Wakamurasaki
Title
By the way, in the "Murasaki Shikibu Nikki" (Murasaki Shikibu Diary), the author gives an instance where at court she herself was jokingly called "Young Murasaki."
Chronology
Position in the Genji
This a seminal chapter in which Genji comes across a girl very much like Fujitsubo (she is in fact Fujitsubo's niece), who to him is murasaki. As she is too young to marry, Genji takes her to his Nijo mansion where he plans to bring her up as an ideal woman whom he can later marry.
Synopsis
Genji is suffering from a long, debilitating attack of malarial fever, and goes to a mountain temple in the northern hills (Kitayama) to pray for recovery. But women are still on his mind, for when he hears from a companion about a former governor living secluded in in the west country with his wife and beautiful daughter, he is full of interest and Genji immediately wants to know more about this woman - she is the Lady of Akashi he will meet during his exile to Suma, described in a later chapter.
That evening Genji happens to look through a crack in the wattle fence of a nearby cottage (another instance of kaimami - out of curiosity, to see who is living there) and catches sight of a girl crying over her pet baby sparrows that have gotten loose. This girl, Murasaki, bears an astonishing likeness to Genji's eternal love, Fujitsubo. A direct view of a woman, even one so young, was a rare and tantalizing moment in the Heian period. The kaimami scene has a close parallel in the first chapter of the Ise Monogatari, which opens with "the man" - supposed to be the great lover Ariwara no Narihira - spying on two sisters and exchanging poems in which "wakamurasaki" occurs as a plant name.
Soon after, Genji is invited to visit a learned prelate (sozu) who lives nearby, and he inquires about the girl's family. He now finds out that she
is in fact Fujitsubo's 10-year old niece. She is the daughter of Prince Hyobu (Hyobukyo no Miya) by a
minor consort; Prince Hyobu, the
Minister of War, is Fujitsubo's brother. Murasaki's mother has passed away because
she worried about cruel pressure from the legitimate wife of her husband, a
situation comparable to that of Genji's mother Kiritsubo.
Genji is then and there taken up
by the notion of raising the girl to be his ideal woman. He wants to take charge of the girl's education and tells the prelate that he is living alone as his marriage is unhappy. The priest imagines that Genji doesn't realize that the girl is much too young for romance, but Genji emphasizes he is not proposing anything improper. He says he is very serious about adoption and just wants the girl near him as a father.
The girl is being brought up by her grandmother, who is a nun (Kitayama no Amagimi). Genji proposes to the nun that he becomes the girl's guardian, but the nun doesn't take that proposal serious because the girl is too young to marry. Just like the prelate she is confused by Genji's interest - although very young marriages did take place, ten years old was outside the boundary of social acceptability.
Genji
then returns to the capital, where a dramatic incident in his relation with his stepmother Fujitsubo happens. In the 6th month, the 23-year old Fujitsubo has gone home
from the palace to recover from an illness. Genji discovers this, and
with the aid of her Lady-in-Waiting Omyobu, he manages to steal into her
bedchamber and make love to her - this in a studiously understated passage because of Fujitsubo's exalted imperial position, and of course also the incestuousness of the relation. But the text does use the verb miru, "to see," which can imply sexual intimacy. What blows all ambiguity away, is the fact that several weeks later tangible consequences appear, such as that Fujitsubo misses her period - this was something that was closely watched by her ladies-in-waiting, and would immediately have been reported to her husband, the Emperor (always on the lookout for a son and heir). They now have to find an excuse, why the Emperor was not told earlier, in Fujitsubo's illness, which they ascribe to a malevolent spirit. After this one night spent together, Fujitsubo adamantly refuses to receive any of Genji's letters and evades him so that the relation can't develop any further.
In the 9th month, Murasaki comes back from the
northern hills. Due to the death of her grandmother, the nun, she has to move into the mansion of her father, Prince Hyobu - Hyobu and his wife are both willing to take Murasaki into their household now that she has no guardian left. Genji finds this out, and he kidnaps her before Prince Hyobu can act and takes her to his own Nijo residence. He doesn't tell anyone about the abduction and leaves Murasaki's father worrying what has happened to his daughter (it is as if she was "spirited away") - Prince Hyobu will only much later be informed about Murasaki's fate.
Genji is helped in his plans by Murasaki's nurse Shonagon, who after
the grandmother's death, is not high-ranking enough to oppose Genji's
plans and, faced with the decision of either to follow her young
mistress to Genji's Nijo (at the risk of being accused of kidnapping by
Prince Hyobu) or to abandon her,
she takes the first choice. Later, impressed by Genji's social standing
as well as by the care he devotes to Murasaki, Shonagon is quite happy
with her decision.
So we see that as son of the Emperor, even an illegitimate one with no claim to the
throne, Genji can feel entitled to do as he wishes. After taking Murasaki home, he raises her as his daughter, enjoying a platonic, paternal relation with her. He does later marry her, but he waits four years until she is fourteen, the appropriate age for marriage in Heian Japan (in Chapter 9, "Aoi").
Murasaki makes her debut in the tale as a substitute for her
unattainable aunt Fujitsubo, but we will see that she gradually grows in
Genji's affection. Her very name, “Murasaki” (“Lavender”) plays on the
similarity of two colors (the color “murasaki” is purple of a darker hue
than “fuji”, wisteria, of Fujitsubo's name).
Genji-e
Genji's discovery through kaimami of Murasaki is the most frequently illustrated scene from this chapter. We see Genji with his servant Koremitsu peeping through the fence at Murasaki in the middle of the scene (in dark kimono), at her servant girl (in pink) who has let the sparrow loose, and at the nurse Shonagon (in yellow) who is trying to catch the tiny bird. Inside the hermitage we see a stack of sutra rolls which symbolize the presence of the aged nun who as maternal grandmother acts as guardian of Murasaki. The house is surrounded by blossoming cherry trees.
Other scenes depicted in Genji-e include Genji talking to the nurse about Murasaki, who is listening to them behind screens, and a recovered Genji playing the koto under cherry trees at a leave-taking from the prelate.
Genji Locations
The location that has been speculated about for this chapter is that of "a certain temple" in the Northern Hills (Kitayama), but the text does not contain any reliable indication. The Northern Hills encompass all the hills north of Kyoto proper, so the terrain is rather broad. Suggestions have been made for Daiunji in Iwakura, for Reiganji, and Kuramadera, but also somewhere north of present Kinkakuji. At that time, in Murasakino, where now Daitokuji stands, stood a Tendai temple called Unryuin. It is also possible that Murasaki Shikibu did not have an existing temple in mind when she wrote this chapter.