- History of Lady Murasaki Shikibu, influences in composing her story
- Plot of Tale of Genji (relation to court life)
- Expressive reasoning and observations for the scene
Historical background of the Muromachi period
Background
Mood and expression
Musical aspect
Immortal Treasures: Japanese Handscrolls from the Spencer Collection. On display at the New York Public Library in NYC. Hakubyo Genji Monogatari Emaki (“White Drawing”) 1554 Muromachi Period, by Keifukuin Gyokuei (ink on paper)
This painting can be seen in the following book: Murase, Miyeko. Tales of Japan: Scrolls and Prints from the New York Public Library. New York: Oxford, 1986. Page 97 Suetsumuhana (Safflower)
It inspires men to love the good, and to do their duty.
If one should desire to know whether a kingdom is well governed, if its
morals are good or bad, the quality of its Music shall furnish forth the answers"
Confucius
The tale was written at a time when it was customary to embellish poems and romantic tales with illustrations referred to as Genji Monogatari Emaki, scrolls that have been painted during many periods after the completion of Lady Murasaki Shikibu’s tale. Each period depicts the story differently and interprets the events in a new and enlightened manner so that they become related to their historical recollections. One such example can be seen by the ink painting scene called Suetsumuhara (Safflower) from the Muromachi period which was painted by Keifukuin Gyokuei. Keifukuin was an aristocratic amateur woman painter from Kyoto. She painted her scene in 1554. Her painting style was known to be sumigaki, or a painter who draws intricate and detailed interpretation of the scene entirely in black ink. The Tale of Genji is an “extraordinary achievement for time in which it was written because of the complexity of its plot, the depth of its emotions, its keen observation of nature and human psychology, and its exquisite prose style” (Emaki 64).
History of Lady Murasaki Shikibu, influences in composing her story The Heian Period (794~1185) was a time of great artistic development and evolution of the authentic and stylistic Japanese culture. Scholars created two sets of phonetic alphabets or kana from the imported Chinese Kanji. This creation led to the development of a unique Japanese style of literature beginning with the first novel written in the eleventh century by Lady Murasaki Shikibu.
The quality of life for a noblewoman during the Heian period had been carefully recorded in Monogatari (tales told) diaries by Lady Murasaki Shikibu. Her eyewitness writings became the idiosyncratic depiction nobility in the Imperial court. It was customary that a woman remained “remain hidden from the eyes of all men except her father and her husband. Lady Murasaki who rarely went outdoors lived in the shaded world of the shinden (large overhanging eaves), screens of state, and folding screens used to partition inner space” (Emaki 118).
Lady Murasaki Shikibu was born into a middle-level family of nobility during the middle of the Heian Period. Her father, Fujiwara Tametoki, was a scholar official in the Japanese government. He wasn’t pleased with Murasaki Shikibu because she “defied the typical life of a female during the Heian period, she was a remarkable child by learning to read books that even educated boys found difficult” (Mason 217).
Murasaki's did not have a pleasant childhood due to the passing of her mother at her birth and the death of her elder sister. Murasaki married late into a family of a similar social class but her husband died leaving Murasaki with a daughter and many responsbilities. With all this grief and anguish, she began writing The Tale of Genji where she looks closely at the relationships of men and women and the unfortunate circumstances in which women find themselves placed in.
The Genji Monogatari begins during the eleventh century in Japan dealing with the life of an imperial prince, Genji, born by the emperor’s favorite wife, Kiritsubo, a lady too low in rank. The emperor showed such a liking for Genji that he brought him into the court so he could be raised in his company and flourish in speech, manners, poetry, and music.
Genji grew up and developed into a man of rare physical beauty and cultivated taste, who not only loved women but continued to care for them even when he no longer loved them. He would spend most of his time showing his affections by writing poems to women that had interest in him. Lady Murasaki describes Genji’s life with a keen focus on the romantic associations with women of different classes, personalities, and appearances, and modest physical charms. More than ten scandalous relationships with women were noted throughout his life. Genji’s most important relationship is with Lady Murasaki, his favorite, who because of her low birth never becomes his legitimate wife. Her beauty surpasses all and she is an ideal woman of rare compassion, grace, and refinement; her only flaw is that she is barren.
Lady Murasaki’s writings suggest that at the end she sensed the violent changes that were coming to her rather decadent upper class life. In the distance, the sounds of provincial warriors rumbled - the samurai who in 1192 overthrew the power of the emperor and created a feudal military government headed by a shogun.
Monochrome handscrolls from Muromachi period differ from Hakubyo drawings because they do not utilize ink washes or fluctuating brush lines to define planes and three-dimensional forms. Instead, shapes and volume are delinated entirely by outlines executed without modulation. This technique was inspired in part by the premium which Chinese art placed upon the purity of the ink line; however, hakubyo may have evolved as artistick possibilities were recognized in the ink line underdrawings made before pigment was applied to polychrome paintings. “Both text and paintings in this set of scrolls are attributed to Keifukuin Gyokuei, daughter of the Kyoto courtier and regen Konoe Taneie (1503-1566), in an inscription on the frontispiece of the first scroll. A colophon on the sixth scroll, written by the artist herself, dates the emaki to 1554” (Emaki 94).
A gentleman, if interested in a woman of impeccable breeding, would have written beautiful poetry and would be a skilled at calligraphy. Clothing was very important too, and colors had to be perfectly matched. “The fashion statement of the day was for ladies to let the overlapping sleeves of their multiple robes be seen protruding from under the edges of their screens or dangling gaily from their carriages” (Art history website). The sleeves attracted the man, and he would fall in love with the author of a sensitive and clever poem.
Male courtiers had plenty of time for pursuing women as their main duties were attending the emperor and little real administrative work was involved. Typically, “high-ranking men were polygamous, with an arranged marriage to a principal wife for political reasons, plus several concubines and freedom to play the field. Seduction was largely a matter of getting behind the lady's screens - if she was unwilling - and then everything else followed pretty quickly. In fact, many of the seductions in the Tale could more accurately be described as rape, and some humorous episodes result on the rare occasions that a lady stubbonly defends her honour” (Art history website).
The style, called hikime-kagihana (“dashes for eyes, hooks for noses”) was a familiar device in the illustration of romantic tales. Expanse court robes, incline of someone’s head, minimal details, tiny red mouths, slit-like eyes, and noses indicated by a single bent line. Thin mustaches, short beards. “A line for the eye, a hook for the nose,” hikime kagibana, developed in response to a superstition “the beautiful people.” Layers of paint over an underdrawing called tsukuri-e translated as “makeup.” Human emotions, never allowed to explode, are expressed indirectly by such architectural forms. This pictoral device at once epitomizes the evocative mood of the novel and underscores the refined nature of the aesthetic standards that governed the Fujiwara court.
The architectural elements vividly reflect mood and emotion, almost as in modern abstract painting. Horizontal lines achieve an effect of serenity; diagonal lines, of disturbance and agitation. They often clash violently against one another or form unsettling frameworks from which figures seem to slide off dangerously.
Ink tones range from washy grey to dark black; frequent application of pearl-grey ink softens the start constast between black ink and white paper and increases the decorative quality of illustration. Men and women are identified by inscriptions written close to their figures. Floral and foliage motifs, fantastically conceived, are often disproportionately large in comparison to the figures, a characteristic of pictoral art from the late Muromachi period. “Floral motifs in the Spenser Genji scrolls also exhibit the influence of a dyed textile pattern, known as tsujigahana (crossed-flowers), which became popular in the second half of the 16th century and is specifically associated with Momoyama period taste” (Art history website). Like the motifs in tsujigahana-dyed fabrics, the flowers that grow in riotous profusion in many of the Genji scenes are frequently filled in with ink or wash for decorative contrast. In these scrolls, ink washes are also used for atmospheric effect in landscape elements (94).
Gardens were and still are a major element of aristocratic culture in the Heian Period. “These ponds were the major elements of gardens created to the south of the sprawling residences of the nobility, and provided not only scenery to be enjoyed from the pavilions of those villas, but also the venue for elaborate parties, dramatic spectacles, and general recreation” (Gardens website). The Heian gardens are reflected in a number of important texts of the period, including Genji Monogatari.
To the traditional music aesthetic, the koto play an important part in the story, when the Prince Genji is in exile in Akashi. He consoles himself by playing koto and is joined by a retired courtier where they travel around Japan performing koto. Both reminisces about the pleasures at the court in Kyoto. The theme contains many romantic segments including when an old man's princess daughter, who plays koto as well, is introduced to Prince Genji. They two fall in love and he leaves his koto for her, saying that he will be as constant as the middle string of the koto, always tuned the same.
Keifukuin Gyokuei has her own stylistic design to the performance of the koto during the Muromachi period, she defies the authentic look and makes changes to appeal to her audience. This can be seen with the koto bridges (ji) being placed in random position, not the typical placements, also, the performed does not have finger picks, a very essential part of performing koto. The picks give the instrument its clear percussive sound and also prevents the fingers from becoming extremely blistered.
The Koto is the instrument of human wisdom that embodies the four quadrants; heaven, earth, universe, and year; when played, the go-on, literally means 'five sounds' of the pentatonic scale, they correspond to five cardinal points, elements, colors, and taste. The koto instrument is six feet long, ten inches wide, made of Paulownia (pronounced kiri in Japanese) wood. Sound emanates from thirteen strings made of silk. During the Muromachi period, each of the strings are of equal size and tension. The number of strings corresponds to the thirteen months of a leap year, lunar calendar. Tsume, ivory or plastic claws or picks, are placed on the right hand index finger, middle fingers and thumb by leather bands, each plug creates the mystical harp-like tone. The left hand is used to presses down on the strings to bend notes and create other effects.
The origin of the Japanese Koto comes from the Chinese version called the Kin. The shape of the Koto resembles a Chinese dragon stretched out along the ground, different parts of the instrument are derived from Chinese characters. Ryuko, or dragon's back, is the main body of the Koto. Ryubi, or dragon's tail, are located at the end section where strings are run through holes in the instrument's body and tied off. Ji, or bridges, supports resembling dragon spikes are slid up and down the instrument to adjust the sound of each string.
Mason, Penelope. History of Japanese Art. Prentice Hall: Florida State University, Tallahassee, 1993.
Murase, Miyeko. Tales of Japan: Scrolls and Prints from The New York Public Library. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.
Murase, Miyeko. Emaki: Narrative Scrolls From Japan. Tokyo: The Asia Society, 1983.
Murase, Miyeko. Iconography of The Tale of Genji: Genji Momogatari Ekotoba. New York: Weatherhill, 1983.
Piggott, Sir Francis. The Music and Musical Instruments of Japan. New York: DaCapo Press, 1971.
Shikibu, Murasaki. The Tale of Genji. Translated by: Arthur Waley. New York: The Modern Library, 1960.
Restored 16th- and 17th-Century Japanese Scrolls Go on View at The New York Public Library: Rare Opportunity to See Treasures of Japanese Art, January 18 - March 2, 2002
http://www.nypl.org/press/japanesescrolls.html
A Short History of Genji Illustration. East Asian Languages and Literatures 150. Steven D. Carter
http://real.irc.uci.edu/eee/98p/10013/genjiill.htm
Early Japanese Gardens: The Asuka, Nara, and Heian Periods
http://academic.bowdoin.edu/zen/index.shtml?origin
Japanese Art History Part One
http://www.artelino.com/articles/japanese_art_history.asp
Female Heroes of the Regions of the World: Murasaki Shikibu. © 2001 Women In World History Curriculum
http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/heroine9.html
Background of The Tale of Genji
http://www.taleofgenji.org/background.html