Reading The Tale of Genji (54): The Floating Bridge of Dreams (Yume no Ukihashi)

 

Yume no Ukihashi

Title
Waley has "The Bridge of Dreams", Seidensticker and Tyler have "The Floating Bridge of Dreams", and Washburn has "A Floating Bridge in a Dream".

Usually the chapter titles in Genji are based on poems spoken by one of the characters, but here there is no such direct connection. According to the commentary by Fujiwara no Teika, the title refers to an anonymous waka poem: "The world is something like a floating bridge of dreams, and I am lost in thoughts of longing while crossing it".

Chronology
This chapter continues without a break from the previous one and takes place in Kaoru's 28th year.

Position in the Genji
Kaoru visits the Bishop of Yokawa to inquire about Ukifune, whom he thought was dead. When he learns that she is still alive, he sends her young stepbrother to beg her to return, but she refuses, insisting that she has renounced the world. Kaoru never sees her again in the novel, and is left wondering if this is all a ruse because she has found another lover.

"Yume no Ukihashi" is the 54th and final chapter of The Tale of Genji and the 10th and final chapter of Uji jujo, the Ten Chapters of Uji (which I playfully like to call "Kaoru Monogatari"). For some readers and critics, however, this last chapter seems to end rather abruptly, so that it is sometimes debated whether the author intended to continue the novel, but stopped writing in the middle - for whatever reason.

I myself do not think such an assumption is necessary. The story of Kaoru and Ukifune (and thus also of him and the three Uji sisters) is finished - Ukifune has shown her strength of character and decided that she doesn't want to have anything to do with Kaoru, Niou or other men anymore - it's a very strong ending that the female protagonist turns away from affairs of the heart, because they only bring sadness and restlessness. She has truly renounced the world of "samsara". Kaoru, on the other hand, as the final words about his never-ending jealousy and the nonsensical idea that Ukifune must have another lover show, is still bound to the samsaric cycle of attachment and desire because he cannot control his longing (and this despite being a more "philosophical" type than Niou!). In other words, the story is over and the novel ends on a fitting Buddhist note.

Something that is also often pointed out is that this chapter ends with the unique phrase "tozo hon ni habemeru" "This seems to be what is in the book". Tyler (p. 1120) thinks that this is either a copyist's final note (certifying that the copy is correct) or a standard closing line for a story (it also occurs at the end of The Tale of the Hollow Tree). I think the idea that it is a copyist's interpolation is correct - such a phrase would be atypical of Murasaki Shikibu.

[Yume no ukihashi, by Tosa Mitsunobu. Harvard Art Museums]

Synopsis

Accompanied by Kogimi, Ukifune's half-brother who is still a boy, Kaoru visits Yokawa, the western district of Mt. Hiei, to ask the bishop in detail about the rumor "of the woman who took holy orders in Ono". Kaoru is convinced that the woman in question must be Ukifune and is deeply shocked. Seeing Kaoru's excitement, the bishop regrets that he so quickly agreed to Ukifune's request to take religious vows. When Kaoru asks him to lead him to Ono, where Ukifune lives, the Bishop refuses, but entrusts Kogimi with a letter to her.

That night, the torches of Kaoru's party descending from Yokawa can be seen from the hermitage in Ono. Ukifune takes refuge in chanting the Nenbutsu (invocation of Amida Buddha) to forget the memory of Kaoru.

The next day, Kaoru adds his own letter to the bishop's, and Kogimi takes both letters to Ono. The bishop's letter instructs Ukifune to restore her relationship with Kaoru and, by returning to a secular life with him, to erase his sin of obsessive attachment. Kaoru's letter says that he forgives her and asks her to remember her brother Kogimi. Reading this, Ukifune is unsettled, but in the end, for fear of losing her newfound tranquility, she refuses to see her younger brother. She returns the letters unanswered, saying that it was "a case of mistaken identity.

Upon hearing the report from Kogimi, who returned to the capital empty-handed, Kaoru suspects that someone else is hiding Ukifune from the world (another lover?) - just as he once hid her in Uji.

Genji-e
The scene above shows Ukifune in the hermitage in Ono, with two female attendants - Ukifune is recognizable by her cropped nun's hair. In the upper right corner, we see a column of men, presumably Kaoru and his attendants, carrying flaming torches, descending from Mt. Hiei and passing by the hermitage. Passing by and not meeting - this is how the story ends.

Reading The Tale of Genji