Tenarai
Title
Waley, Seidensticker and Tyler all have "(The) Writing Practice"; Washburn translates "Practicing Calligraphy."
Tyler notes that "tenarai" is not just practicing calligraphy by copying out model examples, but also writing out poems, including new ones of one's own, for pleasure or consolation. In the second part of this chapter Ukifune consoles herself in this way.
Tyler notes that "tenarai" is not just practicing calligraphy by copying out model examples, but also writing out poems, including new ones of one's own, for pleasure or consolation. In the second part of this chapter Ukifune consoles herself in this way.
Chronology
Set in the same period as the previous chapter, and extending somewhat beyond it into Kaoru's 28th year.
Position in the Genji
In this chapter, the Bishop of Yokawa and his party discover Ukifune, who is near death. They nurse her back to health, at which point she decides to become a nun. Later the Bishop speaks of Ukifune to the Akashi Empress. Via her ladies-in-waiting Kaoru learns that Ukifune is still alive.
[Tenarai, by Tosa Mitsunobu. Harvard Art Museums]
Synopsis
Ukifune, who had attempted suicide after being driven into a corner due to the dilemma whether to choose Niou or Kaoru, is laying in a coma at the foot of a big tree along the Uji River. She is rescued by the Bishop of Yokawa, an esteemed Tendai prelate from Mt Hiei, who happens to come by with his party.The Bishop has come down from his mountain retreat to prepare an empty villa in Uji as a temporary rest stop, because his mother and younger sister, who are both nuns, have been on a pilgrimage to Hasedera and his mother, who is in her 80's, has fallen ill.
The Bishop's younger sister looks on Ukifune as a substitute for the daughter she herself has lost. She nurses her to the best of her ability and grows attacched to the young woman. She takes her back to her dwelling in Ono, at the foot of Mt Hiei, while the Bishop returns to the mountain.
After being moved to the nun's hermitage, Ukifune recovers consciousness at last in late summer. When she realizes that she has failed in committing suicide, she longs to take the Buddhist Vow and become a nun. She stubbornly refuses to reveal her identity to the Bishop and his sister, pretending to suffer from amnesia. She spends her days doing writing practice, copying out melancholic poems. The poems she writes herself show that she is committed to renunciation, but still struggling with her attachment to Niou and Kaoru.
In autumn, a captain who has been the husband of the nun's dead daughter, visits the hermitage at Ono in remembrance of his wife. He is attracted to Ukifune when he sees her back view and pursues her relentlessly, making Ukifune wish more than ever to be free once and for all from affairs of the heart.
In the Ninth Month, when the Bishop's sister is away, Ukifune implores the Bishop, who happens to have come to Ono from his mountain retreat, to administer holy orders. The Bishop does as she wishes and Ukifune becomes a nun, cutting off her long and lustrous black hair. The Bishop's sister is shocked and saddened to see the young lady in religious garb, but she also senses that Ukifune has at last found peace.
When the Bishop later visits the Akashi Empress, he happens to mention the story of finding a young woman and making her a nun. Next year, the ladies-in-waiting of the Akashi Empress tell Kaoru that Ukifune may still be alive. In order to confirm that, Kaoru visits the Bishop along with Kogimi, Ukifune's younger maternal half-brother.
Genji-e
The scene illustrated above shows Ukifune practicing calligraphy. Note Ukifune's newly cropped hair which signifies that she has taken the tonsure.