Murasaki, the name of a plant from which a lavender dye is
extracted, grows up in Genji’s household. When she is old enough, Genji takes
Murasaki as his wife. Genji has had many women already, but Murasaki “seemed
peerless and the nearest he could imagine to his ideal.”
For the high-born of Heian Japan, a very small minority,
life is a succession of court rituals, intrigues and adventures. Genji is the
son of the emperor, but by a low-born consort so he is never very secure. When
his father dies, the new empress hates Genji and, not willing to be humiliated,
he goes into exile to the remote coast of Suma, leaving Murasaki at home. She
has become more beautiful and more mature and their affection for each other is
deep. But there are only fishermen’s huts at Suma. He takes a bookchest, a koto
and some Chinese poetry with him.
After a terrible storm during which a tidal wave almost
carries him off, Genji retreats to Akashi, where an older man with a young
daughter welcomes him. The man has high hopes for his daughter and presses
Genji upon her. Genji is, of course, curious and before long she becomes
pregnant. Genji writes to Murasaki, “I am in anguish at the thought that,
because of foolish occurrences for which I have been responsible but have had
little heart, I might appear in a guise distasteful to you.” He cannot bear to
keep secrets from her. Murasaki responds with this poem: “Naïve of me, perhaps;
yet we did make our vows. And now see the waves that wash the Mountain of
Waiting!”
Meanwhile, the emperor abdicates in favor of the Reizei emperor (Genji’s son, though no one knows this).
Genji is recalled to Kyoto and made a minister. He sends for his new daughter
telling Murasaki, “I do not have children where I really want them.” The Akashi
lady is very retiring, but Genji wants every advantage for their daughter. He
asks Murasaki to take this daughter under her wing. Murasaki tells him, “I will
love her, I am sure I will.” Genji arranges his large house so there are
apartments for the several ladies for whom he feels responsible. He tells
Murasaki she has nothing to fear from any of them.
The gardens Murasaki makes in her wing flower best in
spring. No one equals her in competitions to make perfume, in calligraphy and
in playing the koto. She remains very beautiful and despite Genji’s many
commitments, "it was an ideally happy marriage, closer and
fonder as the years went by." Even Genji’s taking of another consort, the Third
Princess, doesn’t disturb them, though it gives Murasaki pain. Genji’s daughter
is wed to the crown prince, and children and grandchildren fill the house.
When it seems that things can be handed over to the young,
both Genji and Murasaki wish to leave the world and go into monasteries. But
then they would never see each other again and Genji cannot bear the thought.
Murasaki, with the help of scriveners, prepares 1,000 copies of the Lotus
Sutra. During the years it takes to prepare this offering, Murasaki becomes
ill and soon after its dedication to the Blessed One, she dies. Genji does not
last long after her.
For some, The Tale of Genji is the story of
the sorrows of women. Murasaki survives because of her innate sense of herself
and her tastefulness. Murasaki has very little agency in her culture, but she
becomes excellent at what she can do, refining and polishing her writing and
music, dressing with great care and creating a lovely and peaceful household.
She is always appropriate to an occasion and manages to be happy in a
polygamous culture. Even though she does not have children of her own, she has
the heart to bring up Genji’s children by other women.
Taste, in the sense of the universally recognized
understanding of what has quality, is worth developing. It involves recognizing
what is authentic, appreciating simplicity and appropriateness, and even has an
element of contentment. It derives from a sense of natural limits and patterns
in things and an acceptance of the place a person takes in nature: no more and
no less than the flowering of one’s gifts. When it is genuine, nothing is more
attractive, as Genji constantly attests!
