Hatsune
Title
"Hatsune" means literally "First Song" - with the implication "of the New Year" (Waley) and as spring starts the New Year in the lunar calendar, also "The First Song of Spring" (Washburn). And as the song of the uguisu, or ”bush warbler" is meant, we also find (Tyler) "The Warbler's First Song" or "The First Warbler" (Seidensticker). The phrase has been taken from a poem that the lady from Akashi sends with a New Year's gift to the daughter whom she has not seen since Genji adopted her. The gift is a toy of an uguisu perched on a pine branch. "Months and years I have spent waiting - will I hear tidings of the young seedling in the warbler's first song of spring today?"
Chronology
The previous chapter ended at the end of the year, and this chapter takes place in the first month of the following year. Genji is 36 (people celebrated their birthday at New Year).
Location in the Genji
During the Edo period, children started to learn "The Tale of Genji" from this chapter. Hatsune motifs on craft objects were popular because of their auspicious, "new-beginning" symbolism. The elaborate lacquered furnishings of Tokugawa Chiyohime's trousseau, called Hatsune no chodo (1639; Tokugawa Museum, Nagoya) are well-known for their decorations with subject matter from the Hatsune chapter.
Synopsis
This short chapter centers around an exchange of New Year's
greetings between Genji and the ladies of the Rokujo estate. To usher in the new year, the Rokujo estate is as beautiful and splendid as if it were the Buddhist Pure Land. Genji exchanges poems with Lady Murasaki at the spring wing, celebrating the New Year. The young lady Akashi, who has been growing up under Lady Murasaki, receives a gift of a toy uguisu and a poem from her birth mother Lady Akashi (the warbler represents the Akashi girl, whose song she no longer hears because they cannot meet anymore). Genji feels sorry for the lady who is not able to even see her daughter (although they both live on Genji's Rokujo estate!). In the evening, Genji goes over to Hanachirusato, Tamakazura and Lady Akashi to see how they look in the fine clothes he has given them. He stays with Lady Akashi that night (much to the chagrin of Murasaki).
On the second day, many high-ranking nobles come over to the New Year banquet. The young men are excited by the reputed beauty of Tamakazura (of course they don't get to see her).
Then Genji visits his "lesser ladies" Suetsumuhana and Utsusemi, who are living at the east lodge of Genji's Nijo mansion. Genji always continued taking care of the women he knew.
The court ceremony "Toka no sechie" is held, and Tamakazura sees it together with Murasaki and the young lady Akashi. "Toka no sechie" was an event where the emperor watched toka (stamping songs) in the Imperial Court every January (by the lunar calendar). A banquet was also held, to which court nobles of Goi (Fifth Rank) and higher were invited. Toka no sechie was divided into two categories, "otoko toka" (the stamping song event of men) held on January 14 or 15 and "onna toka" (the stamping song event of women) held on January 16.
Genji-e
The above album paintings shows Genji sitting in the Akashi Lady's rooms. The lady herself is not present at this moment (although she will soon enter), but we see an incense brazier, a seven-stringed Chinese-style koto, and four notebooks of her poetry, one held in the hand of Genji - all items that belong to her and show her "absent presence." All these objects elicit Genji's memories - it was the koto which first brought them together. Moreover, the enchanting atmosphere demonstrates that she will be the biological mother of the future Empress, restoring Genji to a high position in the imperial line. The auspicious symbols of this chapter - the warbler, the plum and the pine - were depicted on bridal trousseaus in the early modern period.