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Summary
Chapter 5: Young Violet
Still sick, Genji goes to visit an ascetic hermit in the north. He adopts a disguise for his voyage and treatment. While he is convalescing, he listens to the story of a Governor of Akashi, who retreated to the provinces with his daughter, for whom he hopes a glorious future. The natural beauty of the region moves Genji and he mends. As he lingers before departing, he wanders the region and glimpses a beautiful young girl, who reminds him of Lady Wistaria. Genji is invited to the house where he spied the girl and learns she is Lady Wistaria’s niece. Enamored, Genji is eager to adopt her, but his proposal is dismissed as unserious. He asks again and is again denied. Tō-no-Chūjō and some other friends arrive to visit Genji and they enjoy the natural beauty with a picnic where they play music.
Genji's memory of the child does not fade when he returns to court. He visits his wife, who continues to be distant and unresponsive. After dreaming about Violet, he writes a letter, again asking to adopt her. For a third time his request is denied. Lady Wistaria becomes ill and leaves court. Conspiring with her maid, Genji arranges to visit her and the two spend the night together. Lady Wistaria becomes pregnant after their encounter. The Emperor assumes he is the father of the child, but the lovers know differently. The Emperor often summons Genji and Lady Wistaria to him at the same time, making them both uneasy. But Genji gets good news, when he learns that he can adopt Violet because her grandmother has died. Before he completes the process, however, her father steps in and says he will take care of the girl. While visiting Aoi, Genji learns of this turn of events and leaves to take the child. He lies to her nurse and takes her to Nijō, where he begins her education.
Chapter 6: Saffron Flower
Even though he has been occupied with Violet, Genji still thinks about Yūgao and Cicada. He learns about an orphaned princess who is a skilled musician, particularly skilled at the koto, from her servant, Tayū. He wants to hear her play and sneaks off to do so one evening, followed by Tō-no-Chūjō. The friends decide to enter into a rivalry for her attentions. Neither is particularly successful, although Genji insists he is winning. He relies on Tayū as he pursues the princess.
Tayū finds another time for Genji to visit, but he is unimpressed by the princess, who is indecisive and unable to reply to him. An attendant intervenes to help the princess but her efforts only go so far. What Genji sees of the princess leaves him less interested. Nonetheless, after an exchange of poems, he visits again. This time he sees the princess even more clearly and judges her appearance harshly. Ever courtly, he sends her some gifts, mainly out of pity. The princess misunderstands, however, and continues to engage Genji, sending gifts for him via Tayū. They are poorly made, ending Genji’s interest completely. At the end of the chapter, he returns to Nijō and makes a joke of it all with Violet.
Analysis
Genji’s pursuit of women in these two chapters—Violet and the unaccomplished princess—highlights the importance of education to Heian-era imperial culture. The ability to play music well, to write nuanced poems, and to sew beautiful garments are all traits Genji prizes, arguably more than physical beauty. He takes charge of Violet’s education from a young age in order to be sure that she matures into a woman who will be able to rival Lady Wistaria. Genji’s conversation with the Governor of Akashi, who has high hopes for his own talented daughter, contributes to the chapters’ emphasis on female education. The unaccomplished princess provides, finally, a cautionary tale, detailing what can happen when young girls do not develop the necessary talents, either from lack of training or practice or deficient natural ability.
At the same time, Genji’s interest in Lady Wistaria shows that he still has much to learn about respect and risk. He betrays his father and puts both of them in danger of discovery and punishment. He shows himself to be both impetuous and thoughtless. The same is true when, exasperated at yet another impediment to his acquisition of Violet, he kidnaps the child. Her father is not so attached to her as to confront Genji, but that does not diminish the fact that the shining prince’s behavior in this episode may tarnish readers’ views of him. His entitled selfishness is slightly offset by his ongoing thoughts of Yūgao and Cicada, although Genji clearly has much to learn about respecting the needs and desires of others, even when judged by the moral context of the Heian era.
The similarities between Lady Wistaria and Violet, both of whom resemble Genji’s mother, link some of the prince’s actions in these chapters. If one of the larger aims of these chapters is the search for an ideal woman, as described in Chapter 2, then Genji is engaged in this pursuit in two ways. He finds a child he hopes to mold to his liking, while also seducing the woman his father selected as a replacement for Kiri-Tsubo. As tempting as it may be to turn to Western ideas to explain Genji’s actions here—the thinking of Sigmund Freud seems especially apt—it is crucial to remember that the novel is set in eleventh-century Japan, in a culture organized around different priorities and assumptions. Where Lady Wistaria could never be Genji’s alone, Violet could more fully meet his needs.
Also of note is the work of Tayū, the unaccomplished princess’s attendant, who is more sophisticated than her mistress and able to recognize they ways that the princess fails to meet the standards of the court. She feels shame at having to deliver the gifts, noting that they are not worthy of being offered to the prince. Equally important, though, are her efforts to interest Genji in the princess in the first place. Tayū manipulates the situation, amplifying the princess’s talents in order to lure Genji to visit her. Readers see her, in other words, working to secure the princess’s future and repair her fortunes. Although she is in a subordinate position to the princess, she is superior to her in terms of intelligence and talents. This episode thus presents a different vision of how hierarchy and status could work in the imperial court.
