Tale Of Genji Research Paper

he Tale of Genji, by Murasaki Shikibu, written in the early 11th century, is a fictional novel following the life story of the son of the emperor, named Genji. During this time period, women could not work in governmental positions, so often many of them would live lives supported by husbands or lovers working in the government. This gave women free time to write their own novels and learn poetry.i Murasaki was a member of the Fujiwara clan, an extremely powerful clan in Heian Japan, and worked as a tutor for the daughters of Fujiwara no Michinaga, an influential relative to many empresses and emperors at the time, teaching them writing and poetry. Like many other elite women, Murasaki wrote The Tale of Genji in her spare time over the course

As previously mentioned, women could not work in court, which often led to them being supported by men who did work in court.iii This dynamic is shown in The Tale of Genji, in the relationship between Genji and Murasaki. Genji kidnaps Murasaki before her father takes her away. Genji “went into her bedroom, where the women were too surprised to cry out. He took her in his arms and smoothed her hair. Her father had come for her, she thought, only half awake… It was still dark when they reached Nijō, only a short distance away. Genji ordered the carriage brought up to the west wing and took the girl inside.”iv While it was definitely not the morally correct action, Genji is able to kidnap Murasaki at a very young age, and pretty much set her up for life. Later on, Genji “worked hard to make her feel at home. He wrote down all manner of poems for her to copy, and drew all manner of pictures.”v Genji not only supports the young Murasaki financially, but also attempts to educate her. Genji also not only supports her in her youth, but also throughout her life. Even during the time that Genji is in exile, Genji supports Murasaki, as he “Assigning all the women to Murasaki’s west wing, he left behind deeds to pastures and manors and the like and made provision for all his various warehouses and storerooms.”vi During all seven years Genji is in exile he still supports and writes with Murasaki, showing

Men were allowed to have multiple wives, usually with one main wife from arranged marriage and then multiple lesser wives. Women on the other hand could only have one husband.xiii Genji is a perfect example of this. He has his first marriage with Aoi, but he doesn’t love her. After she dies Genji wonder “Why had he so carelessly told himself that she would one day understand? Why had he allowed himself silly flirtations, the smallest of them sure to anger her? He had let her carry her hostility to the grave.”xiv He decides to also, all publicly, have a child with the Akashi lady and attempt to groom Murasaki for marriage. Due to his lack of love for Aoi, Genji simply attempts to ignore her his entire life, and she ignores him, creating an unhealthy relationship Genji only understands after she dies. However, Genji could go out and publicly have other relationships, while Aoi couldn’t, creating unfair circumstances for her. These polygamous lifestyles men lived also lead to jealousy. Genji “dreaded having Murasaki learn of the affair (with the Akashi Lady). He still loved her more than anyone, and he did not want her to make even joking reference to it.”xv While in the end, Murasaki understands the affair and is not jealous, Genji’s concern about jealousy conveys that it is a common problem during the time period.xvi It is true that women also had affairs during the time period.xvii It could be contended that