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‘The Tale of Genji’ is recognized by scholars and historians as the first novel in world literature and one of the greatest novels in Japanese literature. Authored by the Japanese novelist, Murasaki Shikibu sometime in 10th century Japan, ‘The Tale of Genji’ provides a glimpse of the Japanese court life during the Heian period. The novel tells about the fictitious Japanese prince, Genji, whose romantic adventures and fondness for women characterizes the courtship and polygamous relationships of royalties in the Heian period. One of the most interesting, yet controversial relationship that Genji has in his many romantic adventures was his relationship with one of his wife named Murasaki. Murasaki’s fate, by today’s standard, may be considered as peculiar. Abducted by the prince, Genji when she was just ten years old and taken to his residence in Nijo, it can be construed that Murasaki’s normal childhood was taken away from her. Considering that Genji was already an adult when he abducted Murasaki, by today’s standard, most people would think that Genji’s action is tantamount to child abuse and even pedophilia. On the other hand, Genji’s fondness towards Murasaki may be considered as a providential opportunity for Murasaki. Being an emperor’s son, Genji is a very important person in the Japanese court, such that every woman with political and material ambitions would have dreamed of his affection. Apparently, the conflict that needs to be resolved is whether Murasaki was disadvantaged for becoming Genji’s wife in the manner that she was taken or was it to her advantage to be chosen as a wife of Genji?
Before anyone can accurately answer this question, one must first look deeper into Japan’s culture during the Heian period. It should be noted that courtship, sexual relationship and marriage during the Heian period has no clear rules either morally or legally. There is no religious or legal contract, for instance, that binds a man and woman formally during the Heian era, which makes polygamy, adultery, pedophilia, incest and other sexual relationships that are considered as peculiar by today’s standard, is tolerated by society. The Buddhist religion, for instance, which is the prevailing religion during the time of Genji, is silent about marriage and regards marriage as an exclusively personal affair. According to Buddhist experts, the Buddhist views on marriage is very liberal and that “there are no religious laws in Buddhism compelling a person to be married, to remain as a bachelor or to lead a life of total chastity”. Moreover, there are no legal laws that govern the institution of marriage in the Heian period. The legal framework for marriage during the Heian period does not yet exist and marriage in Japan during the time is solely based on tradition, which they acquired from the Chinese. As observed by scholars, just like how they took the Chinese social organization model in the modeling of their social institutions, “the Japanese took the Chinese model as a reference point also in the case of matrimony” (Negri 468). This Chinese matrimonial model, according to scholars, allows polygamous relationships, especially for males of royalty. In China, for instance, a man is allowed to have many concubines and a single wife with “absolute juridical and social superiority” (Negri 468). Similarly, it has also become a social norm among Japanese male royalties to engage in polygamous relationships, but unlike the Chinese wherein there is a clear distinction between a wife and a concubine, there is no clear distinction between a wife and a concubine in the Japanese matrimonial model in the Heian period. Just like in the case of Genji, a Japanese royalty may choose among his many wives a single wife to become his consort for the sake of court duties while the rest he may consider as secondary wives (Negri 468). It is also interesting to note that secondary wives may compete for their husband’s attention for the chance of becoming his favorite and become elevated as his consort. Consequently, a secondary wife may get a chance to become an empress; or perhaps her son or daughter may become the crowned prince or princess if she gets her husband’s favor like in the case of Genji’s mother and the Kokiden lady (Shikibu 31).
Court politics are, therefore, an important consideration when it comes to marriage. For the same reason, Japanese women of high social rank could have preferred to marry someone with high social status in order to improve their status as well. Similarly, a man usually utilizes marriage for political reasons more than its romantic or sexual concerns. As observed by scholars, Genji’s pursue other women other than Murasaki despite the fact that he sincerely care for Murasaki is “connected less with erotic acquisitiveness than with aspiration to glory” (Tyler 436). It is also not far fetched to think that Murasaki’s attraction towards Genji is of similar nature. Perhaps at first, Murasaki’s attraction towards Genji was purely parental. Knowing that she was abducted by Genji while she was not yet of age, Murasaki’s affection towards Genji is definitely not of sexual orientation. On the contrary, she might have seen Genji initially as a father figure. Murasaki’s affection for Genji may have gradually developed from daughterly love to romantic love over time due to many factors, the primary of which is when Murasaki realized that Genji took pity on her and decided to care of her. Despite the fact that Murasaki was of royal lineage, it should be noted that Genji found her in a poor living condition and at risk of being persecuted by her stepmother if she is left to the custody of her father, Prince Hyobu (Shikibu 91). Seen in this perspective, Genji’s abduction of Murasaki can be considered as heroic. It is also worth noting that just like the Chinese, the Japanese concept of love has been more on sad love; that is, they often associate romantic love with sad emotions such as pity, sorrow, nostalgia and the likes (Childs 1060). According to scholars, unlike in Western culture wherein romantic love is always associated with positive feelings of “adoration, fondness, attraction, tenderness, compassion, desire, passion and longing,” the dominant emotion associated with love in Eastern cultures, specifically in Chinese and Japanese culture, is pity or sad love (Childs 1061). It is, therefore, inaccurate to assume for an individual with a Western concept of love that Murasaki did not feel romantic love towards Genji based on their own conception about love.
Whether or not Murasaki would have been happier without Genji, she would never have known since she did not have any chance to make a life of her own as what most women of high social status experience during the Heian period. Social status if very important in Heian Japan and is one of the major criteria of how successful a woman is. In that regards, it can be deduced that Murasaki was fortunate that Genji become attracted to her and choose her to be his wife. Moreover, she was fortunate that Genji recognizes her as his principal wife despite her major short comings; her inability to have a child and her deficient social status. Murasaki, for instance, may be a princess on her father’s side as she was the daughter of Prince Hyobu, the son of a former Emperor, but her mother was a commoner. Despite Murasaki’s inability to bear a child, which may have contributed to her, sometimes, insecure and jealous nature, Genji is noticeably fond of her. In fact, after returning to Murasaki after an event in Akashi, Genji expressed his resentment of not being able to have a child with her by saying: “Somehow everything has gone wrong. I don't have children where I really want them, and now there is a child in a very unlikely place” (Shikibu 208). It is quite obvious that Genji would have preferred to have a child with Murasaki more than the other ladies that is romantically associated with him. Nevertheless, Murasaki’s inability to have a child did not discourage Genji from his fondness towards her. Genji even consoles her and advises her not to be jealous (Shikibu 208).
Murasaki’s abduction and eventual marriage to Genji may raise some controversy in the modern context, but looking into the context of Japanese culture in the Heian period, it is considered as fortunate and even romantic. There are two compelling reasons why Murasaki was in an advantageous position and is, thereby, generally happy and contented with her relationship with Genji. First, it should be noted that social status or rank is an important consideration in the early Japanese society. Marriage in the Heian society is not all about romantic love and passionate desires. More often, marriage is a political maneuver that aims to stabilize a person’s rank in society (Tyler 436). Since women during the Heian period is esteemed when they marry a person of higher rank, Genji’s affection towards Murasaki is, thereby, considered as something desirable. Genji’s philandering with other women, on the other hand, can be considered as just a normal state of affair given his social rank and the culture of the times. For the same reason, even if Murasaki was often made jealous because of Genji’s relationship with other women, her life would not be better-off if she did not marry Genji because males in the Heian period are also practicing polygamy. In fact, chances are, her situation would even be much worse if she did not marry Genji because she might end up marrying a lesser royalty than Genji. Secondly, Murasaki’s relationship with Genji might be considered as what constitutes a romantic ideal during the Heian period. Her abduction must be seen as a romantic gesture, especially when the one who abducted her was someone as attractive, desirable and high ranking as Genji. One might say that Murasaki has been robbed of her freedom to entertain other suitors, but on the contrary, basing on the author’s description of Genji, no other suitable suitors may have surpassed Genji in terms of social status and physical attractiveness. Fate, therefore, has laid up an ideal relationship for Murasaki when she was taken by Genji and raised to become his wife.
Works Cited
Buddhist Views on Marriage. n.d. February 2016 <http://www.budsas.org/ebud/whatbudbeliev/237.htm>.
Childs, M. "The Value of Vulnerability: Sexual Coercion and the Nature of Love in Japanese Court Literature." The Journal of Asian Studies (1999): 1059 - 1079.
Kuiper, K. In Celebration of The Tale of Genji, the World’s First Novel: Year In Review 2001 . 2016. March 2016 <http://www.britannica.com/topic/In-Celebration-of-The-Tale-of-Genji-the-Worlds-First-Novel-1573911>.
Negri, C. Marriage in the Heian Period (794-1185). The Importance of Comparison with Literary Texts. n.d. March 2016 <http://opar.unior.it/1114/1/Articolo_Negri_pdf.pdf>.
Shikibu, Murasaki. The Tale of Genji. n.d. February 2016 <https://phillipkay.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/genji-seidensticker-trs.pdf>.
Tyler, R. ""I Am I": Genji and Murasaki." Monumenta Nipponica (1999): 435 - 480.
