Genji, you skank!

[jonquil]

I bought the Royall Tyler edition so that I could join in with the cool kids. It's a very helpful edition; not only does it have footnotes, it has sidebar vignettes from Heian woodcuts illustrating sidelocks, blinds, and such

Comments

[kate_nepveu]

You're conflating two girls--To no Chujo's daughter (chapter 4) and Murasaki (chapter 5). Murasaki is the daughter of Fujitsubo's brother, not of To no Chujo.

I think I need to adopt GYS to save me typing it out every time.

But he does seduce said lover, doesn't tell To no Chujo that she's dead, and doesn't tell him that he's taken custody of his daughter. The only difference is that he doesn't actually sleep with To no Chujo's daughter--well, he hasn't yet, anyway.

[jonquil]

Oh, thank you. That's a help. So Genji has two tragically orphaned girls on his hands at the moment?

[kate_nepveu]

Ye-es, though I don't specifically recall where TnC's daughter is after he takes her. I don't think she's been mentioned again except in a reference or two to Genji thinking "ha-ah, I know something you don't know" kind of way in the direction of TnC.

[rachelmanija]

It's really neat retrospectively that a ghost appears out of nowhere and scares Yugao to death, and it's only several chapters later that you learn who the ghost was. I wonder if that was deliberate, or the result of an editing glitch, or if Murasaki Shikibu thought of the ghost first and constructed a reason for her later.

Regarding Genji and To no Chujo, I wonder... just who is Genji's loyalty supposed to lie with? Is there anyone whose needs he must place above his own, and if so, whose? The emperor's, perhaps? In a great deal of Japanese drama from later periods, the entire story revolves around two imperative loyalties that conflict with each other.

[coffeeandink]

I strongly suspect either an editing glitch or chapters lost to history. Every major character I can think of gets an introductory scene, not to mention every single other one of Genji's lovers, *except* for the Lady of Rokujo.

I finished up Murasaki's diary on the way to work this morning, including useful explanatory notes by the translator, and will try to post something tonight on it tonight or this weekend.

re: Rokujo

[firefly67]

I couldn't agree more, esp. considering that Rokujo's feelings, and the activities of her ghost after her death as well, constitute one of the major themes of the book for me; that is, the effects of out-of-control jealousy on everyone it touches. Rokujo's jealousy helps to destroy both Aoi and Yugao - so why are we not introduced to Rokujo in great detail, including the differences between her & Genji that helped to set the stage for their eventual violent parting & Rokujo's subsequent near-madness of rage and jealousy.

Do you suppose the Heian court had a saying anything like 'hell hath no fury like a woman scorned?'