Man-Pai / Genji Ch.5 - Wakamurasaki

Wakamurasaki - Lavender

Genji was suffering from malaria. He took four or five attendants along to visit a sage in the northern hills. He was a most accomplished worker of cures. Genji had once sent off a messenger to him, but the holy man replied that he was too old and unable to leave his place. The old man lived in a cave surrounded by rocks, high in the hill. The cherry blossoms had already fallen in the city, as it was late in the Third Month. But in the mountain, the cherry blossoms were at their best, which delighted Genji deeply.

Between the cures and incantations during the daytime, Genji walked a few blocks in the nearby villages. He saw a wattle fence in front of a temple, which was of better workmanship than similar fences nearby. In the evening Genji took Koremitsu and went to see the place again. Behind the fence, he could see the nun reading a text spread out on an armrest. She was in her forties and looked cultivated. Then a pretty girl of perhaps ten ran in and complained to the nun in a weeping voice that Inuki had let her baby sparrows loose. That was the first time Genji saw the Murasaki-no-Ue.

When Genji was invited into the temple, he asked the bishop about the little girl. She was a daughter of the Prince Hyobu. Her mother was the sister of Fujitsubo. She was dead and the grandmother, the nun, looked after the child. Genji proposed to the bishop that he would take care of her but the bishop refused. While the bishop went out to conduct services, Genji visited the nun and asked her to take the child with him. But she hesitated because of the difference in age and background.

When Genji improved, the bishop prepared a breakfast of unfamiliar fruits and wine. Genji, the bishop and the sage composed some poems regretting his departure. The bishop gave farewell presents: a rosary of carved ebony which Prince Shotoku had obtained in Korea, still in the original Chinese box, wrapped and attached to a branch of cinquefoil pine; and several medical bottles of indigo decorated with spray of cherry and wisteria. The sage offered him a sacred mace that had special protective powers. As a large party from Kyoto, including To-no-Chujo, arrived, they had another party.

Kuniyoshi, 1845/46

Fujitsubo was ill and had gone home to her family. As Genji wanted to see her, he pressed Omyobu to be his intermediary. It was a short night in summer and the meeting appeared to be as a dream. He sighed and regretted that he could not fully express his feeling. Since when she had met him before, Fujitsubo had determined that there would not be another night, Fujitsubo was shocked to see him and felt shame that she could not turn him away. Soon she became pregnant and was tormented with the agony of guilt.

Returning to Kyoto, he visited his wife, but she, as always, showed no suggestion of warmth, which made him uncomfortable. After her memorial service in the autumn, Genji visited the house of the girl, Murasaki. The house was badly kept and almost deserted. Shonagon, the girl's nurse, was worried about her future. Genji promised her that he would take care of the girl. The girl came running in; she was a bright lovely child. It was a stormy night. Genji slept beside her protecting her from the trembling thunder.

It was still dark when Genji made his departure, going his word that he would come back. There was a heavy mist and the ground was white. Passing the house of a woman he had been seeing in secret, he had someone knock on the gate. There was no answer, and so he had someone else from his retinue, a man of very good voice, chant a poem of his. Though there was a poem given in response, no one came out.

Before Prince Hyobu, the father of the girl, came, Genji took the girl away to his Nijo residence in the middle of night. Only the nurse Shonagon accompanied her. Genji prepared a room for her in the west wing where no one was living. At first, Murasaki and the nurse feared what would happen to them, but gradually they became accustomed to the new life. Genji worked hard to make them feel at home. He wrote down poems and drew pictures for her to copy.