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Summary
Chapter 7: Maple Fête
The Emperor plans a festival and organizes a special rehearsal so that Lady Wistaria will be able to experience the performances planned for it. Genji and Tō-no-Chūjō practice their dance, “Blue Main Waves.” When they perform it at the festival, everyone agrees that Genji’s dancing is superlative. The court’s enthusiastic praise exacerbates Lady Koki-den’s jealousy, for she is still anxious that Genji is a threat to her son, the Heir Apparent. There is some basis to this fear, as both Genji and Tō-no-Chūjō are promoted thanks to the excellence of their performance.
Lady Aoi has learned that Genji has brought Violet to his mansion to raise and expresses her ongoing unhappiness with her husband by being cold and aloof. As he leaves her house, Genji receives an expensive gift from his father-in-law, who continues to like Genji even if his daughter does not. Lady Aoi has reason to be upset; even the Emperor chides Genji for his habitual neglect of his wife, now a source of gossip at court.
Genji has urged Violet to put off childish things, like playing with dolls, as she is maturing in manners and appearance. Violet realizes for the first time that she is expected to one day take up a woman’s responsibilities. Lady Wistaria gives birth to a son, causing much rejoicing at court—although the baby’s resemblance to Genji worries the mother and (secret) father.
Genji’s favor among women is further indicated when an older woman at court tries to seduce him, after he finds her music alluring. He is trying not to hurt her feelings when Tō-no-Chūjō comes upon them. The friends have a mock battle, which she seems to find amusing but which is also humiliating. Genji has a second accidental flirtation with another older woman, which the Emperor sees and finds amusing. At the end of the chapter, the Emperor names Lady Wistaria his Empress, a move which ousts Lady Koki-den. He does not replace the Heir Apparent, however, although he selects Lady Wistaria’s infant son as the heir to the Heir Apparent.
Chapter 8: Flower Feast
The court is gathered at a feast in honor of the new empress and her son. Its main attraction is a poetry contest, in which contestants must create poems from prompts. Genji excels and Tō-no-Chūjō also performs very well. Although Genji hopes to see Lady Wistaria, he ends up in the chambers of Lady Koki-den, where he meets a mysterious woman humming a song. He seduces her, but she will not share her name. Genji correctly concludes she must be one of Koki-den’s sisters. Although she is engaged to be married to the Heir Apparent, she and Genji exchange fans. Later in the season, Genji attends a party at her father’s house and identifies the woman by singing a song about a fan. Once they have found one another, they exchange poems.
Analysis
This pair of chapters are organized around two court festivals, shifting the focus from Genji’s personal escapades to his activities within the larger world of the court. While he is still busy finding women to woo, Murasaki centers Genji’s gifts in the courtly arts. Her representation of his dancing in “Maple Fête” emphasizes the way that music’s power is linked to sounds in nature, as she points to the harmonies created between the wind and the musical instruments. As if in harmony with the human dancers, too, leaves whirl on the breeze. The spectators are dazzled by the display, in which Genji’s costume and elegant dance steps both contribute to the idea that the natural world approves of the autumnal performance. The Flower Feast takes place in the spring, a fitting time to celebrate the birth of a child. Although the entertainment at this feast comes from poetry, not dance, it too is characterized in terms that suggest natural harmony, as bird song contributes to the scene’s charm.
In a humorous twist, Genji repeatedly does not recognize the women he pursues in these chapters. He thus twice becomes briefly involved in flirtations with much older women, for example. Genji’s excessive enthusiasm for sexual conquest is part of the joke, as is the kind of chaos that the court itself encourages. Both times, Murasaki flags the humor to the readers, once with a mock fight and once through the Emperor’s laughter. While Genji’s escapades can prove deadly, as the fate of poor Yūgao makes clear, here the reader is encouraged to chuckle at a young man driven by his libido.
Misrecognition is part of the third seduction, as well, although here the implications are less funny. Genji’s encounter with Koki-den’s sister is, like his other pursuits, ill-advised, but in this instance he makes himself vulnerable to his most committed enemy. The lack of self-control that led to humor in the other pursuits here shows a more serious failure of judgment, one that imperils all the people in his larger orbit. This includes Lady Wistaria and her (and Genji’s) son, although he does not pause to consider their needs as he pursues his own. Given that his mother was harassed to death at Lady Koki-den’s urging, Genji can reasonably be assumed to know that she is capable of waging successful campaigns against anyone she perceives to be an enemy.
Across The Tale of Genji, Tō-no-Chūjō and Genji compete, sometimes seriously and sometimes humorously. In these chapters, the friends also work in concert as they prepare for their dance performance. Even though Tō-no-Chūjō also excels, he is consistently bested by Genji, a comparison that serves to establish just how exceptional the prince is. In these chapters, Murasaki gives the reader a sense of the friendship between the men, one that has developed across the years and that survives the rivalry that exists between them.
