"The Green Branch" continues the story of "Heart-to-Heart," the previous chapter, in an unbroken sequence. It starts in the 9th month of the year when Genji is 23, and continues to the summer a year and a half later, when he is 25.
[Nonomiya Shrine, Saga, Kyoto]
"Sakaki" is a broadleaf evergreen tree (Cleyera japonica) which is frequently used as a ritual offering at both household Shinto altars and Shinto shrines. The thick, oval-shaped leaves have a smooth, leather-like surface. In ritual offerings to the gods, branches of sakaki are decorated with paper streamers (shide) to make tamagushi. Sakaki branches began to be used in Shinto rituals because people believed that gods sometimes dwelt in plants or trees, especially when these had pointed leaves like sakaki - such plants were considered as yorishiro (objects that represent the gods). The sakaki is not rare in Japan: it is commonly found in household gardens in rural areas, and is a popular choice for home gardening because it is an evergreen.
When in the best known scene of this chapter, Genji visits Rokujo in the Nonomiya Shrine, during their poetic exchange, Rokujo slips a branch of sakaki under her blinds, and that gave the chapter its title.
[Sakaki branch]
Despairing of her relationship with Genji, and horrified at her soul's wandering, Rokujo decides to leave Heiankyo and accompany her 14-year old daughter Akikonomu, the new Ise Virgin, to the Ise Shrine. Before setting out, mother and daughter are confined at the Nonomiya Shrine ("Shrine of the Fields") in Saga to purify themselves - in Heian times a lonely place on the western outskirts of the capital. In the late autumn, Rokujo is visited here by Genji and they exchange farewell poems to mark their coming separation. Genji is reluctant to leave, although he knows Rokujo is responsible for the death of his wife, Aoi. The meeting of both lovers is tender and, according to Donald Keene, contains some of the most beautiful writing of the entire Genji. They spend the night together. When Genji has to leave at dawn, he warmly holds her hand and it is difficult to consider Rokujo as the fierce incarnation of jealousy who killed Genji's wife. We sense her grief and love for Genji which is made all the more poignant because she is so much older than he. She knows that before long she must loose him. All in all, Rokujo is one of the most interesting of the many women who figure in The Tale of Genji, and the most complex character in early Japanese literature.
[Bamboo forest near the Nonomiya Shrine]
The story continues with developments at the palace. The Kiritsubo Emperor, Genji's father, who had long been in poor health, dies, leaving instructions for his successor, Emperor Suzaku, to give his support to the Heir-Apparent and to Genji. Asagao (Morning Glory), the daughter of his younger brother, Prince Momozono, is selected as the new Kamo Priestess (we will meet her again later).
After the death of the old emperor, the power of the Kokiden Consort and the Minister of the Right, is in the ascendance. Genji and Fujitsubo (now "Her Cloistered Eminence") find themselves increasingly oppressed. Now that her husband is dead, Fujitsubo has no one but Genji to rely on, who is in addition the guardian of her son the Heir Apparent. But Genji's increasingly ardent advances form a threat and drive her in a corner. On the first anniversary of the old emperor's death, therefore, she suddenly takes religious vows, the strongest way to rebuff Genji.
The next year Genji's father-in-law, the Minister of the Left, retires, which means Genji's position at court becomes even weaker. That is also true for Genji's friend and brother-in-law, To no Chujo, the son of the retired minister.
Genji in the meantime renews his illicit affair with Oborozukiyo, the daughter of the Minster of the Right, although she now is one of the secondary wives (Naishi no Kami) of the new Emperor, Suzaku, Genji's half-brother. It is obvious that Genji is courting danger here. The next summer Oborozukiyo leaves the palace because she is indisposed (people who were sick were not allowed to stay in the palace, as illness was considered as a form of contamination). Even so, Genji continues his trysts with her and one day, detained at her house by a violent storm, he is caught in flagrante delicto with Oborozukiyo by her father, the Minister of the Right. Her sister Kokiden, the Empress Dowager, is furious. She makes up her mind to find a way to use this incident as a way to destroy him.
[Sakaki trees in the grounds of the Nonomiya Shrine]
Like other plays based on the Genji, the No play Nonomiya elides the character of Genji to focus on Rokujo. A traveling monk comes past the Nonomiya Shrine and a village woman, holding a sakaki branch, nostalgically tells the monk the story of Lady Rokujo, and how Genji once visited her at this shrine - in fact, on this very day - when she was staying here with her daughter for purification. In the second part of the play, the ghost of Lady Rokujo appears, riding in an ox-drawn carriage, and she tells the story of the carriage brawl at the Aoi Festival where she was humiliated. She asks the monk to pray for her soul, which is still trapped in obsession. After a graceful dance, still in the grip of her past emotions, the ghost gets in the carriage again and disappears.
Translation of the play by Donald Keene at Japanese Text Initiative; Waley translation (PDF).
Genji-e illustrations typically show a shrine gate of unbarked wood and the thick grasses surrounding Nonomiya.
Visiting
The Nonomiya Shrine today stands close to Arashiyama's bamboo forest, north of Tenryuji temple. In the Heian period it was a temporary shrine of which the location was not always the same, as it was fixed each time anew by divination (although in roughly the same area). The imperial priestess who had been designated as the new Ise Virgin or Saigu (she was also selected by divination), here underwent purification for one year before traveling to take up her duties at the Ise Shrine. Until the time of Emperor Godaigo when the custom was abolished, there were 75 Ise Virgins. It is uncertain whether the present shrine stands on the spot of one of the old temporary shrines (the Nonomiya Shrine claims it has been on this location since it accommodated Princess Jinshi, the daughter of Emperor Saga in the early Heian period), but it does its best to recreate something of the old atmosphere with a black torii gate (with the bark still attached to the wood) and brushwood fences. One of the shrine festivals is the Saigu Procession, held in mid-October.
Access: a 10-min walk from Arashiyama Station on the Keifuku Raiway, or a 15-min walk from Saga-Arashiyama Station on the JR Sanin Line.
http://www.nonomiya.com/eng.html
[The photos in this post are my own, except:
Sakaki branch: public domain via Wikimedia Commons]