Tamakazura
The title
Chapter titles were added after Murasaki Shikibu's time, based on poems quoted in the text. The characters have no real names, but are known by sobriquets (nicknames) derived from those same poems - also at a later time. Murasaki Shikibu employs titles, names of court positions, honorifics, or geographical locations to refer to her characters. Tyler is the only one who brings this out in his translation. However, it is now normal both in and outside Japan, when discussing the Genji Monogatari, to refer to the characters using those sobriquets.
Royall Tyler translates the title as "tendril wreath" and cites Genji's
poem which occurs later in the chapter in which he uses the term to
refer to the daughter of his old love Yugao, who reached him after a
long and winding way, like the winding stem of a garland: "My love lives
on as it did long ago, but Tendril Wreath, what
long and winding stem led you to me?"
"Kazura," as Dennis Washburn explains in his translation, is a vine or creeper. As such vines were used to make garlands for headdresses, it came by association to refer to garlands. "Tama" means "jewel" or "gem", but is here used as an aesthetic intensifier, emphasizing the beauty of the garland. Washburn therefore translates this chapter title as "A Lovely Garland."
"Tendril wreath" is a rather cumbersome name, and I am not very fond either of Seidensticker's "The Jeweled Chaplet." As Tamakazura is a sobriquet, it is best to leave it in Japanese (as Waley does). As translations go, I prefer Washburn's translation as "a lovely garland."
Position in the Genji
This chapter starts a new mini-cycle, dedicated to Tamakazura, the daughter of Yugao and To no Chujo, so these 10 chapters (22 - 31) are sometimes called "the ten chapters of Tamakazura." While Genji lusts after the beautiful Tamakazura and can barely control himself, Hyobukyo no Miya (Genji's younger brother) and Kashiwagi (Tamakazura's older brother by a different mother, who doesn't know she is his half-sister) propose to Tamakazura, but the most inelegant suitor of them all, the swarthy Higekuro (The Commander of the Right), in the end forces her to marry him. The ten quires of Tamakazura consist of short chapters which elegantly depict a full year and its changing seasons and seasonal events in the Rokujo mansion, while the plot around Tamakazura slowly unfolds.
Chronology
In time, this chapter overlaps with the latter part of "The Maidens" and continues to the end of that year. Genji is 35 years of age.
Summary
Yugao was Genji's low-ranking mistress, whom he took to an abandoned
mansion, where she was suddenly killed by an evil spirit - Genji spent a
night of horror at the side of her corpse. After Yugao's death,
the four year-old Tamakazura was taken to Tsukushi (Kyushu) by her wet nurse. It was only at that time that Genji learned about Yugao's relation with his friend and rival To no Chujo, and also that Tamakazura was their love child.
Raised by her wet nurse, Tamakazura has become a beautiful young lady, so she has many suitors. A boorish local warrior presses his
unwelcome affections so forcefully on her, that she and her wet nurse's family elope from Kyushu and flee by sea towards
the capital. They are in dire circumstances as they have no friends or family in Heiankyo, and prayer to the wonder-working Kannon of Hasedera seems the best solution. The Bodhisattva of compassion and mercy was a popular pilgrimage destination in the Heian period, especially for women. The temple stands in Hase (also called Hatsuse) to the south of Nara. Praying for better fortune at Hasedera they
happen to meet Ukon, who had formerly served Yugao as her nurse and who is now in Genji's employ. Ukon tells Genji about her chance meeting with the vulnerable orphan and he has the young woman (she is now 21) brought to him and installs her as his pseudo-daughter with Hanachirusato as her guardian at his Rokujo mansion. It is truly an act of fate which has brought them together. In spite of being brought up in the countryside, she is more intelligent
and beautiful than her mother, and Genji is impressed by her. As we will see in the ensuing chapters, Genji starts to like her more than befits a father and will have trouble maintaining his paternal stance...
At the end of the chapter, we find Genji, together with Murasaki, carefully selecting the best clothes to wear on New Year's day for his women, all in harmony with their various characters.
Genji-e
Scenes frequently selected for illustration include: Tamakazura traveling by boat; Genji interviewing Tamakazura in the house of Hanachirusato on an evening of the Tenth month; and Genji and Murasaki surrounded by clothes boxes, deciding which robes to send to which of his ladies at the beginning of winter. (JAANUS)