Kobai
Title
The chapter derives its title from an exchange or red plum blossoms and a poem between Kobai (who thus got his nickname, "Red Plum") and Niou.
Waley has "Kobai", Seidensticker "The Rose Plum", Tyler "Red Plum Blossoms" and Washburn "Red Plum".
Waley has "Kobai", Seidensticker "The Rose Plum", Tyler "Red Plum Blossoms" and Washburn "Red Plum".
Chronology
While "The Perfumed Prince" ends early in Kaoru's twentieth year, "Red Plum" begins early in his twenty-fourth. The intervening years are covered by the three chapters that follow.
Position in the Genji
The chapter is about developments that happen later to the descendants of To no Chujo and their relatives. Kobai is a younger brother of the late Kashiwagi and the husband of Makibashira, the widow of Prince Hotaru. They both have daughters from previous marriages whom each would like to have married to Niou.
[Kobai, by Tosa Mitsunobu. Harvard Art Museums]
Synopsis
Kobai ("Red Plum") is the second son of To no Chujo, and Kashiwagi's younger maternal half-brother. He is cheerful and clever, having been known for his beautiful voice
since he was a child. When he was young, he sang Saibara (gagaku-styled
folk melodies)) in front of Genji (as related in the chapter "Sakaki"), and he has also appeared as a singer at many other auspicious occasions
such as related in "Umegae," "Fuji no Uraba", and so on.He is now about 55 and has attained high rank (Chief Councilor of State). After the death of his first wife, he has married Makibashira, the daughter of Higekuro and the previous wife of Genji's brother Hotaru (Makibashira is now about 47). Kobai has two daughters from his first marriage, Oigimi and Naka no Kimi (confusingly, in the next two chapters we again meet two sister couples with these same names, but they are all completely different persons). Makibashira and Kobai have a son, Tayu. Furthermore, Makibashira also has a daughter from her first marriage, an unusually bashful girl, Miya no Onkata.
Though there are many suitors for the three princesses after they finish their coming-of-age ceremony (mogi), Kobai has already had Oigimi become a consort of the Crown Prince (whose first wife is the eldest daughter of Yugiri). He also wants her sister Naka no Kimi to marry royalty, and his preference goes to Prince Niou. Kobai sends his young boy Tayu (who is already favored with attentions by Niou) to the palace to hand him a branch of red plum blossoms with a poem that hints at the fact that he has another daughter available for marriage. But Niou is more interested in pursuing Miya no Onkata, Makibashira's daughter who is living with her mother and stepfather. Through Tayu he frequently sends poems to Miya no Onkata, but she never answers - she seems more interested in taking holy orders in the future, than in getting married. Makibashira thinks Niou would be a good match for her daughter, but she hesitates about it considering the feelings of her husband, who after all wants Niou as husband for his second daughter, Naka no Kimi. Makibashira is also worried by the rumors she hears about Niou's inordinate number of secret affairs, one of them with a daughter of the Eight Prince (to be related in the Uji chapters). So she just sends a polite answer in place of her daughter and there the chapter ends, again rather abruptly - this is a storyline that will not be continued in the latter parts of the novel.
Genji-e (Information from JAANUS)
The most frequently depicted scene shows Kobai's young son at the royal palace, waiting with a branch of red plum blossoms and a letter from his father to present to Niou (in the above illustration, Niou sits reading the letter).
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