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To reply to the Empress Akikonomu, who had sent an ornamental box of arranged autumn leaves and flowers in the last autumn, Murasaki would have liked to answer properly by showing off her spring garden. Genji agreed, but casual visits were out of question for one in her position. Numbers of her young women were rowed out over the south lake, which ran from her southwest quarter to Murasaki’s southeast, with a hillock separating the two. Genji’s entourage was deliciously exotic. The dragon and phoenix boats were brilliantly decorated in the Chinese fashion. The professional flutists struck up a melody. The little pages and helmsmen, their hair still bound up, wore Chinese dress. A willow trailed its branches in the deepening green, the cherry blossoms were at their best, the wisteria was rich, and yellow yamabuki reflected on the lakes as if about to join its own image. Waterfowls swam holding twigs in their bills. Genji and some young women watched from the angling pavilion.
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Kunichika, 1884 |
There was to be a reading of the Prajnaparamita Sutra commissioned by Empress Akikonomu. Murasaki had prepared the floral offerings. She chose eight of her prettiest girls to deliver them, dressing four as birds and four as butterflies. The birds brought cherry blossoms in silver vases, the butterflies brought yamabuki, the yellow flowers, in gold vases. After they handed over the flowers to the monks, the girls started dancing. The music for the dance of the birds rang forth to the singing of warblers, to which the waterfowls on the lake added their clucks and chirps. The butterflies seemed to fly higher than the birds as they disappeared behind a low fence of yamabuki. It was with great regret that the audience saw the dances come to an end. |
Resumed by Mary Nagase. Published by UNESCO.© UNESCO 2000