together with handwritten
sōgana text. This scroll is the earliest extant example of a Japanese "picture scroll": collected illustrations and calligraphy of a single work. The original scroll is believed to have comprised 10-20 rolls and covered all 54 chapters. The extant pieces include only 19 illustrations and 65 pages of text, plus nine pages of fragments. This is estimated at roughly 15% of the envisioned original. The Tokugawa Art Museum in Nagoya has three of the scrolls handed down in the
Owariwas an old province of Japan that is now the western half of present day Aichi Prefecture, including much of modern Nagoya. Its abbreviation is Bishū .-History:The province was created in 646....
branch of the
Tokugawa clanThe was a powerful daimyo family of Japan. They nominally descended from Emperor Seiwa and were a branch of the Minamoto clan by the Nitta clan. However, the early history of this clan remains a mystery.-History:...
and one scroll held by the Hachisuka family is now in the
Gotoh MuseumThe is a private museum in the Kaminoge district of Setagaya on the southwest periphery of Tokyo. It was opened in 1960, displaying the private collection of Keita Gotō, chairman of the Tokyu Group...
in Tokyo. The scrolls are designated
National Treasures of JapanNational Treasures are the most precious of Japan's Tangible Cultural Properties, as determined and designated by the Agency for Cultural Affairs...
. The scrolls are so fragile that they normally are not shown in public. The original scrolls in the Tokugawa Museum are going to be shown from November 21 to November 29 in 2009. Since Heisei 13, they have been displayed in the Tokugawa Museum always for around one week in November. An oversize English photoreproduction and translation was printed in limited edition by
Kodansha, the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...
International (
Tale of Genji Scroll, ISBN 0-87011-131-0).
Other notable versions are by
Tosa Mitsuokiwas a Japanese painter.-Tosa Mitsuoki:Tosa Mitsuoki was the successor of the Tosa school after his father, Tosa Mitsunori . Mitsuoki brought the Tosa school to Kyoto after around 50 years in Sakai. When the school was settled in Sakai, Mitsunori painted for townsmen...
, who lived from 1617 to 1691. His paintings are closely based on Heian style from the existing scrolls from the 12th century and are fully complete. The tale was also a popular theme in
Ukiyo-e' is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters...
prints from the
Edo periodThe , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....
.
Film adaptations
The Tale of Genji has been translated into cinematic form several times: in 1951 by director
Kōzaburō Yoshimurawas a Japanese film director. Born in Shiga Prefecture, he joined the Shōchiku studio in 1929. He debuted as director in 1934, but continued working as an assistant director for such filmmakers as Yasujirō Ozu and Yasujirō Shimazu after that. It was the 1939 film Danryū that established his status...
, in 1966 by director
Kon Ichikawawas a Japanese film director.-Early life and career:Ichikawa was born in Ise, Mie Prefecture. In the 1930s Ichikawa attended a technical school in Osaka. Upon graduation, in 1933, he found a job with a local rental film studio, J.O. Studio, in their animation department...
, in 1987 by director
Gisaburo Sugiiis an anime director and Nihonga artist. He is currently a member of the anime studio Group TAC, and is most well known for his work as director of the Touch series and the movie Night on the Galactic Railroad...
, and
in 2009 by director Osamu Dezakiis a Japanese anime adaptation of The Tale of Genji. Originally, it was meant to be an anime adaptation of Waki Yamato's The Tale of Genji manga, but the director decided to make it a direct adaptation of the original tale. The anime is directed by Osamu Dezaki. The series premiered on Fuji TV on...
. The latter two are
animeis the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
. Sugii's film is not a complete version, and basically covers the first 12 chapters, while adding in some psychological motivation that is not made explicit in the novel. Dezaki's version is a television series.
Operatic adaptations
The Tale of Genji has also been adapted into an opera by Miki Minoru, composed during 1999 and first performed the following year at the
Opera Theatre of Saint LouisOpera Theatre of Saint Louis is a summer opera festival held in St. Louis, Missouri. Typically four operas, all sung in English, are presented each season, which runs from late May to late June. Performances are accompanied by the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, which is divided into two...
, with original
librettoA libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
by
Colin GrahamColin Graham, OBE was a British-born stage director of opera, theater, and television.Graham was educated at Northaw School , Stowe School and RADA...
(in
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
), later translated into
JapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese by the
composerA composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
.
See also
{{portal|Novels}}
- List of The Tale of Genji characters
- The Tale of Genji Museum
The Tale of Genji Museum is in Uji, Kyoto, Japan. It displays the world of the Japanese classic novel The Tale of Genji with projected images, models, and exhibitions...
- Japanese literature
Early works of Japanese literature were heavily influenced by cultural contact with China and Chinese literature, often written in Classical Chinese. Indian literature also had an influence through the diffusion of Buddhism in Japan...
- Jūnihitoe
The is an extremely elegant and highly complex kimono that was only worn by court-ladies in Japan. Literally translated, it means "twelve-layer robe". The older term, still used by scholars but not widely recognised in mainstream Japan, is Karaginu Mo...
- sudare
are screens or blinds. They are sometimes called as well, particularly if they have a green fabric hem. Sudare are made of horizontal slats of decorative wood, bamboo, or other natural material woven together with simple string, colored yarn, or other decorative material to make nearly solid...
- The Pillow Book
is a book of observations and musings recorded by Sei Shōnagon during her time as court lady to Empress Consort Teishi during the 990s and early 11th century in Heian Japan. The book was completed in the year 1002....
- Hagiwara Hiromichi
was a scholar of literature, philology, and nativist studies as well as an author, translator, and poet active in late-Edo period Japan. He is best known for the innovative commentary and literary analysis of The Tale of Genji was a scholar of literature, philology, and nativist studies...
's Appraisal of Genji (Genji monogatari hyõshaku)
- Yang Guifei
Consort Yang Yuhuan , often known as Yáng Guìfēi , known briefly by the Taoist nun name Taizhen , was known as one of the Four Beauties of ancient China...
External links
{{Commons category}}
- The Tale of Genji -- Oxford Text Archive A complete English translation of the work, free for non-commercial use.
- The Tale of Genji, Edward G. Seidensticker's translation.
- The Tale of Genji, 1654 Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
, Asian Division. The edition in the Library of Congress is a complete and well-preserved set including the complete main text (54 volumes) of Tale of Genji, also Meyasu (3 volumes, commentary on key words and phrases in the text, Keizu (genealogy), Yamaji no tsuyu (a sequel to the work by a later author), and Hikiuta (index).
- Japanese Literature - Including Selections from Genji Monogatari and Classical Poetry and Drama of Japan Contains the 1882 Suematsu translation of the first 17 chapters of The Tale of Genji, with an introduction and notes.
- The Texts of Genji Monogatari Original text, romanized version, and modern Japanese translation of The Tale of Genji at the University of Virginia Library.
- Tale of the Genji woodcuts Woodcut illustrations and accompanying excerpts at the UNESCO Global Heritage Pavilion.
- Murasaki Shikibu: Genji monogatari (1987) An animated film based on The Tale of Genji.
- The Picture Scroll of The Tale of Genji Some scans of the Genji Monogatari Emaki (Tale of Genji Scroll). Only about half of the images are from the twelfth century scroll; they are the darker colored, more faded images.
- The Tale of Genji A photographic guide to The Tale of Genji.
- The Tale of Genji: Genealogical chart A family tree detailing the various relationships of the characters in The Tale of Genji.
- The Tale of Genji Audiobooks Japanese reading of 7 of 54 chapters from the original text, mp3 files.
- Japan Finance Minister Announces Kyoto Coin Design with The Tale of Genji Theme The Kyoto Prefecture commemorative coin set for release in October 2008 features a scene from The Tale of Genji.
- Carving of Picture Scroll of Genji monogatari Paper carvings by Noda Kazuko reproducing the 18 extant illutrations of the 13th century Genji monogatari emaki.
- Costume Museum: Fūzoku Hakubutsukan Dolls dressed in Heian fashion and placed in Heian-inspired interiors.
- Ohmi Gallery A nice collection of Ukiyo-e and Shin-hanga, including illustrations of The Tale of Genji by such artists as Ebina Masao and Utagawa Kunisada.
- Tale of Genji Scroll 18th century anonymous artist Available at Darmouth College, it covers the first 16 chapters of the tale.
- The Tale of Genji by Miyata Masayuki Paper cuts by renowned artist Miyata Masayuki.
- Kunisada II- Illustrations of The Tale of Genji University of Alberta Art& Artifact Collection. Utagawa Kunisada II Collection.
- World Digital Library
The World Digital Library is an international digital library operated by UNESCO and the United States Library of Congress.The WDL has stated that its mission is to promote international and intercultural understanding, expand the volume and variety of cultural content on the Internet, provide...
presentation of 源氏物語 Genji monogatari: Volume One, Kiritsubo. Library of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
. Primary source moveable type book. 1596-1615, first printed edition of the world's first great novel.
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