Crossing the Bridge: Comparative Essays on Medieval European and Heian Japanese Women Writers 0312221673, 9780312221676

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ABRIDGE COMPARATIVE ESSAYS MfD IEVAL EUROPEAN

t

'a

nd

HE IAN JAPANESE

WOMEN WRITERS by

Barbara Stevenson

and Cynthia Ho

unique collec-

rossing the Bridge

is

tion of essays that

compares strikingly

women

similar

a

of medieval

writers

Europe and Heian Japan. This study not only provides essential information

but,

more important,

connections cultures, a

on

explores

it

between

women and

two

writing

meaningful

cultures.

both

In

combination of tensions involving

lan-

guage and genre created an opportunity for

women

writers.

Taken

together, the essays in this

collection suggest the similar, dissimilar,

strategies

and

LIBRARN

also strikingly

women working

of

within

Square

medieval courtly cultures to mitigate traditional MA02116

PUBLIC

Many

patriarchal constraints.

of the works and Copley

authors examined in the book locus on the courtly aspects of medieval

which

art,

European and Heian culture

literature,

and love

pursuits. For both, living plies instructors

women’s

is

are

itself art.

the

This

and students of world

studies,

and medieval

essential, useful analysis in

in

highest text sup-

literature,

literature

with

an area that previously

has been the territory of specialists.

For a note on the editors please ,

see the

back flap.

Boston

BOSTON

*»

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•*.

Digitized by the Internet Archive in

2017 with funding from

China-America

Digital

Academic

Library

(CADAL)

https://archive.org/details/crossingbridgecoOObarb

CROSSING THE BRIDGE

THE NEW MIDDLE AGES BONNIE WHEELER Series Editor

New

The

cultures.

studies ot medieval Middle Ages presents transdisciplinary

It

includes both scholarly

monographs and

essay collections.

PUBLISHED BY PALGRAVE: Women

in the

Piety Medieval Islamic World: Power, Patronage, and

edited by Gavin R. G.

The

Hambly

Ethics of Nature in the

Middle Ages:

On

Boccaccio

s

Poetaphysics

by Gregory B. Stone Presence and Presentation:

by Sherry

in the

Chinese

Literati Tradition

Mou

J.

The Lost Love

Women

Letters of Heloise

and Abelard:

France Perceptions oj Dialogue in Twelfth- Century

by Constant

J.

Mews

Understanding Scholastic Thought with Foucault

by Philipp W. Rosemann Burgh For Her Good Estate: The Life of Elizabeth de

by Frances Underhill Middle Ages Constructions of Widowhood and Virginity in the edited by

Cindy

L.

Carlson and Angela Jane Weisl

Motherhood and Mothering

Anglo-Saxon England

in

by Mary Dockray-Miller Listening

to

Heloise:The Voice

edited by Bonnie

The

Postcolonial

of a

Twelfth-Century

Woman

Wheeler

Middle Ages

edited by Jeffrey Jerome

Cohen

Discourse Chaucer's Pardoner and Gender Theory: Bodies of

by Robert

S.

Sturges

Crossing the Bridge: Comparative Essays on Medieval

European and Heian Japanese Women Writers edited by Barbara Stevenson and Cynthia

Ho

CROSSING THE BRIDGE COMPARATIVE ESSAYS ON MEDIEVAL EUROPEAN AND HEIAN JAPANESE WOMEN WRITERS

Edited by

Barbara Stevenson and Cynthia

palgrave

Ho

CROSSING THE BRIDGE: COMPARATIVE ESSAYS

ON MEDIEVAL EUROPEAN AND HEIAN

WOMEN WRITERS

JAPANESE

Copyright

©

Barbara Stevenson and Cynthia Ho, 2000.

No

All rights reserved.

of this book may be used or reproduced

part

in the case

whatsoever without written permission except

any manner

in

of brief quotations

in critical articles or reviews.

embodied

published 2000 by

First

PALGRAVE™ 175 Fifth Avenue,

New York, N.Y.

10010 and

Floundmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England

RG21

6XS.

Companies and

representatives throughout the world.

PALGRAVE™

is

the

global publishing imprint of St. Martin’s Press

new

LLC

Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd).

ISBN 0-312-22167-3 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Crossing the bridge: comparative essays on medieval European and Heian Japanese

women

writers / edited by Barbara Stevenson and Cynthia Ho.

cm.

p.

— (The new Middle Ages

series)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents: Speaking for

Okada

— Re-visioning

surrogates and the Tale of the Genji / H. Richard

:

the

widow

Christine de Pizan / Barbara Stevenson

becoming ukifune: autobiographical heroines Joshua

Mostow

s.

—Vox

matris

:

Heian and Kamakura

in

the influence of

St. Birgitta’s

—On

literature

Revelations on

/

The

—

Nanda Hopenwasser and Signe Wegener The voice of Romantic entreaty in The Kagero diary and the court woman poet / S. Lea Millay The letters of Abelard and Heloise / John R. Wallace Words alone cannot express book of Margery Kempe

epistles in

/

—

—

Marie de France and Murasaki Shikubu

/

:

Cynthia

Ho

—True

lovers

:

love

and irony in Murasaki Shikubu and Christine de Pizan / Carol E. Harding

Reclaiming the

self

of Marie de France

through silence :The Riverside Counselor’s stories and the Lais /

Marco

objects in an ideal world /

D.

Roman

Mara

—The

lady in the garden

:

subjects

and

Miller.

ISBN 0-312-22167-3 1.

Japanese —Women authors— History and 185 794-1 History and Japanese — — Heian 1957Stevenson, — Women authors— History and

Literature,

Medieval

criticism.

criticism.

period,

literature

criticism.

literature

Ho, Cynthia O. (Cynthia Olson), 1947-

II.

PN471.C67

III.

I.

2.

3.

Barbara,

Series.

2000

809’. 89287—dc21

00-034164

A

catalogue record for this

Design by Letra Libre,

First edition:

10

book

is

available

Inc.

October 2000

987654321

Printed in the United States of America.

from the British

Library.

CONTENTS

Series Editor’s

Foreword

vii

Acknowledgments

ix

List of Figures

xi

Introduction

xiii

PART

I

PLEADING WOMEN WRITERS 1

.

Speaking For: Surrogates and The

1

Tale of Genji

5

H. Richard Okada 2.

Re-Visioning the

Widow

Christine de Pizan

29

Barbara Stevenson 3.

On Becoming

Heian and Kamakura Literature

in

Joshua 4.

Ukifune: Autobiographical Heroines

S.

Mostow

Vox Matris: The Influence of St. Revelations St. Birgitta

45

Birgitta’s

on The Book of Margery Ketnpe: and Margery Kempe as Wives and Mothers

Nanda Hopenwasser and

61

Signe Wegener

PART

II

COMPARATIVE STUDIES 5.

The Voice of the Court Woman S.

6.

Poet

91

Lea Millay

Romantic Entreaty The

87

in

Letters of Abelard

The Kagero Diary and

and Heloise

1

17

John R. Wallace 7.

Words Alone Cannot Epistles in

Cynthia

Express:

Marie de France and Murasaki Shikibu

Ho

133

8.

“True Lovers”: Love and Irony

in

Murasaki Shikibu and Christine de Pizan Carol E. Harding 9.

Reclaiming the Self Through Silence: The Riverside Counselor’s Stories and

10.

the Lais of Marie de France

Marco D. Roman

The Lady

in the

Garden:

Subjects and Objects in an Ideal

Mara

Bibliography

Contributors

Index

Miller

World

SERIES EDITOR’S

New

Middle Ages promotes lively transdisciplinary conversations in medieval cultural studies through its scholarly monographs and essay he

X

FOREWORD

collections. This series provides focused research in a

contemporary idiom

about specific but diverse practices, expressions, and ideologies in the Middle Ages. It aims especially to recuperate the histories of medieval women. Crossing the Bridge: Comparative Essays in Medieval European and Heian Japa-

Women Writers, teenth volume in nese

focuses It

on

a

has always

edited by Barbara Stevenson and Cynthia Ho, this series

and the very

first

that Japanese

the six-

published collection that

comparative study of Japanese and European

been recognized

is

women

women

writers.

in the early to

high

medieval Heian period were more dexterous than their male counterparts in forging rich imaginative literature in their

recognition was resided in

The

essays

own

vernacular tongue. This

double-edged sword, however, since patriarchal status male control of the culturally “superior” language of Chinese. a

on medieval European

women

writers consider

women

writ-

H

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

B

arbara Stevenson and Cynthia

Ho

would

like to

thank the following

for their support in the

development and implementation of this collection of essays: Toshiyuki Takamiya from Keio University, for germinating the idea of such comparison through his session at the Chaucer Society

Congress ‘94

in

Dublin; to

Methodist University, copresenter

in

Bonnie Wheeler of Southern the “Chaucer and Classical Japanese

Literature” session in Dublin, for endorsing and guiding the development of the book as General Editor of the Middle Ages series; to Edward

New

Kamens

of Yale University for providing useful suggestions for individual

and Nina Morgan of Kennesaw State University and Keith Green of University of North Carolina, Asheville, for reading sections of the book and giving helpful advice; to Kennesaw State Univeressays; to Elliott Hill

sity

and University

of

North Carolina

other forms of assistance.

at

Asheville for course releases and

LIST

10.1

.

OF FIGURES

Virgin and Child in

a

Grape Arbor, The Book of Hours

of Catherine of Cleves, anon. (Utrecht, ca. 1435), no. 97.

The Pierpont Morgan

New York. 10.2.

The

Ms. M. 917,

f.

161.

Reproduced by permission.

Roman de la Rose. The British Harley 4425, f. 39. Reproduced by permission.

A

Stylish

at

Ishiyama Temple, by

James A.

Suma

Okumura Masanobu (1720 s). Mitchener Collection, Honolulu Academy 202

Kashiwagi and Nyosan no Miya, from The Tale of Genji, from the series Bijin-e Zukushi or Collection of Beautiful

Women by Hihikawa Moronobu

(1683). James A.

Mitchener Collection, Honolulu Academy of Arts. L-20, 501 Reproduced by permission. .

10.5.

198

(Ukiyo-e Suma) or Murasaki Shikibu

of Arts. L-20, 252. Reproduced by permission. 10.4.

197

Castle of Roses,

Library. 10.3.

Library.

203

Christine and Reason Clearing the Field of Letters

of Misogynist Opinions, by the Dresden Master, from

De Jof der vrouwen, the Flemish translation of The City of Women by Christine de Pizan.The British Library.

ADD

20698

f 17.

Reproduced by permission.

205

INTRODUCTION

T

he purpose of this book

of

texts

is

to present

wrote and exercised power

it

was once axiomatic

that

now

see

Middle Ages, we

(of any culture) were silenced in the

the

women women

remarkably similar and yet dissimilar cul-

in the

of Heian Japan and medieval Europe.

The the

range

a substantial

composed by Japanese and European women between

tenth and fifteenth centuries. Although

tures

and interpret

two

women’s works have been different in works were unknown to English readers,

paths to canonization for cultures.

Although

their

the great Heian authors such as Murasaki Shikibu and Izumi Shikibu have

remained important milestones throughout the history of Japanese ture. The same is not true for a number of the European women study,

and

in this century, reevaluations

ofWestern women’s place

litera-

in this

in

me-

The very

old opin-

women, not being equal to men, could not produce canonical works gave way to the idea that women would have

the great

dieval literary culture have taken place incrementally.

ion that

they had not, regrettably, been prevented from doing nist critics

past but

recognized the very

real

much was of how much has

lamented that

the realization

women’s writings

so.

Then,

written

if

early femi-

productions of women in the medieval

lost.

This dismay has been mitigated by

indeed survived. Popular in their

own

number of reasons, such as their heavy involvement in religious genres. In recent years the medieval canon has been reshaped and expanded to embrace many groups, times, medieval

including

women

fell

out of favor for

and non-Europeans, once relegated

resultant evolution in the

and gender/women’s

world/comparative

These two

to the margins. This

canon has changed the content of a wide range

of university courses: general humanities, ature,

a

studies.

literature surveys,

medieval

Even the content of the

liter-

traditional

literature courses has shifted in emphasis.

moments, Heian Japan and pre-Modern Europe, invite comparison in a number of ways. Restrictions on women in the two patriarchal cultures were similar in their limitations on formal access to

cultural

power, education, and self-determination. But interestingly they both

also

provided opportunities that allowed

skills:

women

openings appeared for individually gifted

to develop their literary

women, vernacular

spaces

CROSSING THE BRIDGE

XIV

created

new

inine issues. tian

audiences, and

The

new

genres lent opportunity to express fem-

and Chris-

religious climates of Buddhist/Shinto Japan

Europe contributed

as

well to the officially restrictive yet personally

nurturing intellectual climate for female opportunity.

A

“Middle Ages” has led

global interest in the

to Asian historians' ap-

propriating the term “medieval” to apply to Sino-Japanese history as well, obliterating the

Murasaki

once

connotations of that term

specifically Western

1

.

Thus,

Heian period can be labeled “early medieval,” since the impor-

s

tance of Buddhism parallels the centrality of Christianity in medieval rope,

and since both cultures possess similar

This volume begins

a

aristocratic courts

discussion of the ways

women

2 .

authors in differ-

ent cultures interrogate the vexed questions of female identity. tributors

examine

a

wide range of distinct

fiction, nonfiction, secular,

examines

common

a

their desire for

texts.

women

Each chapter

Our con-

authors use in in

its

own way

preoccupation with women’s self-expression and

some kind of empowerment. The range of texts

by our contributors sire to

and religious

strategies

is

Eu-

not comprehensive, but

reflects the editors'

discussed

dual de-

demonstrate the wide range of available women’s writings while

concentrating on the

hoped that ulate more

more known and

accessible canonical works.

this first-of-its-kind foray into a

new and

fertile area will

It

is

stim-

investigation into this comparative topic.

Introduction 1.

Anne

Birrell,

“In the Voice of Women: Chinese Love Poetry in the Early

Middle Ages,”

in

Women,

Jane Taylor (Cambridge, 2.

the Book,

UK:

and

the Worldly.

Brewer, 1995),

p.

49.

William LaFleur, The Karma of Words: Buddhism and dieval Japan (Berkeley:

Ed. Lesley Smith and

the Literary Arts in

University of California Press, 1983).

Me-

PART

I

READING WOMEN WRITERS

When my

brother, Secretary at the

learning the Chinese

came unusually too

difficult

ting

.

.

classics, I

was

Ministry of Ceremonial, was a young boy in the habit

of listening

him and

to

proficient at understanding those passages which he

to grasp.

Father,

most learned man, was always

a

Your father

.

.

.

with spinning and

who wished

mother, however,

silly girlishness, following the

Shikibu

1

the major obstacle to your being

to

keep you busy

common custom of women,

more involved

in the sciences.

—

Christine de Pizan

2

of scholars, Murasaki Shikibu of Heian Japan and Christine de Pizan of late medieval France turned to writing once ifted children

they were

widowed and had secured

their writing careers

the

regret-

took great pleasure from seeing your inclination to learning.

The feminine opinion of your

G

found

.’’What a pity she was not born a man!”

—Murasaki

was

I be-

ttikki,

royal patrons. This brief outline

emerges from their autobiographical

or diary, that Murasaki writes

ca.

1008,

events at the court of Empress Shoshi; and in the

when

of

reflections: in

she

is

recording

memoirs Christine

dis-

perses throughout her various universal histories, including The Book of the

City of Ladies and Lavision-Christine of around

women

from

their cultures, these

two authors use

1405. Like other

their texts as vehicles

of self-representation.

No

doubt they must have been pleased

at

the positive reception their

own time, but they would also be amazed to learn that they still have many devoted readers today. As a result of the canon wars of the 1980s, which broke down classifications of literature along works received

in their

gender and national “Great Medieval

lines, these

two authors

Women Writers

are frequently portrayed as the

of Asia and Europe,”

respectively.

3

CROSSING THE BRIDGE

2

H. Richard Okada and Barbara Stevenson review traditional stances regarding Murasaki Shikibu and Christine de Pizan, then explore new ways of reading these women writers for postmodern, postfeminist, post-Cold War audiences. Okada’s “Speaking In the

pair of essays,

opening

For: Surrogates

and The

how

and

herself as narrator

how Murasaki situates numerous surrogates who advance the

Tale of Genji

the

illustrates

plot of the Genji monogatari (often translated as romance novel) counter Ori-

phallocentric scholarship that centralizes and idealizes Genji as

entalist,

Stevenson’s “Re-Visioning the

protagonist.

the

Pizan” argues that historical

de

widowhood

af-

worth.

The next

women

the construction of

Christine

of Christine and vex attempts to determine her

fect readers’ perceptions

literary

shifts in

Widow

pair of essays delineates

ways both Heian and medieval

autobiographers model their textual identities after canonical

erary figures. Joshua

Mostow,

S.

graphical Heroines in

in

“On Becoming

Heian and Kamakura

lit-

Ukifune: Autobiothe

Literature,” discusses

popularity of the dramatic and tragic character of Ukitune in The Tale of Genji,

and the subsequent authors

Ukifune’s. In contrast,

women

of the

spirational pattern

who compare

their

own

situations

with

of medieval Europe often followed the in-

spiritual autobiography.

Nanda Hopenwasser and

how Margery Kempe’s personae imitates the textual created by St. Birgitta, who in turn modeled her own textual iden-

Signe Wegener show identity tity

upon medieval

England and

idealizations

Birgitta

of the Virgin Mary

of Sweden, coming

at

as

Mother. Margery of

the end of the Middle Ages,

exemplify the geographical diffusion and the secularization of the spiritual autobiography.

Such themes recur:

Okada

as

absence and presence, displacement and surrogacy

portrays

how

the Tale

oj

Genji

pecially surrogates for Genji’s Originary rates

upon

the ways later

women

is

filled

with surrogates

of

husband

widow

—

—

readers see themselves as surrogates for

the presence of a

of medieval

Mother Mary.The two

lection

how

Christine’s

by the absence of

pairs

saint

a

by displacing male scholarly au-

Hopenwasser and Wegener depict Margery Kempe and

Birgitta as the type

for

woman marked

establishes her textual identity

thors, while

es-

Mother, while Mostow elabo-

the character of Ukifune in Genji; Stevenson illustrates status

—

who becomes

of essays forming the

St.

an earthly surrogate first

part of this col-

exemplify the dis/continuities between women’s writing and

reading in the European Middle Ages and Heian Japan. All four essays direct the reader’s attention to

ways

women

writers, across culture

and time,

simultaneously subvert and submit to standards created for them by male authorities.

READING WOMEN WRITERS

3

Notes 1.

Richard Bowring,

ed.

and

trails.,

Murasaki Shikibu: Her Diary and

Memoirs (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University 2.

Earl Jeffrey

Edwards, ed. and

trans.,

Poetic

Press, 1982), p. 139.

The Booh of

the City of Didies

(New

York: Persea Press, 1982), pp. 154-55. 3.

A

product typical of

Literature in

courses

—

this literary reconfiguration, the

a World Context

—

a college

anthology Western

text for introductory literature

places English-translated excerpts from Christines Booh of the

City of Didics with excerpts from Murasaki’s Tale of Genji together in the section

on the Middle Ages. Paul

Davis, et

al.

Western Literature

Context: The Ancient World through the Renaissance, vol.

Martins

Press, 1995).

1

(New

in a

World

York:

St.

%

CHAPTER

1

SPEAKING FOR:

SURROGATES AND THE TALE OF GENJI H. Richard Okada

begin

I call

of surrogates

this discussion

The

Tale of Genji

the problematic of “speaking for” with

one posed, seemingly ages does the writing begin?

ago,

whom?” The two 1

questions trace a

center stage, figuring

a

who

asked,

“Who

speaks? For

movement from

a

to a postcolomal one, in

mode of questioning

that retains

its

I

shall

first is

“Where

The second

the painting begin?”

recently:

which the subject was removed,

and what

two questions. The

by Roland Barthes,

Where does

one Edward Said asked more

The

in

what and

is

for

perspective in

which

it

cogency

takes today.

heritage of the missing subject and the question of agency were prob-

lematic in so-called poststructuralist analyses, which were assailed for an inability political ple,

(it

not an alleged outright

concerns

as

refusal) to address

urgent historical or

they sought to displace traditional notions, for exam-

of a transcendental “I.”The critique of“Orientalist” discourse inaugu-

rated by Said, in

its

interrogation of how subjects remain disempowered to

enunciate and narrate, remains not only salutary but also absolutely crucial in a postfeminist, postcolonial, It

might be argued

post-Cold War world.

that Barthes’s intuition

of Japan

as a

“country of

writing,” or “empire of signs,” retains a certain relevancy for a nation with putatively noncentered gardens, meals,

and

cities,

where the wrapper, the

mask, the clothing constitute the “message.” “Japan” has also been read a

nation where ones various “positions”

pational, etc.

—seem

of essentialized

—

social, marital, scholastic,

constitutive of seltbood,

selves gives

way

as

occu-

where the Western advocacy

to selves determinable

by

sites

of occu-

pancy. Barthes’s gaze, however, does not extend to a study of subject position or the gender of the observer, the manipulator of the signs

and the

masks, nor does

by

RICHARD OKADA

H.

6

it

engage

meaningful way with the questions of how,

what purpose Japan has been constructed as posthose characteristics. In an essay on the puppet theater, for exam-

whom, when, and

sessing

in a

for

Barthes registers only the (Bunraku) master’s exposed, “civic” face,

ple,

which

him

to

signifies

an “exemption from meaning .”

2

Such easy removal

of manipulators from the spheres of meaning exposes the mechanisms to various manipulations: by Western scholarship that, accountable to nothing outside of a deep-seated, institutionalized need for rational and ethical consistency, can assume the master ate for

those

own

its

place and speak for, that

s

is,

appropri-

purposes, the eminently detachable Japanese signs

3 .

It is at

appropriation that Said’s questions return to

moments of Western

haunt the writer of Empire of Signs.

been concerned with “representation,”

In contrast to Barthes, Said has

not only

as a

mimetic question but

as

one anchored firmly

in the critique

of histonco-political imperatives of European national construction and

work

like

Culture and Empire revolve around the notions of “interdependence”

and

imperialist expansion.

what he

calls

The

4 .

as “literature,”

embarked upon under the

recent

his extensive

knowledge of

In other words, the study of

what we nor-

from

the “contrapuntal,” taken

and experience with music mally refer to

more

issues Said raises in a

and

in particular the “novel,”

common

ought not to be

aegis of hermetic, literary categories,

but those categories must be seen in their interrelation to such questions as

power, empire, and geography. The exclusions that have been systemat-

ically carried

out within institutionalized, scholarly investigations must be

reexamined. Those factors that have been excluded, then, proper voice, would form contrapuntal

moments

to the

when

work

ot

given

main-

stream scholarship. Revisionist readings of exclusionary maneuvers are, of course, also at

how

the heart of certain feminist critiques of patriarchy, for the study of the

non- West

ways to

is

positioned in Eurocentric discourse

how “women”

servient nodes

is

analogous in

are positioned in patriarchal discourses.

mappable on

a

also

remember

As sub-

Self-Other paradigm, both have been ex-

ploited and marginalized, sacrificed for interests other than their

must

many

that despite the

own. We

compelling analogies, feminist

criti-

cism has not always (although things have changed drastically in the past

few

years) attended sufficiently to questions

versely, analyses

of race,

ethnicity,

of race and ethnicity; con-

and the nation-state have not always

at-

tended to questions ot gender. The predominant feminist subject position has often been that of the white, middle-class

or ethnic writers have often ignored questions

and of gender. The problems involved nial

woman, whereas minority of “women,” or “woman ,”

in thinking feminist

(and postmodern) critiques in tandem are

many and

and postcolodifficult.

The

SPEAKING FOR growing

list

of writers

who

7

have addressed the question include Judith

Rey Chow, Diana Fuss, Chandra Mohanty, Biddy Martin, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Craig Owen, Linda Nicholson, Denise Riley and, of course, Butler,

Gayatri Spivak (the

list

goes on).

One

important question taken up by feminist writers is the problem of negotiating the terms woman and "women.’ The simple acknowledg-

ment of gender dency

group

to

is

move

insufficient because that

all

women, no

is

complicit with a ten-

matter of what country or time period,

together and then to characterize them, often condescendingly,

Chandra Mohanty

pressed," “victimized,” etc.

now

the difficulties and dangers in her

where The

In Japan,

is

one

classic essay,

who

as

“op-

has alerted us to

“Under Western Eyes .” 5

Tale of Genji has received, albeit primarily

male appropriations, attention similar to what readers

in the

through

West accord

a

sacred text, authorial gender almost never plays an operative role in the

countless commentaries and analyses

on the

text.

One Japanese

scholar has

suggestively argued that perhaps the multiauthor (and different gender) thesis

—

for example, that the last third of the narrative

man, perhaps Marusann Shikibu’s

—

father

results

could not bring themselves to believe that

ars

Genji text

view

lent

all

is

by

is

He

women

from the

woman

the exception, however.

is

comments

represented by

essary result of

feminism

herself/’

a

was written by

feminism

that

a

fact that schol-

had written the

The more West was

in the

prevaa

nec-

having been downtrodden for centuries, whereas

precluded in Japan because the grand works by Heian

women

have always been treasured by Japanese scholars! In any case, as

Mohanty and

Riley argue, the category entity but

own

is

not

“women” must

a

within

informed reading

ment

theoretically

ways

“context”

the constructedness of

Riley states,”

.

.

.‘women’

is

is

that takes as

we must

mo-

and

al-

which themselves change; ‘women’

which female persons can be very

can’t provide an ontological

sights,

inaugural

its

historically, discursively constructed,

differently

of the subject of ‘women’

be relied on; ... for the individual, ‘being

and

and

extremely problematic, but rather

sitioned, so that the apparent continuity to

be situated, not necessar-

so-called historical representations. As

all

relatively to other categories

a volatile collectivity in

like a discursive effect,

historical context, since the accessibility

reproduction of such a

prediscursive, universalizable

a

something more

as

that in each case

or solely in its/their

ily

“women”

must be negotiated

which means

others like Judith Butler and Denise

foundation

a

.” 7

woman’

is

is

poisn’t

also inconstant,

Following those

also account, in a serious way, for the necessary

initial in-

and fun-

damental intervention of the analytical present and for the subject position of the observer, who must then divest herself/himself of the illusion of standing at a neutral or

Archnnedian point, ontologically based

H.

8

RICHARD OKADA ob-

(or biased), outside either the discourse in question or the putative

ject of

that the discourse itself has constructed.

knowledge

s

Surrogates, “Speaking for,” and Scholarship If

we

of “objective" or neutral, Archime-

refuse to subscribe to the notion

dian stances of research, the question of “speaking for" and of the “surro-

of emphasis in what follows, should be

gate,” a particular point

a constantly

troubling one for anyone engaged in scholarly studies. Let us return to the

most recognizable aspect of the problem famously characterized by Edward

modes known

Said as a condition of representative

West deemed

1

as

“Orientalism."

'

The

necessary to speak for (represent) the East since the latter

it

1

was thought to be incapable of speaking for (representing) the “Orientalist” framework per

se,

in virtually every case

itself.

"

Beyond

where one per-

son or group speaks for another person or group, the question ought to be a crucial one.

goes to the heart, for example, of studies involving gender

It

(men speaking

women),

for

ethnicity (dominant groups speaking tor

mi-

nority groups), theory (Marxist thinkers speaking for the “masses"), and scholarship in general (scholars speaking for their objects of study).

War

In post- World

problems involved paradigms have

at

in

II

Japan studies, scholars have rarely attended to the

Western interpretations of Japan, where Orientalist

times been strong.

Japan to such an extent that

it is

Japanologists confidently spoke for

1

believed that the

first

Nobel

prize in

lit-

would not have gone to Kawabata Yasunari in 1968 had it not been for the work of his able translator and spokesperson, Edward Seidensticker. More recently, in the economic world the phrase, “the Japan that can say no,” seems to indicate that things have fundamen-

erature for that country

tally

changed, that Japan

concern about Japan’s cal, historical)

even

is

now

has a true voice, can speak for

ability to less

itself,

so that

speak in any other realm (cultural, politi-

necessary that

it

was before. Such an optimistic

diagnosis, however, overlooks the fact that the phrase fixes Japan’s position as

primarily one of negative reaction

women),

a

dynamic

in

which power

(a

kind of power often accorded to

still

remains situated in the “outside,”

the West. In this essay,

I

shall

focus on the act and position of “speaking for,” as

concerns the crucial role of narrators and “surrogates” Genji, as

it

keeping

relates to

might seem

a

in

mind

my own

its

and

would argue, first of all, in what given what I’ve stated above, that the

analytical position.

contradictory gesture

I

a true

or proper voice

As critiques ot so-called cross-cultural

framework of the

Tale of

significance for scholarly stances in general,

concern for giving the other/native best.

m/of The

it

cross-cultural installs

two

analysis

positivities

is

misguided

at

suggest, the very

between which the

SPEAKING FOR researcher apparently tivities,

however,

treely able to

is

cross.’

9

The

of two posi-

installation

effects the

simultaneous construction of two identities that are ahistorical and monolithic, self-identical each to itself, with each possessing

and

for

its

own

distinctive characteristics.

To be

attentive to “speaking

to surrogates should not, then, result in the search for

ways to give the other a true voice but to recognize that, in an important sense, there is only ever speaking for.” When a native Japanese scholar produces an inteipretation of a Kokinshu

poem

or

Genjt passage, for example, rather

a

than speaking authentically for “Japan,’’ the person

and

is

speaking just

as

much

criticism. Similarly, the status

two

bidirectionally to traverse

What we

it

might very well be the case

for his/her training in

of the researcher

reified entities

who

must be

is

that

Western poetics supposedly able

tirelessly

questioned.

need, then, might be called “positional” readings that would add to Said’s questions “Who speaks? For what and for whom?” which are, after all,

—

an asking after surrogates

—

a

chronotopic and geopolitical

“Where and at what point in time is the speaker/researcher situated?” when the act of “speaking for” is performed. The aim would be, for example, to complement the need to historicize modernist readings of query: that

is,

premodern

texts

tral

with the impulse to demystify the possibility of any neuor detached position that can truly speak for itself.

Surrogates and The Tale of Getiji Relevant to the matter

at

hand, the issues raised by the one

who

“speaks

for” in the Getiji text often involves the question of the surrogate, is

always marked by the sign of “fiction”:

or otherwise.

The term

speak for the author intermediaries

who

cratic society, the desire,

and such

critical,

which

genealogical, historical,

“surrogate” embraces the Genji narrators

as well as for

the vast

facilitated the

who

number of attendants and other

smooth functioning of Heian

aristo-

broader kinship networks and their relation to power and familial, privatized (or

otherwise construable

as feminist)

motherhood and reproduction. Such attention to the surrowould move us beyond an initial, important awareness of the author’s

matters like gate

gender and attempt to read

which learned tresses

women

it

against the following: the imperial salons in

Murasaki Shikibu served and tutored their misand recited and wrote their narratives that is, their privileged like

—

spaces and special statuses deriving from their function as special attendants to their mistresses (empresses or other high-ranking royal daily responsibilities as verbal/scriptive intermediaries

women);

—they

often

their

com-

posed poems and messages on behalf of their patrons and acquaintances; their emergence out of the middle ranks (that is, fifth and sixth out of eight bureaucratic ranks) of officialdom; their unofficially acquired learning;

H.

10

their inferable views

RICHARD OKADA

of the disaffected

level

of royalty called the “Genji,”

the dominant Fujiwara clan (Northern Branch), the imperial household,

and

their

lege,

it

own

would

social class. also

As

a

counterpoint to their unquestioned privi-

begin to investigate the ways in which they were forced

to sacrifice themselves for the welfare

of their family lineages, the extent

of their knowledge and awareness of the

political

world around them, and

of sympathy for other disaffected members of

their feelings

the “Genji ,” and those political

members of royalty,

cluding those former

society, in-

figures sent into exile.

“Speaking for”

women

Talented and learned

women

12 .

Born

Heian Japan

Murasaki Shikibu, Sei Shonagon, and

like

Izumi Shikibu went to the palace

in

as tutors

to high-ranking

and attendants

into illustrious scholarly families, they

had access

funds of learning and knowledge. While in court service and

were

times, they

and as

upon, perhaps on

called

letters for their mistresses,

texts that later

epitomizing the flowering of Heian (read “native”

nese) culture later writers

13 .

In an important sense, these

(mostly male) to speak for

much academic

dominates

women

as

other

at

compose poems

a daily basis, to

and they wrote

to great

were viewed

opposed

have been

(or, in a positivist

mode

thinking, “reflect”) a culture that

is

to

Chi-

made by that

still

assumed

to

have been always in place even though what they are actually speaking tor are their

newly forged

whom

and otherwise) with speak in the

on

first

cultural creations, certain political figures (political

place.

a paternal lineage

they sympathized,

common

is

throughout Japanese artistic

schools

history.

(tea,

The

Fuji-

flower arrange-

resorted to male adoption to maintain their family

etc.) regularly

lineages, as

well as their ability to

Moreover, the practice of adopting males to carry

wara, other hegemons, and leaders of

ment,

as

many people

still

do so

today.

My

point here

is

that adoption

involves the insertion of a “fictional” sign, a surrogate, that displaces a “natural” order. rectly,

part,

Those same hegemons, moreover,

elected to rule through surrogates in the

of the imperial

common

family. Finally, in

practice for

rogate mothers to the

The and

Heian

form

of a son,

terms of the role of mothers,

families to hire

newborn

wet nurses

with

its

it

who became

was sur-

children.

logic of the surrogate, therefore, thoroughly subtends

also the Genji text

power difor the most

rather than seize

narrating in a

Heian society

“woman’s hand .” 14 Explo-

ration of the surrogate should enable us to interconnect the complexities that arise at the intersections

of the narrating, the represented narration, and

the social class of the narrators,

who

serve as authorial surrogates.

Such

a

reading should also begin to displace major male figures like Genji and

SPEAKING FOR Kaoru from

positions of centrality accorded

them by

a received,

masculin-

scholarly tradition (both Japanese and Western), as well as the position of the neutral researcher installed in patriarchally oriented scholarship 15 It ist

.

would

oxymoron

also inhabit the

women must

only be

a strategic

that the

empowerment of Heian

and contingent one and,

as

salon

one byproduct,

would come to seem less the grand or romanticized male, the heartthrob of Heian women, than as a contingent representation who the Genji figure

can only

move forward

“serve"

(in all senses

manner

in

in the text

with the aid of female surrogates

of the word) to put him

which we address the

who

in his place(s). Finally, the

issue can enable us to displace the self-

other binarism in cross-cultural study mentioned above and figure our objects It

of study

in a

would not

Shining Genji ers

nonimperializing, nontotalizing manner.

be

at all

is

difficult to

demonstrate that the depiction of the

cry from the heroic, saviorlike

a far

have preferred to describe him. Indeed, Genji

way

that

actions are

s

many

writ-

more bum-

bling, blind, mistake-ridden than genuinely solicitous, heroic, or “ideal .” 16

In keeping with the theoretical positions discussed above, such a stration

volve a

of the displacement of Genji and other male figures should not incounter-installation of the women (whether main character or

intermediary)

among

move ought

or powerful but rather the

as central

to

mark,

other things, the congruence or convergence of subject positions

of author with her chosen narrators and

with

also

stance(s) in relation to the representations effected

my own

by the

privilege as a university professor are not incidental;

and

author’s, the narrator(s)’s,

thermore,

as

my own

observational

text.

hand, for example, the privilege of the Heian middle-rank

are,

demon-

On

women

the one

and

my

on the other hand, the

positions of analysis (in

my

case, fur-

an Asian-American male) are inscribed by marginality. There

of course, important differences, such

were forced to make

for the sake

of writing. The following

as

of their family lineages and

will trace the act

women their mode

the sacrifices Heian

of speaking for and the role of

surrogate at different registers in the text.

A

Surrogate Writing

The phonetic mode of writing known

as

Mode

kana (syllabic symbols derived

from Chinese characters to write the Japanese language) was distinguished from the kanbun (which included Chinese as used and Japanese versions of Chinese) mode; the foreign,

was considered to be,

ironically, the

was gendered feminine and referred to

though men abled

also

women,

used

it

extensively.

especially those

1 '

as

latter,

explicitly in

China

both masculine and

marked mode. The kana mode onna-de, “woman’s hand,” al-

The unprecedented

from middle-rank

situation en-

families, to represent

H.

12

themselves in

kind of

a

“hand” ceded

what

to them,

glance appears

at first

as a

often misleadingly associated with Luce Irigaray,

ecriture feminine,

Julia Kristeva,

RICHARD OKADA

and Helene Cixous

18 .

The

power was wielded by male members of a

Heian sociopolitical

fact that

certain branch of the Fujiwara

domination should immediately

clan and other important realms of male

temper any overreading of the ultimate political and other effects of the woman’s hand for Heian times, yet it undoubtedly allowed Heian women a

degree of freedom and confidence of representation in contrast to the

kanbun mode, and in

my

theorists’, or

more, rives

it

is

manner

a

own,

relation to

name,” and comes to designate explicitly taken to “temporarily stand-in,” that

is,

provisional, or nonregular

system of phonetic symbols

a

be surrogates

name” While

the surrogate condition

ther case, ka-na or ma-na, the former

surrogate function of writing

makes

something

for,

Chinese characters, on the other hand, were designated or regular

term ka-na de-

that the Japanese

which means “temporary,

kari-na,

from the French feminist

Western patriarchal discourse. Further-

what follows

significant for

from

vastly different

as

ma-na, or “real

would hold

explicit the

else;

true for ei-

fundamentally

itself.

Surrogate Narrating At

a

broader level of narration,

consequences can be found

in

a

surrogate

movement with

tar-reaching

TheTale of Genji in the second chapter, “The

Broom-tree.” In the famous section

known

as

“The

rainy night critique of

young men (Genji and three cohorts) are fortuitously brought together owing to a directional taboo, and they use the occasion to discuss the merits and demerits of women. Most scholars focus on what the men’s ranks,” four

speech takes

into three ranks

might

object

as its

trace the

the narrating

—but

—women,

a

their qualities,

their

where, the

and the

at

men

is

the

times inflated fail at

concerning

their

women

thor, the narrators, a

self

of which

are,

narrator places

of course,

men

in her

we can infer from the text proper domain of women. As I’ve argued elsedisquisitions of the men do not end in closure,

and

avowed goal of drawing

humor and

remains

is

the rank of the au-

their listening colleagues, the last tale

19 .

Due

being most

to the resulting gaps

even

falling asleep or

and even feminized

as

pretending to

at

likely

and disjunc-

irony are prevalent throughout the “critique.” Genji

silent,

in fact objectified

clear distinctions, espe-

of the middle rank, which

primary audience for the

tions,

The

all

subject position as surrogate narrators, as

that the narrating act

cially

that comprises author, narrator,

primary objects,

the effects of discursive representations.

own

their classifiability

narratologically and gender-informed reading

more complex network

men, and

and

him-

one point, and

is

he becomes the focus of the other

SPEAKING FOR men s

13

which in tuin become the focus of the gazes of the narrator and her assumed colleagues. The objectification of Genji stands in contrast §*izcs,

to the staged inability of the

male narrators

ing unequivocally the ideal middle-rank represent (speak for) the

The male

woman,

whom we

of defin-

can take to

controlling the narrative in the

first

place.

narrations, then, as they demonstrate the difficulty

women, also

"speaking for" the is,

women

to achieve their goal

serve to valorize the Genji

narrating [monogatari] as a surrogate

mode

men have of mode itself: that

that pursues (indeed,

is

des-

tined only to pursue) but cannot achieve closure.

The extended

instance of surrogate narrating in the “Broom-tree”

chapter, then, provides a counterpoint to and a displacement of the narrating in the first chapter, “The Paulownia Court.” Whereas the latter presents a “beginning” based on the representation of a “natural” birth that is,

Genji’s

—

—

the former creates figures out of a surrogate narrating that

enact the displacement of the “natural” (regarding births and other matters) with ones fashioned out of language and narration, a narrating that

whose

plants figural seeds rative

be disseminated throughout the narand continually displace the Shining Genji whose fictional status, as

we now

effects will

an already displaced one early in the tale.The men’s speech, realized in kana narration, is further displaced by that scriptive mode that, as

see,

is

noted above,

already enacts displacement.

itself

The displacement en-

acted by the second chapter, moreover, does not simply overturn what had

occurred

in the first chapter.

by Fujitsubo,

a

stepmother

Genji

s

mother, for example,

who becomes

a lasting

is

soon replaced

obsession for Genji. The

narrative, then, while inaugurating the first “step” relationship in the text, also puts into play a

surrogate position.

concomitant desire for the person demonstrates that

It

work through

at

occupies the

the “origin” there

powerful displacement

at

the surrogate can be

prime focus of desire.

a

who

is

already a

the figure of the surrogate and that

Surrogate Relations

now keep in mind the question of the mode of writing, and further problematize

Let us

author’s social position

her

the issue by considering the

dizzyingly

complex

“step-,” “foster-,” or otherwise surrogate

tive positions (stepfather/mother, foster daughter, etc.)

found

and

and substituin the narra-

A

sampling of examples of step- or surrogate relations involving most of the major characters produces the following: Fujitsubo is stepmother to tive.

Genji, Koremitsu’s

mother

is

surrogate

Utsusemi [Lady of the Locust-shell] Genji

is

mother

stepfather to

is

(and stepmother)

Yugao [Evening

mother

(as his

wet nurse)

to Genji,

stepmother to the Governor of Kii, to

Murasaki,

Faces], Yugao’s

Ukon

wet nurse

is

is

surrogate

stepmother to

RICHARD OKADA

H.

14

Tamakazura, Genji ter),

Genji

is

stepfather to

surrogate “father” to

is

Rokujo Ladys daugh Tamakazura, Princess Omiya (To no

Akikonomu

(the

mother toYurigi (Genji’s son by his official wife, the Aoi Lady), the Orange Blossoms Lady is surrogate mother to Yurigi, Murasaki is surrogate mother to the Akashi Princess, the Reizei emperor is surrogate father to Kaoru, a wet nurse is surrogate mother to Kashiwagi, Jiju is surrogate mother to the Third Princess, Bennokimi is Chujo’s mother)

surrogate

is

Okimi 20 and Nakanokimi, the Hitachi Governor is stepfather to Ukifune, the Uji nun is surrogate mother to Ukifune. One category of surrogate characters crucial to the Genji text and embedded in surrogate

mother

the above

list is

to

that

of wet nurses and their

own

offspring,

who

are raised

together with their charges. Important ones include Koremitsu’s mother

(Koremitsu

is

Genji’s closest attendant), Yugao’s nurse, Kashiwagi ’s nurse,

Jiju [Third Princess’s nurse],

enlisting

common among

wet nurses was so

pervasive presence should

and Bennokimi. Admittedly, the practice

come

as

no

Heian

surprise.

The

of

aristocrats that their

extent to which they

made to function narratologically in Genji is remarkable, however. The above ought to show that something more than coincidence is at work insofar as virtually all the important characters in the narrative are associated in some fashion with surrogate positions. The resulting deflec-

are

tion

away from blood

gued,

surrogate or foster ones embeds,

ties to

it

can be ar-

posture of critique: of officially arranged marriages (which, with

a

one exception relations),

—

the Uji Eighth Prince

of motherhood

as

—

does not produce harmonious

defined by Heian aristocratic society, and of

the very maintenance of house lineages themselves.

Murasaki Symptomatic

is

the case of Murasaki. Easily misrecognized by readers

tend to romanticize her

as part

of an

ideal

Genji-Murasaki

of deprivations,

pair,

among

she

of a

important being the early

of her mother, separation from her

and the

inability to bear children.

marital status, she

is

As

if

ac-

father,

mimicking her already surrogate

allowed only the position, albeit an important one, of

mother, for the Akashi Princess and her son, Genji’s grandson, Niou.

foster

As she

raises

her charges, she must continually experience pain for the sake

of the male Genji’s

The

who

loss

is

the most

tually represented as the victim

series

who

own

fortunes.

inverse of Murasaki’s position

are prevented

is

represented by the “real” mothers

from “mothering”: Genji’s mother, Yurigi’s mother

(Genji’s official wife), the

Akashi Lady, Yugao, the Third Princess, the

Eighth Prince’s wife, and so on. Their situations, in which the “real” or “natural”

is

effectively displaced,

undermine attempts

to establish a biolog-

SPEAKING FOR women. For

determinate ground for

ically

many modern

womans

feminists, a critique

15

the narrators of the

tale, as

for

and demystification of motherhood

as

domain or function can be taken as a focal point of the narrative. The narrators negotiate a space where the problematic of the

a

“natural”

surrogate can be deployed to

name

the displaced blood

ties

that intertwine

continually with fictional and political concerns and intertexts.

Hikaru Genji

Now we

can reexamine the character of Hikaru Genji. As mentioned above, Genji is not only deprived of his royal status but is also left motherless.

Fujitsubo

although

fills

the maternal gap

In accord

dren, Genji

is

she

movement also rhetorical move had constructed

whom

mother, the Kiritsubo Consort, for gate ).

becomes constructs them

rhetorical

a

brother (another 21

when

stepmother,

his

like

Fujitsubo

sister

Genji’s

like

becomes

she, Fujitsubo,

and

surro-

a

with the Heian practice of assigning wet nurses to chil-

placed in the care of Koremitsu’s mother. The two surrogate

mothers then serve two narrative purposes. First,

when

Koremitsu’s mother provides a narrative link to another character

Genji pays

her

a visit to

meets Yugao, “Evening Faces,”

when

who

she

is

ill,

because

was introduced

it

is

then that he

earlier in the narrative

by To no chujo’s rainy night narrating mentioned above, and who happens to be residing temporarily next door to Genjis ailing nurse. A woman who has lost both parents, Yugao soon dies of a mysterious spirit possession while

with Genji and leaves behind Since she

a

daughter also mentioned by

living in the western half

is

of the

To no

chujo.

with

capital (nishi no kyo)

Yugao s wet nurse, the child’s whereabouts are unknown to Genji. He recruits Ukon, Yugao attendant, for his own entourage at the Nijo Mansion ’s

as a

kind of keepsake (surrogate) for her mistress.

another of Yugao ’s wet nurses and

who

will recognize the

that the girl,

daughter

is

the daughter of

a surrogate sister to her; she

many

years

Tamakazura, had remained

woman accompanied

Ukon

later.

We

in the care

is

the

one time

will learn at that

of her mother’s nurse

when

the

sistant

Governor-General ofDazaifu inTsukushi (present-day Kyushu ). 22

her husband to his

new

Second, Genji’s other stepmother, Fujitsubo, provides

when

Genji’s desire for this other surrogate

mother

post as Junior As-

a link to

takes the

transference of that desire to her niece. Like Genji, Murasaki,

considered the major female character in the narrative, has been

abandoned by her

be continually on opposite the niece, she

is still

is

a child in the care

When

form of

who

is

a

often

motherless and

father, Fujitsubo’s brother, a prince

political sides to Genji.

Murasaki

Genji

who first

will

espies

of a surrogate, her maternal grand-

mother. After learning of her relation to Fujitsubo and encouraged by her

RICHARD OKADA

H.

16

close physical resemblance to his surrogate mother, Genji abducts her just as

her father

about to reclaim her. Intent on molding her, Galatea-like,

is

according to

wishes

his

night conversation, he

grows up

he learned from

as

first

makes her

during that rainy-

his friends

daughter; then, after she

his foster

he forces himself on her and makes her one of

a bit,

Murasaki thus becomes

his wives.

surrogate for her aunt, just as the aunt was a sur-

a

rogate for Genji’s mother. Fashioned according to a masculinist ideal, she is

forced to “speak for”

Genji

s

women who

are victims

ideal partner, despite her

be

“secondary”

by

displaced

other

status

women

logic that prevents

23

She

.

is

are fated to

be

a childless

etc.

couple. While

manner

of their mutual “love,” the text makes

it

As

if

his

it is

affairs:

children, Genji

possible to read

as a sign

of the inten-

clear that Murasaki’s

devastating consequences of her surrogate status are brought

when she must return her mother when the girl goes to court 24

be

abiding by a

perform her all-important surrogate

(and to the reader)

to

amorous

two motherless characters from having

childless state frees her to

to her

not

is

also destined contin-

Genji’s

in

their childless condition in a romanticized sification

by Genji

created)

is,

Oborozukiyo, the Akashi Lady, the Third Princess,

and Murasaki

She

desire.

wife (she can’t displace Yurigis mother, the Aoi Lady) but

official

rather a sign of the fictive, educated (that

ually

of male

role.

home

The

to her

charge, the Akashi Princess,

.

Tamakazura

now

The above

linkages

Murasaki

to Fujitsubo as

cable that tive

is

ties to

Tamakazura

is

toYugao. Based on her inextri-

the situation of the surrogate and of “fiction,”

Tamakazura

—

allow us to establish the following analogy:

the other

is

is

one can argue

one of the two most important characters

in the narra-

more thoroughly inscribed by the sign below). Born of To no chujo’s narrating,

the character even

of the surrogate, Ukifune

(see

among others, the position of surrogate forYugao when Genji, whose memory of the mother is enduring, discovers her. When we meet her in “The Jeweled Chaplet,” we learn that she had been Tamakazura

will occupy,

taken toTsukushi by Yugao’s nurse,

who

also

regarded her

as a surrogate, a

keepsake for the mother, and that she was whisked back to the capital by stepbrother just as a provincial strong

come

his bride.

Ukon

age to Flase Temple in a

2

'1

“supplementary”

There she

is

accidentally meets

about to force her to be-

Tamakazura while on

and reports her discovery status in his elaborately

to Genji,

designed

from her “real”

father,

great discomfort, that she’s his

who

a pilgriminstalls

her

Rokujo Mansion

figured by Genji as his foster daughter: that

identity a secret

woman’s

man was

a

is,

26 .

he keeps her

To no chujo, and pretends, to the own daughter. Fie then puts her on

SPEAKING FOR display in his

mansion

come around

in pursuit

so that he can enjoy the reactions

of her. As he taught Murasaki

wife, so he tries to teach

woman who the

Rokujo

but

is

17

how

Tamakazura

of the

how

men who

to be the ideal

to be the ideal lover, or at least a

can effectively lure men. In marked contrast to Tamakazura, Lady’s daughter,

given her

own

Akikonomu,

also installed in the

is

quarters (southwest). Hers

mansion

also a surrogate position

is

vis-a-vis Genji, but she stands as an unequivocally “real” foster daughter, so

to speak, since she plays a crucial political role in the narrative as Reizei’s

empress. As as a result

I

argue elsewhere, Tamakazura

of her being taken to Dazaifu

sociation with the Bamboo-cutter tary or

tale.

-7

is

as a child

and her intertextual

as-

As such, the seemingly supplemen-

“ornamental” aspect of her figuration

register as she deflects attention

connected to exile both

also

signals a different narrative

away from the overtly

and serves

political

and genealogical transformation: she displaces Genji’s narrative lineage with that of To no chujo’s. Furthermore, a firm connecto effect a narrative

between the surrogate and

tion

fiction/storytelling

discussion of narratives in the “Fireflies” chapter. discussion filled

between

is

The

made

in the

famous

contrast during the

Genji’s remarks to his surrogate daughter, Tamakazura,

with references to the suasive and displacing

effects

of

literature,

and

Murasaki regarding Murasaki’s surrogate (and Genjis “real”) daughter, the Akashi Princess, that is primarily of a didactic and/or pragthose

to

matic (that

is,

politically motivated) nature, are striking. 28 Let us

our attention to the

last

A A

the Bridge,” the

Surrogate Topos and Kaoru

topos

shifts

gestive of

from the

“gloom”

at

the narrative (and topological) level,

in chapter 2 discussed above, occurs

first

turn

ten chapters of the narrative.

second important displacement

matching the one

now

from the “Lady

at

of the so-called “Ten Uji Chapters.” The narrative capital to a place southeast

[ushi], as

of

it

name

at Uji, a

well as “inside” or “interior” [ucht]

29

sug-

This time

the narrative doesn’t stage a discussion of surrogates, but rather explores relentlessly the surrogate position

and

its

implications for

women.

of all, the “fatherless” Kaoru, the main male figure of the Uji chapand a sign and effect of Genji’s displacement, hears about the Eighth

First

ters

Prince because he keeps has served as a surrogate

company with father to him

Kashiwagi (Kaoru, whose mother wives,

is

is

—one

after the

Thus

The Eighth

who

real father,

last

of Genji’s

the narrator brings together

the “fictional” son of the Kiritsubo

tually Genji’s son), the other the “fictional”

wagi’s son).

death of his

the Third Princess, the

believed to be Genji’s son).

Reizei and Kaoru

the retired Reizei emperor,

emperor

(ac-

son of Genji (actually Kashi-

Prince, Genji’s half-brother, has been devoting

H.

18

RICHARD OKADA

himself to the study of Buddhism with an abbot

acquaintance ofReizei.The prince Uji looking after his wife, with

whom

happens to be

a close

kind of self-imposed exile

two daughters, Okimi and Nakanokimi. Since (for the Genji narrative) close

he had an unusually

monogamous

practically

lives in a

who

relationship, died

at

his

and

giving birth to the second

daughter, he has been a surrogate mother to them,

as

has

Bennokimi, the

is

important: Ben-

daughter of Kashiwagi’s wet nurse.

The network of surrogates

who

nokimi,

father’s side

had been

a

here

as

is

complex

as

it

surrogate sister to Kashiwagi,

is

of the deceased wife of the Eighth Prince. As

a

cousin on her

a relative ot the

Bennokimi came into his employ as guardian and surrogate mother to the prince’s two daughters after being away from the capital for ten years (her mother had died soon after Kashiwagi did). We learn that

prince’s wife,

she was also a close acquaintance of the daughter ot the Third Princess’s

wet nurse, Jiju

30

In other words, a motherless daughter

.

surrogate (Kashiwagi’s nurse)

is

now

a

surrogate to

(Bennokimi) of a

two motherless daugh-

and an intimate associate with another surrogate’s daughter. The interrelations among the surrogates are important because, as a result,

ters

able to gain access to the entourages ol

Bennokimi was

both Kashiwagi

and the Third Princess, thereby becoming privy to the secret of Kaoru’s “ The Lady at the birth, a secret that she begins to divulge to Kaoru in the Bridge.”

with

a

We

learn that she was entrusted by Kashiwagi

deathbed

spanning several meetings, in which Bennokimi

Kaoru’s past and her various words that

surrogate

with

Tamakazura

is

no chujo. His

own

fictive

tales,”

and with

us

remember,

learn this in the

storytelling ’

—an

evocation

of

his grandfather,

To

1

to the lineage

“real” father, Kashiwagi,

his official wife, the latter a

on the

references that further associate the

unmistakably evident here. let

relates

identity to him, are continually referred to by

mean “old

the

Kaoru belongs,

carries

his

written testament of sorts that she hands over to Kaoru. The narra-

tive installments,

and

on

of

was the oldest son of To no chujo

daughter of the Minister ot the Right (we

“Evening Faces” chapter). His mother, the Third Princess,

line

of the Suzaku emperor

who

was the son ot Genji's

mother’s nemesis, the Kokiden consort, herself a daughter of the Right. At the start of the “Uji chapters” character, Kaoru,

who

we

a

Minister ot

have, in other words, a

represents (“speaks for”) lineages that sought to oust

Kaoru in Murasaki never had any children of her own,

Genji’s political faction. Genji himself only “fathers”

a displaced

manner, and since

Genji’s lin-

eage gets displaced by other, politically opposing,

moreover, had been the victim of Reizei

as

a failed

lines.

The Eighth

Prince,

attempt by Kokiden to displace

emperor. With such genealogies and

political events at play,

it is

not surprising that the characters that emerge in the “Uji” chapters are

SPEAKING FOR lated to experience

and tragedy

ery,

miscommunication (even noncommunication), mis

32

.

Okiirii I

shall

now examine

the question of the surrogate as

lived in isolation in Uji until

fastly refuses to yield to sister

him.

it

relates to the

main

Okimi and Nakanokimi have their lives. The fatherless Kaoru

daughters

Kaoru

interested in the motherless

her

and Nakanokimi

women. The Eighth Princes

Uji

is

19

enters

Okimi, the older daughter, but she stead-

More

important, she urges Kaoru to accept Nakanokimi in her place, but Kaoru refuses to accept this surro-

Their relationship becomes more complicated when the Eighth Prince dies, leaving behind ambivalent statements about his wishes

gate.

for his

daughters and tne role he wants Kaoru to play in their

Reminiscent Suzaku emperors comments to Genji about theT hird Princess, the Princes remarks only serve to deepen the misunderstanding between the two characters involved. Okimi interprets her father’s words as a warning never to leave the confines of Uji, whereas Kaoru believes the Prince was lives.

of the

asking

him

to

become

Kaoru remains strongly

their guardian

attracted to

—

that

Okimi

is,

a surrogate for himself.

but, perhaps

due

in part to the

circumstances of his birth and also to the fact that he was initially interested in the Prince as a surrogate father with whom he could study Buddhist texts,

Prince

he cannot

dies,

act forthrightly

Okimi abandons hope

and claim her

for herself

as his

and begins

own. After the to play the role

of surrogate father/parent for her sister.

enlightened through Bennokimi

about the secret of his left

in

behind by

which she

his

real

birth,

s

Kaoru, meanwhile, has become narrations, not about Buddhist texts but

and has come into possession of the writings

father,

Kashiwagi. When

practically wills her

own

Okimi

death, her sister

dies, in a is

surrogate-

left

mother-less, vulnerable to the

manner

whims of the world and of men 33 The play of surrogates continues its complex movement as we near the introduction of Ukifune in “The Ivy.” Kaoru had countered Okimi s plans by getting the ever eager Niou be his surrogate and occupy the younger sister. Niou eventually marries Nakanokimi, but Kaoru s strategy only manages to drive a wedge between the two sisters and does not produce the desired effect as Okimi maintains her attitude of resistance and dies, as noted above. Meanwhile, Niou is pressured into marrying Yurigi’s daughter, Rokunokimi, who displaces Nakanokimi and leaves the latter miserable (more so since she’s now pregnant) with no strong backing. Rokunokimi’s stepmother

looked

after

friend.

Kaoru likewise

by Yurigi,

who is

.

is

Kashiwagi’s widow, the

plays the role

of surrogate for

latter

his ill-fated

pressured into marriage, in his case to one of

H.

20

RICHARD OKADA

4 The mother is dead Second Princess when we meet her, and the emperor (Suzaku’s son and Genji’s son-inn an echo of his father’s marrying off his daughter, the Third law) .'*

the emperor’s daughters, the

—

Princess, to Genji child.

—

sees in

Kaoru

a

source of support for the motherless

passively agrees to the marriage.

Kaoru

and emotionally displaced, Nakanokimi finds the equally troubled Kaoru a more than eager confidant and writes to him when she can no longer endure her situation with Niou. Kaoru had earlier spoken of Socially

Nakanokimi had expressed a deKaoru had been sire to make offerings of sutras or images of the Buddha. regretting his decision to enlist Niou to be his surrogate for the sister turning the Uji house into

temple, and

a

Okimi had tried to make into a surrogate for herself and the attention inhimself cites him to action. He quickly visits her chambers and, finding unable to restrain his desire, especially when she hints that she would like and convincing himself that her voice sounds just behavlike Okimi ’s, he takes hold of Nakanokimi’s sleeve. Shocked at his ior and at his belated attempt to make her a surrogate for Okimi, but un-

him

to take her to Uji,

him

able to reject intentions.

When

openly,

he

Nakanokimi begins

visits

her again in a

fit

to

be more wary of Kaoru

of nostalgia for Okimi, he

speaks of his desire to have a “likeness” [hitokata] or portrait of fered at Uji

35 .

The two

refers to a craftsman

discuss the implications

who made

flowers

fall

s

Okimi

of-

of likenesses and Kaoru

from the

sky.

At

that point,

Ukifune by way of repeating different words tor sur56 Nakanokimi’s strategem rogates: hitokata and also “memento” [katami ]. works and Kaoru’s curiosity is piqued by the story of this woman reported

Nakanokimi

to resemble

refers to

Okimi

37 .

Ukifune In

Ukifune the narrative rewrites Tamakazura,

and Nakanokimi

extends

radically

Tamakazura, Ukifune emerges out of

the

as this half-sister of

of the surrogate. Like

figure

a character’s narration,

but

as a clearly

constructed “image” conjured up by language and

rator’s (that

is,

She

as

this

time

the nar-

Nakanokimi’s) surrogate. Like Tamakazura, she has been

ing in a far-off province Hitachi.

Okimi

is

as a

stepdaughter, in her case of the

liv-

Governor

of

“fictional” in a genealogical sense: her “real” father, the

Eighth Prince, refused to acknowledge her existence and that of her mother, who ended up marrying the governor. By contrast, Tamakazura’s father,

To no

to have

abouts.

chujo, didn’t exactly abandon her, although he doesn’t

been too

solicitous

Having been

in the narrative,

raised

of her welfare, but

away from the

lost track

capital

her figuration participates

as

seem

of her where-

and suddenly appearing

does Tamakazura’s in the

.

SPEAKING FOR Bamboo-cutter intertext 38 She .

is

21

miserable for her but, in contrast to Tamakazura, she rejects herself

rejected by

is

when he

who

all

life

of them. She

suitor trying to curry favor with the governor

discovers that she

the suitor,

blood

one

who make

the focus of several suitors

is

only the stepdaughter of the wealthy man;

speaks tor those

who

subscribe to the preeminence of

turns his attention to Ukifunes half-sister because the latter the governor’s real daughter. The steadfast Kaoru, who sees Ukifune ties,

is

pri-

marily

as a

who

Niou,

surrogate (for

can

t

keep

his

Okimi and Nakanokimi), and the impetuous hands oft of any interesting woman, pursue her

and their attentions end up driving her to what she dead end. Completely at a loss, she attempts to kill herself.

relentlessly a

To

sees as only

greater degree than the other female characters, the narrator marks Ukilune by aspects of the surrogate and the copy. First, more than any a

other character, she writing,

known

as

is

shown engaged

in the practice

“writing practice” [tenant]

copying (even meticulous tracing) the

of

style

of calligraphic brush-

The common

practice of

well-known

calligraphic

a

model

involves a repetitive process that, over time, begins to blur the lines between original” and “copy.” Moreover, as a circular loop that begins and

ends with the aim of improving ones “style,” it also problematizes the function of writing as “communication.” In Ukifunes case, she writes

poems

that in different circumstances

would be

the narrator often remarks that she wrote the practice.’

What

municative

anyone

act.

someone else, but poem “by way of writing sent to

she writes, in other words, does not participate in a

Her words

com-

“speak,” but only as a copy that never reaches

39 .

Also, as mentioned,

Ukifune

tries to

end her

but the narrative will

life

eventually reveal that she has been saved by strangers. Immediately after the incident, the narrator states at the beginning of“The Drake Fly” that her surrogate Uji family, to translate

absence she

is

gulfs

[or,

even

nonpresence]

alive,

literally,

“were

in

an uproar searching for her

” 40

Moreover, unaware of her whereabouts or that they perform the rite of “cremation,” but the fiery pyre en-

only an absent,

fictional

body. In her sudden disappearance she

is

again linked with Tamakazura and Kaguya-hime. At the beginning of the next chapter, “At Writing Practice,” we learn that she is found dazed at the base of a tree by a party headed by a bishop ofYokawa; Kaguya-hime was

found

at

the base of a

bamboo

stalk.

Her

“changeling,” a term used for Kaguya-hime

when

she

first

mentioned Ukifune

rogate daughter of a

woman who

taken by the woman’s party to

to

was

(it

Kaoru ).

rescuers

41

had recently

also

refer

to

her

as

a

used by Nakanokimi

She then becomes the sur-

lost

her

own

daughter and 42

is

Ono, at the foot of Mt. Hiei Unable to die, then, Ukifune becomes death’s surrogate. Her life after her “death” is accordingly marked by “silence” (although, echoing .

RICHARD OKADA

H.

22

43

Yugao, “silence” was a part of her character from the beginning ), which performs the ultimate displacement of language, of narrative, of the very narrative that, like Kaoru and Niou, would force her to speak for others, would enclose her. As the narrative moves towards its end,

Ukifune only grows more determined to remain silent, refusing to re44 spond to direct questions about her background or to answer letters In her silent, dreamlike state after her “death,” a state in which the past .

be erased (she continually pleads amnesia), she eludes her pursuers and refuses to be co-opted back into a life in the capital. All she is left with is her speechless, homeless, and still thor-

and

memory would

all

oughly surrogate condition.

While the

desire for surrogates instituted at the

beginning of the nar-

remains intact with Ukifune, the position of the surrogate itself has become greatly transformed. As the narrator spoke for the surrogates, or rative

“surrogate-ness,” in the text, those figures effectively served to displace a

on what might be con-

host of variations, at different narratological levels, strued in,”

as

the “natural”; or, to put

through

a

maneuver

however,

we meet

comes

to be the naturalized one. With

character so completely inscribed by the

a

exist as a figure that defies

of the surrogate that she can only as either

another way, the position of the “stand-

that has global implications for the narrative,

for scholarly study in general, ifune,

it

“body” or “form”

—

a

body without form and

a

and

Ukmark

reclamation

form without

a

body. After suffering constant dislocation, she finally finds herself in a realm in

which

Niou can

desire for her

body

has

ended

in frustration (neither

Kaoru nor

which the anticipated reinstitulanguage) will also end in failure. She

“possess” her), but also one in

tion of her

form

(into society, into

has taken Buddhist

vows

to sever her ties with the

the sense that even that break

is

cannot be completely out of it

a final

one; she

is

world but we never get

not in the world but she

either.

Surrogate Conclusions

What

conclusions can

we begin

to draw, then,

from the pervasiveness of

the surrogate, “foster/step” situations in the Genji text, and as they relate to the act of “speaking for”? First, they provide a different,

perspective

on

a

more

notion familiar to Genji readers: substitution.

inclusive

4^

As ana-

lyzed by scholars, substitutive links, such those between the Kiritsubo

Consort, Fujitsubo, and Murasaki, remain displaces Genji as the

at a structural level that

main focus of those

links,

nor

is

neither

able to address the

question of the “original.” The problematic of the surrogate enables us to realize the illusory nature

the fictional,

as

we

of the “original”

realign the statuses

itself, fully

of the

inscribed as

women

it is

by

represented with

SPEAKING FOR those doing the representing. In other words,

it

23

allows us to trace the

com-

plex interrelations between surrogate status and kinship, on the one hand, and the act ot “speaking for” (narrating position and representation), on the other.

Second,

we

begin to see that the pervasiveness of the represented surrogates echoes the very status of the womans hand: a writing that was never exclusively a feminine domain but relegated to women, as if they

were male surrogates writing that writing

ultimately (re)appropriated by

is

moment

at a transitional discursive

men. Ki no Tsurayuki’s

egy of assuming the woman’s hand to write the Tosa Diary seen

as a

move

to relegate the

hand

ironic early attempt to appropriate for

women)

of the

hand

for

men.

46

to

women,

but

as

and keep control

The

before

in

strat-

935 can be

male surrogates, an

(ultimately, to speak

learned, middle-rank

women

re-

cruited as intermediaries (surrogates) of one kind or other to serve at the palace,

were the temporary caretakers of texts

a great (if

that

come

to

be regarded

as

not the greatest) flowering of Japanese literary culture.

Third, and expanding on the second point, the problematic of the surrogate and the act of speaking for is also, as I suggested earlier, intimately tied to the notion of “fiction,”

which often occupies

relative to a putative “reality”; or, in the case official histories

and other

of The

a surrogate position

Tale of Getiji text, to

texts written in Chinese. The ability to construe

monogatari as “Active,” or even allegorical, as specifically asserted in the

Genji text ply

itself,

on tenuous, Finally, the

suggests that the reading arbitrary, or irrelevant

I

am

proposing

is

not based sim-

connections.

problematic of the surrogate should allow us to think the

broader networks of narrative and their relation to the world without falling back on monological, essentialized positions, such as essentialized narrators/authors or Self-Other binarisms, since the position of the surrogate itself always already undermines those positions. In other words, the fictiveness of the surrogate

of positionality where

becomes

a figure for

identities are continually destabilized. If

maintain the problematic of the surrogate it

negotiating a realm

as

should enable us to interact with others

we

can

we go about our daily lives, in a new light. On the one

hand, the unquestionably valid desire of women and ethnic minorities to maintain a kind of identitarian assertiveness and equality must not keep

concealed incommensurabilities of position, privilege, and power embed-

ded

in

dominant Eurocentric

discourses.

On

the other hand, those already

placed in positions of dominance need to relearn and relocate their privilege in

ways that foreground

gency and surrogate

status.

women’s writing, ought sity professor.

their

My own

also to help

own

virtual

dependence on contin-

surrogate status, as

undermine my

I

speak for Heian

privilege as a univer-

H.

24

RICHARD OKADA Notes

1.

Roland Barthes, Empire of Signs, trans. Richard Howard (New York: Hill and Wang, 1982), p. 21; and Edward Said, “Representing the Colonized: Anthropology’s Interlocutors,” Said’s questions serve to

2.

I

am

Critical Inquiry,

15,no.2 (Winter 1989): 212.

a global context.

put Japan into

referring to Barthes’s suggestive essay, “Lesson in Writing,” in Image,

Music, Text, trans. Stephen

Heath (New York:

Hill

and Wang, 1977),

Edward W.

Exile has always been a subtext of Said’s writings; see

3.

(New York: Alfred

and Imperialism

ture

Cf.,“Why

this rejection [of ‘parts

or

A. Knopf, Inc., 1993),

.

.

.

173.

Said, Cul-

xxvi.

we

of the conceptual apparatus

all

herited from nineteenth-century Europe; including

and

p.

p.

in-

certain elements

of the conceptual apparatuses based in traditional movements of our ways of underliberation; including, of course, feminism’]?

logics

human

.

.

.

standing in the West have been and continue to be complicitous with our

ways of oppressing.” Alice Jardine, “Opaque Texts and Transparent Contexts:The Political Difference ofjulia Kristeva,” in The Poetics of Gender, ed.

Nancy K. 4.

Miller

(New York: Columbia

See Said, Culture and Imperialism, heuristically here since

I

University Press, 1986),

51.

p.

I

am

p.

99.

citing the “contrapuntal”

wish to displace the traces of the sell-other binary

that often subtends Orientalist criticism. 5.

Chandra Mohanty, “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses,” in Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991).

6.

See Mitani Kuniaki, “Seiritsu koso ron to josei besshi” [On the Original Shape of the Narrative and the Denigration of Women], in Genji monogatari o do

yomu ka [How

Kokubungaku kaishaku 7.

Denise Riley, tory

8.

Am

I

to

That

Do We Read

The

Tale of Genji?], a special issue

kansho (Tokyo: Shibundo, 1986): 208.

Name? Feminism and

the Category of Women in His-

(Minnesota: University ot Minnesota Press, 1988),

See Myra Jehlen’s

essay,

of

p. 2.

“Archimedes and the Paradox of Feminist Criti-

cism,” in Feminist Theory: A Critique of Ideology, eds. Nannerl O. Keohane, et al.

9.

10.

(Chicago:The University of Chicago

Press, 1982), pp.

Edward W. Said, Orientalism (New York: Pantheon Books, 1978). “The exteriority of the representation is always governed by some version of the truism that

if

the Orient could represent

itself, it

not, the representation does the job, for the West,

the poor Orient,” Said, Orientalism, 11.

189-215.

An enduring

attitude

among many

p.

would; since

it

can-

and faute de mieux, lor

21.

Japanologists has been to

findings of Japanese scholarship but to treat

more important work of interpretation or

them

as

honor the

raw material

translation (the classic

lor the

form of

“speaking for” in Japanology) carried out by Western scholars. Notable exceptions to the paradigm are

Naoki

Sakai, Voices from the Past (Ithaca,

NY:

Cornell University Press, 1992); Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto’s forthcoming study

of Akira Kurosawa; and the important essay by H. D. Harootunian,“Amer-

SPEAKING FOR ica

s

Japan/Japan

s

Japan,

in

Japan

H. D. Harootunian (Durham, 196-221. 12.

during the

All three lived

final

the World,

in

NC: Duke

and

diary

a

a

Masao Miyoshi and

ed.

University

Press,

1993), pp.

decades of the tenth century and the

decades of the eleventh. Murasaki Shikibu Genji text,

25

poem

left

collection. Sei

first

behind, in addition to the

Shdnagon

is

the author of

The Pillow Booh of Set Shdnagon. Like Murasaki Shikibu, Izumi Shikibu also left behind a “diary” and a poem collection. See, Murasaki Shikibu: Her Diary and Poetic Memoirs, trans. Richard Bowring (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982); The Pillow Book of Sei Shdnagon, trans. Ivan Morris, 2 vols. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1967); and The

Izumi Shikibu Diary: A Romance of the Heian Court, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969). 13.

Composing

for

someone

else

was actually

trans.

a practice

Edwin Cranston

common

to males as

well. 14.

Onna-de. See the discussion below on kana writing.

15.

For

a different

view of the The

dor of Longing in

women

and Genji, see

Tale of Genji (Princeton,

Norma

Field,

The Splen-

NJ: Princeton University

Press, 1987). 16.

Genji

“fails,” for

example, in

his relations

with

women

like

Utsusemi [Lo-

Asagao [Morning Glory Lady], Fujitsubo, Yugao, Suetsumuhana [Safflower Princess], Tamakazura, and the Rokujo Lady. Even his cust Shell Lady],

successes, the narrator 17.

With tion,

seems to imply, are never unconditional.

the imperially sanctioned compilation of the Japanese poetry collec-

Kokin wakashu

in 905,

poetry. See, Kokinshu:

A

kana became the

official

mode of writing

for

Poems Ancient and Modern (Princeton,

Collection of

NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984). 18.

See the discussions of the three writers tics:

19.

Feminist Literary Theory (London:

Figures of Resistance: Language, Poetry,

Other Mid-Heian Texts (Durham,

in Toril

Moi, Sexual /Textual

Poli-

Methuen, 1985).

and Narrating

NC: Duke

in

The Tale of Genji and

University Press, 1991), chap-

ter 8.

20.

Also referred to

The

as

Oigimi, which

is

See Figures of Resistance, pp. 192-196.

22.

mans The Tale of Genji, trans. Edward G. after cited as TTG): p. 387. Seidensticker translates the

Genji’s marriage to

Aoi

17-19. High-ranking ficial

sets

way

Seidensticker translates

it

in

Tale of Genji.

21.

23.

the

wife.”

position as “deputy viceroy of Kyushu.”

Seidensticker (Alfred Knopf, 1976; here-

“The Paulownia Court, ”TTG, pp. had numerous wives but only one “of-

takes place in

men

often

Marriage with the

of parents for strategic

official

(political)

wife was usually arranged by both purposes. As a consequence, other

wives had to compete with each other for the attentions of their husband. For a celebrated portrait of the feelings of a nonofficial wife to-

ward both her husband and her competitors, see The Kagero

Diary, trans.

RICHARD OKADA

H.

26

Sonja Arntzen (Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, The University

of Michigan, 1997).

“Murasaki must

24.

now

give

up the child

who

had been her whole

be with in just

south of the Heian capital that was popular

among women

such circumstances,”

A

26.

temple

far

TTG,

531.

p.

place for Buddhist worship and retreat.

He

positions her as a marginal element in the

Orange Blossom discussion ofTamakazura

Rokujd Mansion. See my of Resistance, chapter 9. The description of Genji’s mansion

quarters in his

“The Maiden,” TTG, In the

27.

someone

as a

ures

pp.

comes

Princess]

cared for by an old bamboo-cutter and his wife,

whom

is

Lady’s in Fig-

found

in

384-386.

Kaguya-hime [Shining

tale,

How

to

she wished that she had had such a daughter,

25.

life.

to earth for a time,

pursued by suitors

is

all

is

of

moon. For an English Thomas Rimer, Modem Japa-

she rejects, and in the end returns to the

translation of the tale

and

nese Fiction

by Donald Keene, see

NJ: Princeton University Press,

Traditions (Princeton,

Its

1978): pp. 275-305. 28.

the difference between his re-

“What would Tamakazura have made of

marks to her and these remarks to Murasaki?” TTG,

438. The Japanese

p.

emphasizes Tamakazura ’s displeasure were she to hear of Genji’s remarks.

of Genji monogatari, Abe Akio,

Vol. 3

et

eds., vols.

al.

12-17 of Nihon koten

GM):

bungaku zenshu (Tokyo: Shogakkan, 1972—76; hereafter, 29.

The

“gloom”

aspect of

Monk

Kisen:

“My

hut

derives

lies

from

The

place with mountains people associate with gloom.

acritical

marks,

sound from an unvoiced sound: either u-chi or

30.

TTG,

31

Here

.

are a

thus, a

di-

word written

u-chi

could be read

u-ji.

few examples. In “The Lady

“story of long ago,”

ibid., p.

p.

138 (TTG: “ancient

ibid., p.

151

(TTG:

at

the Bridge,”

GM,

ibid.,

narratives],

story,” p. 789); and,

oflong

get these: towazugatari [unasked for

[narratives],

we

are given the fol-

GM,

812 )\fum monogatari [ancient

“tale

ted); monogatari [narratives],

32.

suggestion of “in-

p.789.

(TTG:

we

live apart / at a

provides, to distinguish a voiced

lowing terms: mukashi no on-monogatari [old

GM,

I

premodern manuscripts do not contain

modern punctuation

as

207.

Kokinshu poem, no. 984, by the

a

southeast of the capital / thus

side” derives from the fact that

p.

GM,

ibid.

GM,

(TTG:

190 (TTG: “things to

narratives],

mukashi gatari [old

ago,” p. 795). In tale],

vol. 5, p.

136

GM,

tales],

“Beneath the Oak,”

ibid., p.

174 (TTG: omit-

“story,” p. 806); on-monogatari

say,” p.

812); and, on-furu mono-

gatari [ancient narrative],

GM,

Genji

of his union with the Akashi family, does succeed

when

lineage, as a result

s

ibid., p.

191

(TTG: “your

the Akashi Princess gives birth to a boy

prince.

That

rative focus

line,

which produces Niou,

is

who

is

story,” p. 812).

appointed crown

clearly subordinate to the nar-

on Kaoru, the Eighth Prince, and the prince s daughters. in “Trefoil Knots,”

TTG,

867.

33.

Okimi’s death occurs

34.

The Second Princess’ mother is the third “Fujitsubo” consort rative. The second was the mother of the Third Princess.

p.

in the nar-

SPEAKING FOR 35.

The word

mean

can

“likeness,” or refer

lustration ceremonies. pp.

36.

27

more

images used in

specifically to

Nakanokimi mentions Ukifune

“The Ivy”

in

TTG

915-917.

Kaoru speaks

wanting

ot

word that conhe will learn immediately, with Kaguya-hime.

whom

nects Ukifune, of

changeling

a

Seidensticker translates hitokata as

’

[henge no hito ] a

image, and katanu

as

TTG

“legacy”

p

916.

Tamakazura s existence was also first revealed by way of a narration. 38. She was like an angel that had wandered down from the heavens and might choose at any moment to return,” TTG, p. 1051. Here, the narra37.

tor actually speaks

from the nun’s position: “She felt as if she had witnessed the descent of a heavenly being from the skies,” CM, vol. I, p. 287. And, “The whole sequence of events was as singular as the story of the old

bamboo

cutter and the

moon

princess,”

TTG,

p. 1051. Here, too, the narrator speaks from the old man’s and the nun’s positions: “She [the

woman]

even more amazed than the old

felt

discovered Kaguya-hime,

GAL,

when he

in

her past

inhabiting a

as

poem,

“moon

capi-

GM, p. 291. The reference is obscured in the transcity, now bathed in the light of the moon,” TTG, p.

no miyako],

[tsuki

lation:

cutter had

vol. 6, p. 288. Finally, she refers in a

not meant for anyone, to people tal

bamboo

“Who

in the

1053. 39.

Examples of Ukifune

at

writing practice include the following:

TTG,

pp.

1053, 1062, 1069, 1070, and 1070. 40.

Cf.’The

Uji house was in an uproar. Ukifune had disappeared and frantic

searching had revealed no traces of her,”

more

42.

GM,

She yearned

And

she had

keepsake

[katami],

the bishop’s 43. Just before

sister,

Kaoru

wished to find “Let

The

Japanese

TTG,

p.

me

have

The nun

asks her questions

TTG,

p.

hidden

a

a

she

[her

treasure, a girl if anything su-

The

1052.

Japanese contains the word p.

288.

The woman

is

1047.

GM,

soon

TTG,

after they discover her,

me

word from her

Other examples of her

remarked

that

he

vol. 5, p. 436. Seidensticker

Silencetown somewhere,”

1048. ‘“Throw

and there had been not ibid.

p.

a

sound-less village,

it

word,”

TG,

now gone

remind her of the one

learns of Ukifune’s existence, he had

a

when

is

to an “absence.”

which Ukifune becomes, GAL,

translates

not answer,

to

come upon

perior to her daughter,” 7

said a

1012.

1044; see also note 31.

p.

companion

for a

was equivalent

status

269— 270; TTG,

vol. 6, p.

daughter].

44.

p.

suggestive ofUkifune’s fundamental condition since, even

was present, her surrogate 41.

TTG,

back into the

but

p.

915.

“The

girl

did

river,’

she had said,

since,” ibid., p. 1049.

“She has not

silence can be

found on pp. 1057,

1059, and 1078. 45.

Norma

Field

makes much of the notion of “substitution”

in

The Splendor

of Longing. 46.

An

English translation of The Tosa Diary

Classical Japanese Prose,

(Stanford,

CA:

is

available as

A

Tosa Journal in

compiled and edited by Helen Craig McCullough

Stanford University Press, 1990), pp. 73-102.

*•

CHAPTER

2

RE-VISIONING THE WIDOW

CHRISTINE DE PIZAN Barbara Stevenson

S

ince the publication of Earl Jeffrey Richards’s translation of The Book of the City of Laches in 1982, interest in Christine de Pizan has grown

so sharply

and dramatically

that within a

category of “minor” medieval writer to

decade she transcended the lowly

become

a

“major” one. Indeed, she

may well now be the most popular medieval woman writer in the canon. The burgeoning scholarship on Christine arises from the debate over her literary merit:

canon

the

was Christine,

in

the past because of gender discrimination, or

mediocre author ical

talented and influential writer, omitted

a

now

foisted

upon

is

from

she a

readers because of demands for “polit-

correctness”? This discussion occurs largely in

North American acad-

emia, with the result that her works are rapidly appearing in Modern English translation rather than as editions of her French manuscripts. Thus, critiques

themes.

of her language and writing

style are rarer

than critiques of her

Much

of the scholarship centers upon her self-representation as a female author and concomitant political views regarding sex and gender. Critics tend to equate her personae with her literature in a personal

and

subjective manner, ranging from calling her (and her literature) “feminist” to “conservative.” Historically

approved of her

literature

readers

seem

to have

approved or

dis-

based upon their emotional reactions to her sub-

ject position as female author. studies published

many

on Christine

It is

not surprising, then, that

in the 1980s

many of the

and 1990s foreground the na-

ture of her “feminism.”

However,

this

concern with Christines feminism has obscured other

readings, particularly the interest that postfeminist,

show

in Christine’s construction

of herself

as a

postmodern readers

widow

suffering during a

BARBARA STEVENSON

30

dark time in France’s history.

such

versal histories,

read

as a “life

autobiographical elements in her uni-

The

Lavision- Christine (1405), are increasingly being

as

story” or a “survivor narrative,” a

crises as society

continues

dividual cannot control.

memoir about enduring

downward spiral ot degeneration that the inmay be more than coincidence that Christine

its

It

preeminence during the “post-medieval’ period (the fifteenth century serves as the transition between the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era) and that she is popular once more in the postmodern era. first

rose to

Shifting perceptions of the self parallel profound cultural changes during

these

two “post”

periods.

Not only have

perceptions of self changed over time. According to

Denise Riley, “‘women’

is

a volatile collectivity in

which female persons

can be very differently positioned, so that the apparent continuity of the -” In Am I that Name? Riley subject of ‘women’ isn’t to be relied on. 1

.

.

“women,” noting that 2 medieval and the modern.

surveys the history of the fluctuating category of

Christine functions

What

as a transition

Riley presents

though

a

the history of “women”

as

male subset “widow,”

between the

as

category of

ical

construct.

womanhood

a

equally true of the fe-

Christine

historical reactions to

“widow” may obviously be

this

is

woman whose

nevertheless

is

illustrate.

Al-

husband has died, changing histor-

a constantly

Christine apparently tried to grant herself authority to speak and to validate herself to her

own

audience by defining herself as

succeeding eras devalued the ies,

traits

a

widow. Because

of widowhood that Christine embod-

The

her literature declined in popularity.

twentieth century has wit-

nessed a great revival of interest in her literature because readers have

superimposed the values of modern feminism upon Christine’s portrayal of herself and other women. This application of differing agendas through the centuries to the image of the

termine her

literary

widow

Christine vexes attempts to de-

worth. Literary standards are

relative,

and

as

percep-

of widow have changed and will probably continue to change, so do readers’ evaluations of Christine’s literature, since author and text, subject and object, are melded together in Christine’s works. tions of the construct

The Widow

Christine

Scholars posit that Christine positioned herself in her writing loyal to her late Jesus’s parable

the

widow

as

as a

widow

husband because of medieval idealization of widowhood.

of the

widow and

her mite led to Catholic iconography of

the ideal Christian and even as the church

upon the death of Christ on

the cross.

exists in different degrees. The highest

3

According to

and purest

state

St.

itself,

widowed

Jerome, chastity

of chastity

is

the ab-

RE-VISIONING THE WIDOW CHRISTINE DE PIZAN

31

solute virginity expected of

monks, nuns, and others associated with the church. The next highest state and the highest for seculars like Chris-

—

tine

is

chaste

4

widowhood. Christine

no

has

particular authority vested

was not aligned with the Church nor descended from problem further compounded by her being a foreigner from

in herself, since she

aristocracy, a

widowed

Therefore, she uses her

Italy.

speak

state to grant herself

authority to

an oppressed Christian addressing other oppressed Christians during the dark time of Frances internecine civil conflicts and Hundred Years’ as

War with England. Kevin Brownlee has observed

that in

Christine consistently depicts herself

remains faithful to her an

affair

with Aeneas

as a

her autobiographical writings,

all

“corrected Dido,” a

husband, in contrast to

late

swearing loyalty to her

after

Virgil’s

widow who

Dido who

has

husband Sychaeus. 5

late

most extensively autobiographical work, Lavision- Christine, Chrissays of her late husband that “noubliant ma foy et bonne amour

In her tine

promise ing

my

a lui

troth

deliberay en sain propos de iamais autre navoir” [remember-

and the love

have another].

at

times revered,

much

like

widows

common

had to contend with the

wisely resolved never to

in the

Middle Ages nonethe-

misogynist notion that widows,

women,

independent, sexually-experienced ous,

I

6

Though perhaps less

had pledged him,

I

are manipulative

and

Chaucer’s infamous Wife of Bath or Virgil’s Dido.

Lavision- Chris tine, Christine laments the salacious stereotype

she complains of the unjustified rumors that she has

as

lascivi7

In the

of widows,

as

“quel plus

a lover:

grant mal et desplaisir peust sourdre a linnocent ne plus grant cause de im-

pacience que de soy oir diffamer sanz cause

de boece en son

livre

de consolacion / ne

comme

fut

il

ll

appert par

pas dit de

maoy

les

rapors

par toute

amoye par amours” (157) [What greater evil can befall someone who is innocent, what can vex one more deeply than to hear la

ville

quee

ie

oneself unjustly accused,

as

rumored throughout the

city that

By

write of her

own

about her. Being

a

sence of a husband ditional

—

not

(12).

becoming

the displaced sexual Object; she can

a

experiences, rather than having

—

a

woman whose

men

presence

is

speak for her and

marked by the ab-

Christine in her texts becomes a surrogate for the tra-

male scholar

(a

role played

assuming the personae of church authorities

was romantically involved?]

I

it

widow, Christine places herself in the

resist

widow

Was

relates in the Consolation?

chaste

constructing herself as

Subject position to

sition

Boethius

like St.

a chaste

by her husband and her

widow, she

who

Jerome

is

father).

By

appealing to important

enable her to take the textual po-

of Subject. 8

Jerome fashions church doctrine regarding interpreting Pauline scripture. In

1

women

and

their bodies

by

Corinthians 7 Paul affirms the super i-

BARBARA STEVENSON

32

and encourages the unmarried and widows to emulate

ority of virginity

his celibate state (7:8).

forbidding

women

Although Paul approves of

a patriarchal

and commanding wives’ obe-

to preach (1 Cor. 14:34)

dience to their husbands (Col. 3:18), he suggests that equal in heaven: “ ... in Christ shall

“Where and of

there

is

all

neither Greek nor Jew,

be made alive” .

.

.

bond nor

in all” (Col. 3:11). Since Paul distinguishes

body of the

earth and the spiritual

this

women’s lower

status,

by the equality of

all

become

by denying

men

like

this

celestial bodies.

aspire to a higher state as to

but that

to

virile,

Christians are

all

(1

free:

Cor. 15:22) and

but Christ

between the in

afterlife

hegemony

natural

heaven

body on

15:35-58), Jerome proclaims that the inferior female fies

hierarchy

is all,

body Cor.

(1

earth justi-

overthrown in heaven

is

Nevertheless,

women on

their carnal nature

borrow Jerome’s

earth can

through celibacy, so

Latin.

9

Hence

in the

although Christine gives thanks to her father and husband for

Lavision,

teaching her

literacy,

she does not

become

a scholar until she

is

a celibate

widow: Cest assavoir

solitaire et

ruminacions du

coye / adone par solitude

rethorique que ouy

pere et

mary

verite

me

le

non

obstant.

que

tray au

il

.

.

non

pour toute

nest fors

sentences

ma foulour petit monde tout pelein de

obstant que par

Ainsi considerant

.

les

temps passe au vivant de mes amis trespassez

je avoye de eulx

perilleux / et

vindrent au devant

latin et des parleures des belles sciences et dierses

et polie

retemsse car

me

fin

chemin ou propre nature

un

le

seul bien qui est la

et constellacion

en laz

voye de

mencline (161,

163).

my

[In

solitude, there

came back

me some

to

remnants of Latin and the

beauteous sciences, along with sayings from the authors and rhetorical pieces lity,

I

had heard

my

beloved father and husband

had remembered quite poorly. ... So

wards which

I

I

recite, but, in

my

frivo-

turned to the path of study, to-

was inclined by nature and constellation]

(15, 17).

This linking of celibacy to scholarship neutralizes her sexuality and suggests

an androgynous

holy

women

The Book of

before her (such

rise

The

as

the

the City of Ladies), she

speak for herself and other In

keeping with church doctrine, and

state in

numerous ones she commemorates is

now

vested with the authority to

widowhood

as a

after Christine’s

"

One

death in the 1430s.

medieval Christian icon coincided with

the rise of the Protestant Reformation’s emphasis chal family.

in

the perception of widowhood shifted with the

of the Early Modern Era, shortly

1

other

women.

some important ways, decline of

like

upon

the holy patriar-

striking law in Paris that demonstrates shifting attitudes

was the eighteenth-century edict prohibiting widows and single

women

1

RE-VISIONING THE WIDOW CHRISTINE DE IMZAN from moving to Paris on their by men.

1

According

again, as females are

autonomous

women

own and

allowing only those families led

known

to Riley, the category

viewed

as

“women” shifted

yet

from the medieval Catholic perspective

less

trapped in carnal bodies, to a

souls

33

more

view

secular

as

that

products of Nature are “held to be virtually saturated with their ” 12 sex which then invades their rational and spiritual faculties More as

.

than ever,

dency

women

were assumed

that includes having

men

.

dependent upon men,

to be

a

depen-

speak on their behalf, whether in oral or

written form.

became inappropriate for women to write, Christine s literary fortunes declined. To illustrate, with the advent of the printing press, The Book of the Deeds of Arms and of Chivalry appeared without Christine s Since

it

name, thereby creating the impression treatise.

She was

teenth centuries,

a

a

book

courtesy

Gothic

revival

“minor" medieval writer

known

as a

widow

that instructs

man composed

that a

this military

to the seventeenth

and eigh-

dispensing advice in the Three

women on

proper behavior. With the

of the nineteenth century, readers rekindled their

interest in

Christine, especially her courtly love poetry, reading her as a lonely

lamenting the death of her husband.

Around

this time, scholars

began

Virtues,

widow

13

to

form the modern

literary

canon. As

the debate over Christine’s merit raged, her reputation suffered because

imposed anachronistic conceptions upon Christine and her literature. Most famous (or rather infamous) is Gustave Lansons critique of her in 1894 as a “bas bleu" guilty of “mediocrite.” 14 The etymology of “bluecritics

stocking" exemplifies Riley’s point about the

modern

status

of women: ac-

OED, the term “bluestocking” appeared about 1750 as a womens wearing informal attire like blue stockings while at-

cording to the reference to

tending the literary salons of notable

by 1757 degenerated into

arts

patrons like Mrs. Montague, but

a pejorative insult

fecting literary tastes; literary or learned.” Christine’s literature rarely appeared in

about women’s “having or

As

a result

modern

of such

af-

dismissals,

scholarly editions or an-

thologies of medieval works, until Richards’s 1982 translation of The Book of the City of Ladies.

The

reaction against the exclusion of

originated with the rising feminist

women

from the

literary arena

movement of the nineteenth

century.

Starting with the late nineteenth century, Christine’s supporters found

themselves

on the

defensive,

Throughout the twentieth in particular

against

retaliating

The Book of the City of Ladies

to twentieth-century feminism.

of manuscripts

exists

likes

of Lanson.

century, Christine’s advocates have argued that is

a

well written treatise, an im-

portant contribution to the fifteenth-century

and

the

15

of The Book of

No

“woman

question” debate

scholarly edition with collation

the City of Ladies, so

when Richards

BARBARA STEVENSON

34

made

published his translation in 1982 and thus

Christine available to ah,

became a favorite topic among medievalists although Christine herself would have been as unfamiliar with the modern concept of feminism as she would have been with the discussion of Christine and her feminism

—

the misogynist taunt of bluestocking.

For

work

a

comments about women

like Lavision- Chris tine, Christine’s

and about her

widow become

life as a

century readers. Christine

which she claims

are

lists

endemic

feminist statements to twentieth-

problems, such

as

debtors’ refusal to pay her,

widows. She condemns those

to

of her and other widows: “Adonc

to take advantage

goisses de toutes pars / et

comme

ce soient

mes

les

me

who

seek

sourdirent an-

des veusves plais et pro-

mavironnerent de touz lez” (154) [Trouble surged around me from all sides, and as is the common lot of widows, I became entangled in legal disces

putes of every sort”] (10). Such statements can

women’s

for

rights,

but the medieval church

feminism

for supporting

—

also expressed

seem

to

— not an

be

a feminist call

known

institution

concern for the exploitation ot

widows. The 1140 text Concordia discordantium canonum by Gratian outlined

widows and other disadvantaged groups in court. Such doctrines became important as litigation became complex, requiring knowledgeable legal assistance. Pope Innocent IV even the ways church figures were to help

widows the option to appeal to ecclesiastical courts should civil 16 Therefore, it may be a mistake to identify courts treat them unfairly. Christine’s concern for widows with modern feminism. gave

Nevertheless, studies of Christine often examine her “medieval femi-

nism,”

17

so Christine has

The movement

canon has led

Literature Lost: Social Agendas

known

be

as

an early feminist writer.

women

writ-

to retaliation. For instance, in his

1997

and

John

and other overlooked

the Corruption of the Humanities,

how “academic feminism drives up the level of hysteria 16 “Hystepatriarchal conspiracies against women past and present.”

complains

Ellis

about ria”

to

to position Christine

ers in the literary

book

come

may

women

well be the oldest gender-based insult used to dismiss writers, a kind

ad feminam) since she

is

fallacy.

now

of ad

hominem

(or perhaps

women

more appropriate

and

here,

This backlash against feminists includes Christine,

identified with feminism.

On

the one hand, John V. Flem-

ing dismisses Christine’s role in the famous quarrel over the (de)merits of the

Roman

de

rather inflated,

la

Rose by saying, “Christine’s part in the Quarrel has been

one

suspects,

be taken too seriously.

acumen

.

.

by modern feminists and should probably not

.Taken

seriously,

her arguments and her manner

show

the

who

dared to write against Theophrastus.’”

(in the

ist/feminist critic Sheila

words of Jean de Montreuil) of ‘the Greek whore

Delany

16

On

labels Christine a

ing of the sexual violence and language in the

the other hand.

Marx-

“prude” for disapprov-

Roman

de

la

Rose.

2"

These

,

RE-VISIONING THE WIDOW CHRISTINE DE PIZAN

35

two extremes of “whore” and “prude” to denigrate Christine reinforce the argument of Dale Spender, who claims that words addressing womens sexuality

on two opposite but equally negative poles, and there does not feminine-marked term to denote a woman as a positive and nor-

fall

exist a

mal sexual being. 21

A “Corrected Dido” like

approbation she once did ders

why

and

literature, instead

Middle Ages.

in the

Ellis in Literature

won-

Lost

upon examining the relationship between gender of focusing upon the aesthetic reasons that make a

feminists insist

writer like Shakespeare history of

perennial favorite.

a

women, “There

to ‘humanity.’”

23

A

is

.

.

.

no

his

But

book

Riley shows in her

as

from feminism

details

about

his sexual life that

be received,

will

promiscuous

his

On

the contrary, a

judged

in

life

followed by his celibate

woman

tively

work

writer like Christine often finds her

self-representation as a scholarly

widow

tells

Christian bishop.

life as a

accordance with her “inferior” sexual

by

as illustrated

Augustine’s influential and much-respected Confessions in which he

of

to a

no easy passage from ‘women’

is

male writer can provide

not compromise the way

22

fluent trajectory

humanism; there

truly sexual democratic

will

Christine does not receive the

Indeed, Christine’s

status.

writer has influenced, both posi-

and negatively, her readers since her time to our own.

In

upon

reflecting

two

the popularity of Christine over the past

decades, Richards has applauded the critical attention lavished

upon

a

worthy writer while lamenting the naive way Christine has been described anachronistically as a feminist. Imposing such Christine’s medieval texts leads Sheila

contemporary contexts upon

Delany

to reject Christine

pletely because her medieval views are too conservative.

notes, to tic, is

in

com-

Yet, Richards

view Christine from our own perspective, although anachronis-

nevertheless inevitable: “Christine’s writings are profoundly political

themselves but their political content, per

merging with

Christine in their linked together.

Widow

own

Now

it

may be

during

Christine

times apparently

be confused with

is

this postfeminist,

shifting again.

life

The

postmodern

focus

is

era, the

on Christine

image as

au-

story as a victim with other suffering victims

of a survivor narrative.

Zimmerman and

beyond The Book to other pieces fortune,

at

inevitable that readers recast

Christine and Postmodern In 1994,

while

image, for reader, author, and text are inextricably

tobiographer sharing her in the context

se,

readers’ ideological interests, should not

them.” 25 Although good advice,

of the

24

—

America

Rentiis noted that scholars are finally

moving

of the City of Ladies and the issue of feminism to attend particularly Lavision-Christine, Le

and the biography of Charles V

—and

livre

de

la

mutacion de

to other political issues like

BARBARA STEVENSON

36

nationalism.

would be

26

From

classified as histories,

but from our perspective

construed Christine

and narrowed images. In

particular, she

graphical author chronicling such

modern genre

a

are likely to

woes

as

to present equally distorted

now

is

writing about war,

depicted

an autobio-

as

widowhood. Even though

it is

of such personal sorrows in her works, nevertheless au-

tells is

man

feminist or even as a

as a

contemporary selections of Christine seem

tobiography

we

auto/biographies. If previous generations have mis-

classify all three as

true that she

works

Christine’s medieval perspective, these three

unfamiliar to her, and the small autobio-

components of her texts are now magnified disproportionately. To illustrate, Americans are most likely to be introduced to Christine

graphical

through excerpts that appear in world

sophomore

A

literature courses.

literature anthologies

designed for

typical anthology, Western Literature in a

World Context provides the opening to The Book of the City of Ladies, in

which Christine

shares her personal despair over the depiction of women

by male writers, followed by her

visit

from the three

Ladies Reason, Rectitude, and Justice. as

an example of Christine’s feminism,

The

ically.

Not only it is

is

now

presented

as a series

who

and moral

in their actions. Al-

primary focus of Christine’s

are the

history of

text, nevertheless

who women

Martin’s anthology includes only one brief example: Lucretia,

committed suicide do not wish in

as a universal

The

of exempla from ancient times to the pres-

are strong leaders, wise

though the exempla St.

opening often read

autobiographical aspects of the work, though, are brief.

ent of women

the

this

of

often read autobiograph-

bulk of Christine’s allegorical dream vision serves

women,

allegorical figures

to

after

be raped

the anthology

who thereby illustrates that some men have asserted. 2 The focus

her rape and

—and

as

'

one could argue

in

instead

the literary criticism

—

is

Christine’s self-representation.

A

emerges

similar focus

in Charity

The anthology

Christine de Pizan.

Cannon

Willard’s The Writings of

begins not with the earliest work, but

with her most extensive autobiography, Lavision- Chris tine. Like The Book of the City of Ladies, versal history

thology

Christine

autobiography that conversation with

Opinion).

an allegorical dream vision that serves

is

with personal memoirs woven into the

contains

28

it

tells

of

translation

Widow

France) and Part

II

an-

Part I

(the discussion

III

(the

(Christine’s

with

Dame

As Rosalind Brown-Grant notes, Christine represents herself

one of many exempla

tine

being anthologized

in her universal histories. In contrast, Chris-

as a

writer of memoirs, with a

much

emphasis on the personal than Christine intended. In her 1992

Brown-Grant Christine’s

uni-

text. Willard’s

of her widowhood) and omits Part

as just is

Reno’s

as a

reveals that

all

the criticism up to her

self-representation

in

Lavision;

own

however,

heavier article,

has centered

this

on

emphasis on

— RE-VISIONING THE WIDOW CHRISTINE DE IMZAN Christines story in Part

overlooks the fact that the work

III

tobiography and completely ignores the

first

is

37

not an au-

sections of the treatise. 29

two

Readers project the concept of autobiography upon Christine, for autobiography is an eighteenth-century invention unknown to her. Numerous have demonstrated that since Christine did not have the modern genre of autobiography as a form to reveal her life story, she cast it accritics

cording to traditional literary models.

Apparently one of her favorite works, Dantes Divine Comedy provided a

model whereby she

—

grafe

is

the first-person narrator acting as recorder

for the allegorical

commentary on

dream

the State and

anty-

vision [avision] that unfolds as a political

of history

all

the personal history of the narrator.

3"

as

ordained by God, including

Nowhere

is

this

influence

more ob-

vious than in the opening of Lavision, which repeats almost verbatim the

opening of the Divine Comedy: pelerinage

.

(73)

.

31

grimage.

.

.

,]

is

avoye

la

is

mon of my pil-

moitie du chemin de

was already midway through the journey

While Dante

vention, Christine Lavision

[I

“Ja passe

the troubled sinner requiring divine inter-

the troubled widow.

employs other models that permit Christine to discuss

herself,

most notably the dream vision of Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy. Several scholarly studies have examined the ways that Part III adapts the dialogue

m which

Christine,

now

Philosophy about suffering

a

senator by

spectives.

widow

a

Both

of Fortune,

as a result

narrator only tragically to snatch a

surrogate for Boethius, complains to Lady

them

who

grants

boons

to the

away. Although the displacement of

does invite feminist readings, there are other per-

of

are suffering as a result

social

injustice:

Boethius

is

wrongly imprisoned on charges of treason, Christine is beset by financial and personal woes after the deaths of her father, husband, and benefactor.

As Mary Skemp points out, by borrowing from such famous models as Dante and Boethius, Christine expresses the medieval desire to place the self in

can’s

conjunction with others

—

in sharp contrast to the

modern Ameri-

—and

to stress the uni-

emphasis on individual difference from others

of human nature.

versality

The

third section,

two, but rather a logical

is

32

however,

is

no

the culmination of the previous parts, integrating

whole. While Christine’s conversation with the

dominates the

first

part, the subject

nates the third section. In Part

“physician,”

from the other

discrete unit separate

whom

I

Widow

of Christine’s widowhood

France

tells

scholars interpret to be

his death, discord disrupts the country,

later

all

into

France

domi-

of her happy marriage with the

King Charles V. 33 However, with

ushering in the period of France’s

grieving for her deceased husband. France narrates the cyclical pattern of

Fortune, the good followed by the bad, ending with Christine’s present time, for

which France

fears

“grans perplexities avemr ains

le

reparement de

BARBARA STEVENSON

38

ma

ruine

.

(McLeod,

ruin]

may be

(100) [there

.

34). In the

great hardships before the repair of

second section, Christine pays an

of Paris to converse with

to the University

my

allegorical visit

Dame Opinion

about current

debates over such philosophical issues as the composition of the material

world. The scholarly debates of Part

ment

as a

widowed

scholar,

which

In her third section Christine

is

II

own

anticipate Christines

recorded in Part

becomes the

develop-

III.

universal

who

widow,

dur-

ing her conversation with Lady Philosophy compares herself with Job,

devout individuals of great suffering. Indeed, one reads medieval literature on widows, one is struck by the ways

Christ, and Boethius,

when

all

widow

that her particular troubles are general is

involved with sexual

and

children, tance.

34

ploited

legal

In Part

III

troubles: suspicion that she

struggles to support her

affairs,

caused by court confusion over inheri-

difficulties

she complains to Lady Philosophy

when even presumed

mother and three

how

she was ex-

friends refused to pay their debts to her or

gossiped about her. Lady Philosophy replies that Christine should express gratitude for these hardships, for they have actually benefited her. Freed

from

a

myriad of marital

responsibilities, she spent

scholarship and writing: “que naturelment et des

me

cline les

toloit

y vaquer loccupacion des

mariees” (161) [Despite the

ing from

my

occupied,

wise

Widowhood

my

earliest years, as

did

the

even gave her

a

fact that

affaires

my

ma

nativite

en-

que ont communement

me to woman kept me

of frequent

learn-

other-

childbearing]

writing goal and a mission in

protection of widows and argue

fusse

y

nature inclined

duties as a married

burden

her evenings learning

on behalf of women. She

to

life:

(15).

promote

reveals that she

wrote some poems, which came to the attention of royalty

who became

her patrons. She then went on to write her more substantial “histories” apparently a reference to her allegorical prose works

her more. Although Lavision does not end with

problems or with those of her

society’s,

—which

a resolution

interested

of Christine’s

Christine nevertheless thanks Lady

Philosophy for consoling her in the guise ofTheology, helping her to see that

God

out

a

controls

doubt

widow

it is

all,

even during the dark times for her and France. With-

this last section

that interests readers

with

its

moving

narrative of her plight as

now.

Aside from anthologies, recent scholarship on Christine also reflects

growing emphasis upon autobiography,

as a

a

survey of Angus Kennedy’s

on Christine and the MLA Bibliography online (1962 show. Although gender studies dominate the approaches to

bibliographies present)

Christine, studies of the literary construction of the self are

By 1998

there were about eight scholarly

tobiography”

and Society

in the title, the earliest

on the

rise.

works containing “self” or “au-

being Reno’s dissertation on “Self

in Lavision- Christine" in 1973.

“Autobiography”

is

first

ex-

RE-VISIONING THE WIDOW CHRISTINE DE IMZAN mentioned

plicitly

1992 by Rosalind Brown-Grant. Six of the eight

in

studies appear in the 1990s, suggesting that autobiography

postmodern

sidered a

which

Christine,

interest.

may be con-

Three of these eight focus on

not surprising since

is

39

it

her most

is

Lavision-

thoroughly

autobiographical work. Indeed, in the 1994 article entitled “Autobiogra-

phy

Authority in Lavision-Christine

as

Skemp

states, “I

believe that Lav-

holds an important place in her works then because of the explicitly autobiographical narrative contained within the allegory.” 35 ision

It is

not just Christines

critics

who

stress

autobiography;

it

has

become

preoccupation for scholarship in general. Laura Marcus traces the modern fascination with autobiography, connecting it to schools of philosopha

ical

thought.

One prominent American

trend

the “decline”

is

Karl Weintraub and Christopher Lasch, liberal pessimists

model of

who

connect

Americas obsession with autobiography to narcissism and the estrangement of self from society. With Foucault, Derrida, and postmodernism the politics

of individual identity become

trauma.

survivor

particularly

studies,” 36

A

favorite subject

Now

central.

discourse,

there

narratives

of such discourse

is

is

the rise of “life

of recovery from

the “dysfunction” and

“breakdown” of the American family due to such factors as divorce and death. Just as the medieval emphasis on the holy celibate individual shifted to the Early Modern focus on the holy patriarchal family, the dissolving family

now

exemplifies the postmodern era. Anxiety over identity

panies such change: if one can

within the context of

then what

widow difficult

is

family led by both

a

viewed by modernism

no longer

accom-

establish a personal identity a

mother and

a father

—long

the cornerstone of secular and sacred society,

as

the individual’s identity? Christine’s self-representation as

supplies

one answer

to this question, as she traces her painful

personal journey from daughter and wife, to

her three children and her

own widowed

widow

and

supporting

mother, to successful author and

scholar.

Such

life stories,

though, have mostly been viewed

as inferior,

popular

forms of autobiography. To differentiate the “popular” autobiography from the “serious,” academics have produced a hierarchy of autobiography that

dominates the criticism. Georges Gusdorf, for instance, proclaimed that Augustine created autobiography in consciousness within

Confessions,

a public, historical

by

context. Since Gusdorf s defini-

tion of “genuine” autobiography necessarily excluded

Western authors and women, standards for autobiography.

critics

37

In

situating personal

its

memoirs by non-

have rushed in to attack and redefine

modeling herself

after

such revered

fig-

ures as Boethius and Augustine, Christine attempts to place her struggles

on the same plane gentsia

of her era

as

those of authorities acknowledged by the intelli-

—and

who

are

still

acknowledged

as

authorities by

BARBARA STEVENSON

40

academic distinctions between “high” and “low” forms of autobiography, nonetheless the preoccupation with autobiography and its accompanying pessimism exist along a continuum.

today’s intelligentsia. Despite

Americans, whether academics or not, are obsessed with the construction of self, a self victimized during a time of chaos and change. This perception that

America

is

how

in chaos, causing the individual to suffer, mirrors

Christine depicts herself: a universal example of a suffering widow, a vic-

tim of cyclical Fortune in

a linear

Armageddon. Thus,

ward

Christian history heading steadily to-

postfeminist reading audiences.

postmodern,

with

resonates

Christine 38

Joel Blanchard maintains that Christine records the transition of the

Middle Ages

modern

y>

to the Renaissance in Lavision

Although “medieval” that her society

shows an awareness

construct, Christine

becom-

is

ing “post-medieval,” especially seen in her depiction of her struggles

widow. Beginning

as a

Council of the Church

in 451 at the Fourth General

a

is

at

Chalcedon, church leaders were discouraged from involvement in property

management and other vantaged persons tions regarding

secular affairs unless

widows.

like

40

Over

it

was to help certain disad-

the centuries, ecclesiastical regula-

strengthen. However, as the

widows would

Middle Ages

waned, so did the Church’s involvement with widows. As Christine explains in Lavision, a widow is on her own. The court conflicts of widows and others finally led to codification

—about 80

of France

cation, the shift

complete,

as

of laws,

in

first

1

5 1 0 in Paris and later for

With this codifiprotection of widows to civil was

years after the death of Christine.

between

ecclesiastical

was the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance.

As Angus Kennedy observes in the preface to

his

1984 bibliography on

Christine, in recent decades certain discernable trends have

emerged

garding Christine in particular and medieval studies in general: has

been

a steady increase

of interest

and, second, this dramatic rise

and

inism,

to a shift

is

—was an

due

late

a

late

and medieval

to such political that the

first,

movements

Middle Ages

—

Middle Ages perhaps

42

re-

there

studies; as

fem-

especially

fourteenth and early fifteenth cen-

era of chaotic decay, to the perspective that this

epoch of rapid, momentous change.

on the

in Christine

from the perspective

during Christine’s time of the turies

all

41

This

parallels

new

interest in

was an

and perspective

our awareness that

we

too

live in

“post-time,” “post-modern” as opposed to Christine’s “post-medieval.” As

we

new millenium, pessimism prevails. Be No More: Prophecy Belief in American

face a

Shall

Paul Boyer, in Culture, argues

Americans, especially devout Christians, perceive that history

and

that the individual

dergoing.

The most

a

When Time that many is

ordained

cannot change the apparent decay society

person can hope for

vation of the entire society

is

not

feasible.

43

is

is

personal salvation, since

unsal-

,

RE-VISIONING THE WIDOW CHRISTINE

IMZAN

I)E

41

Similarly, Christines apocalyptic thinking manifests itself in the Lavision. In Part I, France shares with Christine her glorious and tragic his-

tory during the six ages of humanity. According to scholastic theory of history, God s creation of the seven days of the week prefigures the seven ages of human history, with the sixth age Christine’s perception of her

—

own

era

the dissolute age before the

as

esied in the Biblical

dream vision

briefly alludes in Lavision.

AA

The

of

end of linear

history, as

proph-

which Christine France reveals seem to be

Revelation

struggles that

to

allegorical references to the internecine disputes leading to civil conflict

and the Hundred Years' War with England, events that will occur at the end of Christine s life. France ends her speech to Christine by saying,

que passe

a

remede du (107)

how

long temps ne

ciel

fus plus perplexe. Helais

espereroie quant aux miens

mal

si

mais

comment

voy desservir”

ie les

have not been more endangered in quite some time. Alas, but might hope for Heaven’s cure when I see that my people deserve [I

I

such misfortune?] (McLeod, 40). Part

widow

ticular troubles as a

III

makes

clear that Christine’s par-

more general

parallel the

troubles

of“Widow

France.”

Conclusion Sounding

like

American

society

medieval visionaries, some in decline. Part

is

critics

voice their distress that

of this supposed decline stems from an

educational system that allows the inclusion of writers like Christine based on their gender, without regard to literary standards. Ellis urges that there

be

a reaction against feminists, multiculturalists,

rect” zealots:

“The

effect

of

a

profound change

and other in the

“politically cor-

way

these subjects

[humanities, especially literature] are taught and in what teachers are trying to achieve in teaching them is therefore far from trivial especially

—

when

part of the purpose of this change

toward the society in which they the anxiety over the

4-

live.”

way changes

’

is

to transform students’ attitudes

This statement succinctly captures

in the literary

canon may

foster post-

modern views of self and society that conflict with those of traditional modern liberalism. Though many differences exist between the two views, one key difference

is

the traditional

modern

belief in universal,

permanent

values vs. the shifting, relative values associated with postmodernism. As this

survey of the historical reaction to the

erature illustrates, social constructs as

self,

Widow

Christine and her

lit-

gender, and literature do in fact

change. Perhaps William ButlerYeats best captures Christine’s medieval and

our (post)modern

“Things

.

of

instability, relativity,

apart; the centre ” 46

fall

the world.

fear

.

and change when he

cannot hold; / Mere anarchy

is

states,

loosed upon

BARBARA STEVENSON

42

Notes Denise Riley,

1.

the Category of Women in His-

Name? Feminism and

That

I

(Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1988),

tory

Ibid., pp.

2.

Am

10-1

p. 2.

1.

For discussions of Christian allegory and gender roles, see D. W. Robertson, Preface to Chaucer (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1962),

3.

pp.

317—31; Barbara

phia: University

Newman, From

of Pennsylvania

Virile

Woman

to

Press, 1995), pp.

WomanChrist (Philadel-

30-34; Caroline

Walker, Fragmentation and Redemption: Essays on Gender and the in

Medieval Religion

See Louise Mirrer,

4.

and

(New York: Zone, ed.,

Histories of Medieval

My

Upon

Bynum

Human Body

1991).

Husband’s Death: Widows

in the Literature

Europe (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press,

1992), pp. 1-2.

Kevin Brownlee, “Widowhood, Sexuality, and Gender Pizan,’’ Romanic Review 86.2 (1995): 339-53.

5.

Mary

Sister

6.

Louis Towner, ed., Pizan’s Lavision- Christine, vol.

America

of

University

in Christine

Literatures(New York:

Studies

AMS

Romance

in

6,

de

Catholic

Languages

and

M. Reno,

trans.

Press, 1932), p.154. Christine

The Writings of Christine de Pizan, ed. Charity Cannon Willard (New York: Persea, 1994), pp. 9-10. All quotations from Lavi“Christine’s Vision,” in

sion will

be from these editions unless otherwise indicated.

7.

Mirrer, “Introduction," pp. 1—2.

8.

Brownlee, “Widowhood," pp. 339-53.

9.

See ary

Newman, Virile, p. 81.; Elizabeth Petroff, Literature (New York: Oxford University ed., Medieval

Wilson,

Women

Writers (Athens,

ed.. Medieval

Women’s Vision-

Press, 1985), p. 5;

GA:

Kathanna

University of Georgia

Press, 1984), p.39. 10.

Sidome Smith,

A

Poetics of

Women’s Autobiography (Bloomington: Indiana

University Press, 1987), pp. 20—43. 1 1

.

Women’s Work in the Early Modern Economy," in Becoming Visible: Women in European History, eds. Renate Bridenthal et al., 2nd ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987), p. 228. Merry

E. Wiesner, “Spinning

Am

12.

Riley,

13.

Glenda K. McLeod,

I,

Out

Capital:

p. 8.

ed..

The Reception of Christine de Pizan from

the Fifteenth

City (Lewiston,

NY: Edwin

Through the Nineteenth Centuries:

Visitors to the

Mellen, 1991). 14.

Gustave Lanson, Histoire de

15.

Douglas inist

F.

la litterature francaise (Paris:

1894), pp. 166-67.

on the Role of Christine de Pisan as a Fem2 (1972): 63— 71; Joan Kelly, "Early Feminist The-

Kelly, “Reflections

Writer," sub-stance

ory and the Querelle des femmes, 1400—1789,” Signs 8.1 (1982): 4—28;

Susan Schibanoflf, “Taking the Gold out of Egypt: The Art ol Reading a

Woman,”

in

Gender and Reading: Essays on Readers,

eds. Elizabeth A.

Flynn and Patrocinio

Johns Hopkins University

P.

Press, 1986), pp.

Texts,

as

and Contexts,

Schweickart (Baltimore,

MD:

83-106; any survey of scholar-

RE-VISIONING THE WIDOW CHRISTINE DE PIZAN ship like

43

McLeod’s touches upon the importance of The Booh of the City

of Ladies. 16.

James A. Brundage, “Widows

as

Disadvantaged Persons

in

Medieval Canon

Law.” in Mirrer, pp. 193—7. 17.

See Eric Hicks, “The Political Significance of Christine de Pizan,” itics,

Gender, Genre: The Political Thought of Christine de Pizan, ed. Margaret

Brabant (Boulder,

on

tions

John

CO: Westview,

John

Ellis, Literature Lost: Social

Agendas and

de

la

Shelia Delaney,

“Mothers

to

p.

Rose: A Study

(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press), 20.

Christine de Pizan:

the Corruption of the

University Press, 1997),

Roman

Fleming, The

V.

Angus Kennedy,

A

Guide (London: Grant and Cutler, 1984 and 1994).

(New Haven, CT:Yale 19.

1992), pp. 7-15; for a listing of publica-

Christine’s feminism, see

Bibliographical 18.

in Pol-

p.

217.

in Allegory

and Iconography

47.

Think Back Through:

Ambiguous Example of Christine de

Humanities

Who

Are They? The

Pizan,” in Medieval Texts and Contem-

porary Readers, eds. Laurie A. Finke and Martin B.

Cornell University Press, 1987), pp. 177-97.

The

Shichtman

NY:

(Ithaca,

“quarrel of Christine”

continues in Brabant’s book between Christine Reno, “Christine de Pizan: ‘At Best a Contradictory Figure?,”’ pp. 171-91, and Shelia Delaney, “His-

and Christine Studies:

tory, Politics,

Man Made

21.

Dale Spender,

22.

Ellis, Literature Lost, p.

23.

Riley,

24.

Delaney, “Mothers,” pp. 177-97.

25.

Earl Jeffrey Richards,

Am

I,

Language (London: Routledge, 1980).

75.

“The Medieval ‘femme

Literary History: Eighteenth

26.

Margarete

Polemical Reply,” pp. 193-206.

17.

p.

McLeod, The

A

auteur’ as a Provocation to

Century Readers of Christine de Pizan,”

Reception of Christine de Pizan, pp. 101—02.

Zimmerman and Dina De

New Approaches

to

Rentiis, eds., The City of Scholars:

Christine de Pizan, vol.2,

European Cultures: Studies

Literature and the Arts (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1994),

27.

Paul Davis, et

York: 28.

al.,

eds.. Western Literature in a

in

p. vi.

World Context, vol.

1

(New

Martin’s Press, 1995).

St.

Charity

in

Cannon Willard,

ed.,

The Writings of Christine de Pizan

(New York:

Persea, 1994).

29.

Rosalind Brown-Grant,

“

L’Avision Christine: Autobiographical Narrative

or Mirror for the Prince?” in Brabant, pp. 95-1 12. 30. Joel Blanchard, “Christine de Pizan: les raisons de l’histoire,”

Moyen Age 92

(1986): 417-36. 31.

Glenda McLeod, erature, ser. b, vol.

Parts

32.

I

and

II

are

trans., Christine’s Vision,

68

(New York:

35-36

Garland, 1993),

p.

1 1

.

All translations

from

from McLeod.

Mary Skemp, “Autobiography Francais

Garland Library of Medieval Lit-

as

(1994): 19-21.

33.

McLeod,

34.

Skemp, “Autobiography,”

Christine’s Vision, p. 19. p.

23.

Authority

in Lavision-Christine,"

Le Moyen

BARBARA STEVENSON

44

35.

Ibid., 19.

36.

Laura Marcus, Auto /Biographical Discourses: chester:

Manchester University

37.

Smith,

38.

Thus, just

3-19.

Poetics, pp.

—

like scholars, general

to use Jay

audiences also read Christine’s work auto-

cindy 2).

of cancer

dying

for electronic media, an increas-

postmodern American

pages include Christine in is

Christines reception in the post-print

David Bolter s phrase

ingly important facet of

she

(Man-

Press, 1994).

biographically, as illustrated by

world

Criticism, Theory, Practice

lists

life.

Some

of favorite authors, such

as

personal

Cindy,

web

who

says

(http://www.mattnet.org/answers/97/work/

intends to add Christine to her project called Abuse and

Megan

Recovery (http://www.hhh.org/maia/megan). Such readers of Christine do not engage

in the feminist debate over her

instead they relate to Christine as a

woman who

39.

Blanchard, “Christine de Pizan.”

40.

Brundage, “Widows,”

41.

Harry A. Miskimin, “Widows Not So Merry:

p.

merit or lack thereof, but shares her sufferings.

193.

Women

and the Courts

in

Late Medieval France,” in Mirrer, pp. 207-17. 42.

Kennedy, Preface,

43.

Paul Boyer, ture

p.

1 1.

When Time

(Cambridge,

MA:

Shall

Be

Belknap

No

More: Prophecy Belief

See McLeod,

45.

Ellis, Literature Lost, p. 1.

46.

William Butler Yeats, “Second Coming,”

Christine’s Vision, pp.

1,

ed.

Macmillan, 1970),

p.

46—47.

in

Chief Modern Poets

Gerald DeWitt Sanders, 121.

American Cul-

Press, 1992).

44.

America, vol.

in

et

al.

5th ed.

oj Britain

(New

and

York:

CHAPTER

3

ON BECOMING

UKIFUNE:

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL HEROINES IN HEIAN AND KAMAKURA LITERATURE* Joshua

Mostow

S.

ache! Brownstein has maintained that

XX. been who

“The

women has that “women

history of

seriously affected by the history of the novel,”

1

read have been inclined ... to understand one another, and

themselves

as

characters in novels.”

English novel,

womens

I

believe that

writing

794-1 333). That

and

is,

in

2

While Brownstein

one can

much

assert

is

men, and

writing about the

the same thing about

Heian and Kamakura Japan (a. I). both times and cultures we see women comparing reading

in

themselves with characters in fictional works, identifying with those characters,

and attempting

framework of those from The

to

fit

the events of their

characters’ stories. This

own

lives into

the narrative

best illustrated with a passage

is

Tale of Genji [Genji Monogatari], ca. 1000:

Tamakazura was the most avid reader of all. She quite lost herself in pictures and stories and would spend whole days with them. Several of her young

women

were well informed

interesting

There was 7he of.

little

Talc of Sumiyoshi,

that

resembled her

popular in

its

own

all

sorts

of

day,

unfortunate career.

of course, and

She compared the plight of the heroine, within

being taken by the chief accountant, with her person.

She came upon

and shocking incidents (she could not be sure whether they were

true or not), but she found

thought

in literary matters.

own

a

still

well

hairbreadth of

escape from the Higo

3

Comparing oneself something

that

to a heroine in a fictional

women

did

all

on

their

own

work, of course, was not

—on

the contrary, early fairy

JOSHUA

46

MOSTOW

S.

men

with an aim to show

tales,

romances, and novels were written by

how

they should behave themselves and demonstrating the wonderful

would happen

things that

would happen

if

them

to

poems,

they did, or the awful things that

they didn’t. This function

century Japanese “Cinderella”

quite clear in the mid-tenth-

is

the Ochikubo Monogatari

tale,

whose

heroine,

fectly passive

if

meaningful action

sole

girls

4

Here, a per-

.

the writing of

is

rescued from an evil stepmother by a handsome prince and be-

is

comes the mother of

empress

a future

—

the

acme of power

for a

Heian

woman.

The Kagero Diary

Works such

the Ochikubo were apparently viewed as a kind of implicit

as

contract or guarantee by a tenth-century Japanese

woman known

today

only by the appellation Michitsuna no Haha, or “Michitsunas Mother.” Fol-

lowing the prescriptions found complished

and

man

attracted a

pily ever after,”

as

tell

as poetry, painting, calligraphy,

However, when

station.

lies” [sora-goto].

the story of her

the Kagero Nikki It is

above her

(or,

“A

She

own

—

life

fact,

husband.

6

not fiction

how

own

—

literary

this rejection

in a

life

that

work known

3

of fiction was not

per se (there are over 300

one of her methods of composition was

or situation from her

and then show

and sewing,

did not go “hap-

all

Diary of Summer Shimmer ings”)

of the poetic or

diary). In fact,

ac-

therefore, in response (or retaliation),

important to recognize, however, that

a rejection

became

[monogatari], she

Michitsunas Mother cried foul, labeling the romances she

had read “empty decided to

such

in the polite arts

romances

in

poems

to choose an event

resembled the sort found in

cruelly her romantic expectations

In an important respect, then,

in her

romance,

a

were defeated by her

Michitsunas Mother

inter-

still

preted her experience through the conventions of the monogatari genre, and

her autobiographical text can be thought of as an “anti-romance.”

Nor was

the purpose of her diary to establish or assert the author’s

unique individuality; indeed, Michitsunas Mother ences and

life as

exemplary, and her

tale to

clearly

saw her experi-

some extent was meant

to

be

cautionary. In fact, in her preface she writes (in the equivalent of the third

person):

it

is

just that in the course

when

she looks at the odds and ends of the old tales

many, they are just so

make

of living, lying down, getting up, dawn to dusk,

a

record of a

much

life like

fantasy

—

—of which

that she thinks perhaps if she

her own, being really nobody,

be novel, and could even serve to answer, should anyone the

life

of a

woman

married to

a

there are so

highly placed man. ...

it

ask, 7

were

to

might actually

what

is it

like,

ON BECOMING UKIFUNE As Rita

On

the

Felski has written

of the feminine confessional diary genre:

one hand, the autobiographical

guaranteeing

On

inner feelings of a particular individual.

tant, the

of experience, rather

aspects

resentative

protagonist/narrator

than

life,

is

and more impor-

the other,

those

due

mark

the

a

no-

.

tells

echelons of society, and moreover of a

in the highest

the rep-

8

one of the most powerful men

sen by

it is

that

Despite the fact that Michitsuna’s Mothers anti-romance

woman

important in

unique, which are emphasized in relation to

as

of a communal female identity

tion

of the text

status

truthfulness as the depiction of the

its

47

in the land,

the tale of a

woman

cho-

it

remains representative

to the fact that she stands as simply the clearest

and most extreme ex-

ample of the patriarchal guarantee offered to period:

all

women

charm and cured

skill,

a fine

aristocratic

were taught to labor under the belief

women

that

it

of the

was their

rather than the political status of their families, that se-

husband.

The myth

life still a

Mother wished to exwomen in her class, making her

that Michitsuna’s

plode was one shared by most of the exceptional

all

representative lesson.

The Sarashina Diary

The genre of women’s romantic fiction.Yet,

diaries started in Japan, then,

generation

a

later, a

with the rejection of

niece of Michitsuna’s

Mother

own autobiography The Sarashina Diary and showed that the romance mode could be used to undercut itself and its underlying ideology. While we cannot know which particular romances Michitsuna’s Mother read, we do know which ones her niece, Takasue’s Daughter, read, wrote her

(

)

and which one she identified with the most:

The

height of my aspirations was that a

looks and manners,

someone

me just once den me like Lady

year in the mountain village

visit

at

a

like

Ukifune. There

the blossoms and the

Autumn

for an occasional splendid letter I

It

man of noble

is

came

it

would

I

should

leaves

where he would have hid-

my lonely existence, gazing moon and the snow, and wait

live

and the

from him. This was actually happen.

I

wanted; and

in

time

Daughter should choose

more of Ukifune’s

in-

thought processes than any of the other female characters in The

Tale

Ukifune ternal

all

'

small surprise that readers such as Takasue’s

we

both

Shining Prince Genji in the Tale, would

1

to believe that

birth, perfect in

as a role

of Genji, especially

model:

more than

are allowed to hear far

the almost impenetrable Murasaki.

Tamakazura seems paradigmatic of the feminine reader and

And

while

fairy

tale

JOSHUA

48

princess, she does

S.

MOSTOW

choose an incredibly prosaic marriage well betore the end

of the Tale and drops out of the narrative, while Ukifune is still in the midst of her adventures, still pursued by suitors, at the end of the last chapter.

Of course, Takasue’s

Daughter does not simply wish

following Brownstein’s dictum of “Life a heroine.

mance,” she rewrites herself as

two ways. The Genji

itself. If

as

be Ukifune but,

to

Revision

Literature,

“Revision,” in

fact, is

Ro-

as

effected in

Takasue’s Daughter’s imaginative misreading of the

first is

we examine

that she has in fact joined

more

the passage above

two

who

characters

carefully,

we

will see

never meet in the Tale

it-

Genji and Ukifune (Genji has been dead some time before Ukifune

self:

arrives

own

on the

scene).

The second

sort

of “revision”

is

her rewriting of her

where she

experiences, the best example being the scene

her

visits

wet nurse:

My

no husband, had been lodged

nurse, having

in a rough, primitive hut.

The roof was merely a piece of rush matting and through it shone the moon, lighting up every corner of the room. could read the suffering in I

her face

she lay there, so white and pure, covered with

as

a dress

of crimson

cloth and looking completely transparent in the moonlight. She had not

seen

me

As Inagaki if

some time and began weeping

for

Tai’ichi has written, Takasue’s

were from

it

moonlight

a

is,”

he

different

Daughter describes the scene

author

is

12

from

has pointed out, this description that

of Michitsuna’s Mother:

time, not the older and wiser contrast, everything

is

woman

she

is

girl

she was

as follows:

at

the

last,

jaundiced, point of is

colored with sar-

“When

I

looked

at

it

Mother

[Kane’ie’s let-

of proposal], the paper and so on are not what you would expect in

ter

such a

letter;

I

had heard from old that

perfect, but the writing in this letter.”

sion at

the middle-aged

Kane’ie sends her his letter of proposal, Michitsuna’s it

though

now. In The Kagero Diary, by

described from the author’s

describes her reactions to

of

ironic,

is

it is

view, thus even the account of her husband’s courtship

When

little

describing herself superimposed

author recreating the naive impressions of the young

casm.

as

11 romantic work.”

a

Yet, as Edith Sarra

way

hair."’

sublime hut, stroking the hair of her

says, “as if the

over the character of

in a

my

she stroked

romance: the beautiful but emaciated nurse, bathed in

in the rustic yet

princess. “It

as

13

Takasue’s Daughter,

such a case the hand would be

so bad that

I

feel

on the other hand,

it

couldn’t be that sort

is

able to effect a divi-

between herself as narrator and herself as protagonist, and

the beginning of her

Paradoxically, then, this

is

in

it

is

work

to present the portrait

this separation

is

thus able

of a naive young

between protagonist and

girl.

narrator,

distancing between selves, that allows the author a truer presentation

ON BECOMING UKIFUNE

49

of herself through time than Michitsuna’s Mothers far less mediated record. As Watanabe Minoru has written of the latter: “Matters were far too personal tor her to envisage the possibility of objectifying them, of distancing them from the self in the work; open confession, that was the only

technique she knew.” 14

However, Takasue’s Daughter’s use of the monogatari mode still serves set up the wholesale rejection of both real and literary romance by the

to

protagonist, after she has ironically depicted herself as a kind of female

Heichu

man at

—

—

the chronically maladroit and unsuccessful

would-be

ladies’

with Minamoto no Sukemichi (section 18). 15 Here, what seems to be an exceptionally quiet life, the author ex-

in her “affair”

long

last in

periences the possibility of the kind of romantic

dreamed about

most of her

for

days.

affair

she has read and

But nothing comes of the meeting,

forcing the author to conclude that such experiences were never meant for the likes

of

her.

Thus,

comes

in the end, she

clusion as her aunt about the error, indeed

sin,

much

to

the

of living one’s

same conthrough

life

fiction.

Fitful Slumbers

comparison to the irony of The Kagerb Diary or the transition from naivete to experience in The Sarashina Diary, Fitful Slumbers [Utatane] by In

nun Abutsu, should seem very naive indeed. Written woman, it tells of her response to an unhappy love affair. 16 the

view, then, Utatane

and

it

is

much

like the early section

seemingly naive romance mode. Yet,

sue’s

itself

of

Diary,

and

a

more

is,

Abutsu

that because

consistently,

Daughter’s ultimate undercutting, the result

of identity

In point

of The Sarashina

would argue

I

models more thoroughly and

radical questioning

young

a

and rejection, firmly planted in the

lacks the retrospective irony

uses her fictional

as

without Taka-

simultaneously, a

more

successful autobiographi-

cal portrayal. First,

Abutsu

’s

distinction

between narrator and protagonist

is

even

sharper than Takasue’s Daughter’s: one has a strong temptation to read the first

few sections of her work

as

written in the third, rather than

first,

per-

“m

ya"\

son, especially with the frequent use of the interrogative phrase “[I/she]

haps

was feeling thoroughly oppressed and wretched and, was

[ni ya]

masa?”

17

because of this, that [I/she] decided on

Second, the plot

is,

of course,

Daughter’s review of her entire

life,

much

a

it

per-

pilgrimage to Uzu-

tighter: rather than Takasue’s

Utatane treats only one episode and

young woman’s emotions about a failed love affair” 18 Utatane is simply more narrative more monogatari- like. In fact, rather than comparing it to The Sarashina Diary, it has a far closer resemblance “deals solely with a

—

JOSHUA

50

MOSTOW

S.

The Izumi Shikilm Diary [Izumi Shikibu Nikki], which actually bears the alternate title Izumi Shikibu Monogatari, and is entirely in the “third perto

son.

”19

Yet, here too, there are considerable differences. Abutsu’s

monologue, whereas Izumi epistolary

poems

s

is

essentially a dramatization

Book One of The

(as is

Shikibu Diary, the point of

view and

we

own

a

is

of zotoka, or

Kagerd Diary). In The Izumi

setting shift

back and forth to pro-

vide an all-but-omniscient narrator, while Abutsu

thoughts but her

work

—and even those she

tells

no

us

one’s

not entirely sure about,

is

as

just saw. Finally,

while the words of the Izumi are those of “Japanese courtly

love” and

implicit plot ,

its

20

Abutsu

not simply alluding to famous

is

—

whole narrative episodes of a specific work, the Getiji something we also do not at all find in The Sarashina Diary. It Abutsu’s 21 ot earlier verses, poems tend to be “allusive variations [honka-dori]" likewise her narrative, as a whole, is an allusive variation on The Tale of Genji. Specifically, she has cast herself in the role of Ukitune (“Floating poems, but

Boat”):

to

first,

she decides to renounce the world; she plans simply to take

the tonsure, but remarks:“I

wonder whether

ing of drowning myself in the riverf ?]” Tale of Genji in this,

and she

who

mother,

Abutsu

who is

attempts to

drown

moment was I

Of course,

herself.

it is

Ukifune

thinkin

The

Ukifune does not succeed

found, only half-drowned, by the Bishop ofYogawa’s

happens to be passing

fune, to a nunnery.

Likewise, a wet and bedraggled

by.

found by two kind traveling

is

22

at that

ladies

Then comes an extended

and taken, again

like

conceit of herself

as a

Ukiboat

adrift:

1

had been

as

unsteady

as a

ship floating

alone without her wits about her ...

no

fixed direction.

I

was

on the waves, someone a

woman

the cliched

we must

recognize that

the point of the narrative. self

and

its

on quite

sailing

lost in

23

Thus, rather than criticizing Abutsu’s language ,” 24

drifting

It is as if

it is

this

some master

author. As Michael Sprinker has put

as “stiff

.

.

.

bordering on

very intertextuality that text it

were writing both

in his article,

is

an articulation of the relations between

inter-textuality, a

where

in a

articulation

texts, a

product of

weaving together of what has already been produced

else-

discontinuous form; every subject, every author, every self is the

of an intersubjectivity structured within and around the

courses available to

it

at

any

moment

in time.

25

it-

“The End

of Autobiography”:

Every text

is

dis-

]

ON BECOMING UKIFUNE Or, to paraphrase

own

Abutsu s

observation on Vico’s autobiographical writings:

his

text can thus be seen as a repetition

and poems

51

of previous romances

but only in the sense that each repetition constitutes

a

unique and individual articulation of the pattern.” 26 That is, we must conceive of repetition “as the production of difference in the generation of a text.

The

writing of autobiography

by repetition.”

27

a similar act

is

This concept of repetition

dovetails nicely with the idea

as

of producing difference

difference (in fact, difference)

of feminist confession

as

an intersubjective

representation rather than something unique and individual.

But

it is

also clearly “neo-classical,” and, in the Japanese context, based

on the poetic concept of hon’i or “essential meaning.” The concept of hon'i seems to have developed around the renewal of poetry contests in ,

the late twelfth century. Unlike earlier poetry contests,

which were

pri-

marily social events, these later contests seriously pitted poem again poem, written on preassigned subjects [dai]. But on what basis were

poems

be compared? Japanese poets came to believe that every poetic topic, or dai, had its own essential treatment or meaning: for instance, the to

proper way to

treat the topic

“hearing the hototogisu

dawn” was

at

to

imagine that the speaker had been waiting up all night, not that he or she had been roused from a sound slumber. 28 Consequently, the poem that best instantiated or manifested that essential

meaning was judged

winner. Usually, of course, the concept was used negatively,

no Shunzei’s “That bay is

panorama sistent

criticism of a a

place

where pine

trees

shadow the waves and

stretches before the eye.

a limitless

in terms

of per-

essential quality

29

Such

lion 7

were concepts

poems of the previous from the

first

had been extrapolated from the famous [

chokusenshu

and particularly

three (called collectively the Sandaishu). However, as the

came more and more

came

that

imperial anthologies

treatment of topics, that that

Fujiwara

the famous place-name Shiogama:

To speak of it merely haze and accustomed smoke seems to miss its

[hon'i].”

Genji

poem on

as in

is,

to be

viewed

situations

as the

canonical text,

and the poems generated

it

was

them,

in

paradox not unlike the Eu-

ropean concept of mimesis in relationship to antiquity: while every

was committed

—more

to be

its

to be seen as “essential.”

In autobiographical writing, this created a

ture

the

to

copying “Nature,”

true, eternal,

of a woman’s

Homer

was believed that the

and not accidental, or

found in the works of Greek

“Nature and

it

essential

historically limited

antiquity, or, in Pope’s

artist

Na-

—was

famous words:

were, he found, the same.” In the same way, the events

had meaning, and could be given meaning, to the extent that they resembled or could be made to resemble the experiences of characters in

The

life

Tale of Genji.

JOSHUA

52

MOSTOW

S.

The Confessions of Lady Nijo Like Michitsuna’s Mother, Abutsu in

woman,”

Fitful

Slumbers

is

the supplement to a primary marriage. But

Towazu-gatari

(literally,

“Unrequested Tale”)

clearly “the other

it

sense that Abutsu’s lover was using her as a surrogate, a yukari

placement for some other woman. But Nijo

born

is

Norma

into.

For Lady Nijo

expression

Field’s

31

much

:

has been raised at court by

we

“a substitute for like

30 ,

Murasaki

all

that

32

The

in

is,

re-

Lady

borrow

Tale of Genji, she

since she was

two

woman who

of her mother, “the

into the arts of love ,”

seasons,” to

no

get

precisely the situation

is

Emperor GoFukakusa

old, destined to take the place

young GoFukakusa

is

this

of

that the full ramifications

supplementariness are played out since, unlike Ukifune,

this

the

Lady Nijo’s

in

is

years

initiated

but was taken away from

him by her marriage to Lady Nijo’s father, who was older than GoFukakusa and thus a more appropriate marriage partner. Indeed, it is the problem of dealing with the imposition of identity on her by others, of her use as a commodity of exchange, that shapes Lady Nijo’s search for her self, and

the production of her text that

it is

answer.

is its

In fact, the heroines in Murasaki Shikibu’s

world

are never singular or

unified either: Murasaki, raised from an early age by Genji, place her aunt Fujitsubo in Genji’s psychic

was

a

economy;

Warens,

as

meant

to re-

Fujitsubo, in turn,

The

surrogate for Genji’s deceased mother, Kiritsubo.

strikingly similar to the relationship

is

situation

Madame

between Rousseau and

is

de

described by Jonathan Culler:

In the absence of

Madame

recourse to supplements,

function in her absence

as

de Warens,

If

it.

beloved “Maman,” Rousseau has

the Confessions describes.

as substitutes for

substitutions could be continued.

not arrest

his

.

.These supplements

her presence, but, the

Maman s “presence,” as we

he were to “possess her,”

And Maman

.

as

we

say, this

.

.

chain of

have seen, does

would

herself a substitute for an

.

be marked

still

unknown mother,

by absence.

.

who would

herself be a supplement. “Through this sequence of supplements

.

.

is

there emerges a law: that of an endless linked series, ineluctably multiplying the supplementary mediations that produce the sense of the very thing that

they defer: the impression of the thing

inary

To

.

Immediacy is derived” (De la grammatologie, p. Maman’s “presence” is a certain type of absence. Presence

.

.

.

not originary but reconstituted

a certain,

Japanese

limited extent,

women,

it

(

L’Ecriture et

as

la difference, p.

.

.

314/212).

could be argued that the Japanese, or

3 "’

at least

did not subscribe to a “metaphysics of presence.” Earl

Miner, discussing the lack of proper names such

of immediate presence, or orig-

perception.

226/157) is

itself,

Ukifune, remarks:

for, especially,

female characters

ON BECOMING UKIFUNE The

which no

effect,

53

translation could adequately represent,

character such as Ukifune

an agent clearly apart in the world,

less

dividual distinguished from others in the story, than a

more low

she

so

not special in

is

Such

characters. that

tity

.

.

How

.

to us

by the

relativism

may

then

conceived by authors?

.

.

.

it

was assumed on the

to say relationship

is

Such

literature

Friedman

relation to

them,

—perhaps even

understanding of her by her

—or

at

least

be written?

even with in the

strictest

like existence,

a

human

relative

How

to

fel-

iden-

—other

can characters be

terms of Buddhism,

however

illusory,

provided

of dependence and interdependence, which

basis

.

womens

discussing

inscribes a

it

34

Rowbotham’s Woman’s

Sheila

much

of self seems very similar to those used by feminist

a definition

when

ics

entity

of subject and object implies

was possible to presume something that

failed

continuous with

essentially

is

identities.

known

is

a

an in-

Like the other characters

this.

make

to

less

human

more continuous with other characters, more defined by and more a part of the world. Ukifune

is

work of

autobiographies. Following the Consciousness,

complete

reversal

crit-

Man’s World, Susan Stanford

of Georges Gusdorf’s (in)famous

“conditions” for autobiography:

this [female]

autobiographical self often does not oppose herself to

ers,

does not

feel herself to exist

ers,

but very

much

Lady Nijo does

outside of others, and

less

still

all

oth-

against oth-

with others in an interdependent existence. ... 35

in fact define herself

through her relationships to “sig-

GoFukakusa. On the other GoFukakusa, value Nijo only as a sur-

nificant Others,” especially in relation to

hand, these men, and especially rogate and

commodity of exchange. The violence of

this use threatens

not only her sense of self-worth, but her very sense of identity

as well:

being sexually given repeatedly by GoFukakusa to Prime Minister Kanehira (1228-95), Nijo writes: “I felt that only an empty husk of my

after

former

self

remained.” 36

By Lady

Nijo’s day, the Genji

was used

as

an authoritative source for

precedents not only in the world of fiction, but in reality

Two

of her work, for instance, she

brothers, Retired

Upon

“Inasmuch this

level.

of a meeting between the estranged

inspected the seating arrangements, which

emperors carefully placed

in positions

of equal honor.

these matters were already decided in our late father’s time,

arrangement

lower

Kameyama

retired

as

Book

Emperors GoFukakusa and Kameyama:

his arrival

had the two

tells

as well. In

is

incorrect,” he said, and ordered his place

moved

to a

JOSHUA

54

MOSTOW

S.

GoFukakusa entered and remarked on ited Genji

of

he gave instructions that

extraordinary!” Everyone

In

many

“When Emperor

his host’s seat

our guest has seen

equality. Today,

this.

fit

move

to

commented on

be moved into

own

his

as

Nor was

Genji.

38

ments. While, predictably, most

Heian and

early

number of gender-crossing two best-known examples Wakare Monogatari.

mances

Masu

we

same

see the

rift

between Lady

some remarkable develop-

40

composed after the Genji used it as a Kamakura periods see the appearance of a

tales

heroines.

men

Both of

—

Of

the romances extant today, the

are the Torikaehaya Monogatari

a role

are believed to have

and the Ariake no

these feature not only plot devices heavily

indebted to the Genji but heroines story raised as

3

39

monogatari genre too, had undergone

late

How

matter: disagreement over the staging of a

this a trivial

Nijo and her uncle.

model, the

down.

the “golden age” as represented in the

Genji concert serves as the pretext for an unreconcilable

The

position

the vernacular history

Kagami, and The Diary of Ben no Naishi (a.D. 1253), life

seat

a

vis-

the elegance of this response.

other texts from the period, such

practice of imitating in real

Suzaku

who

spend

much of the

action of the

they perform to perfection. Both these ro-

been composed by female authors

for largely

female audiences, and both author and reader seem to have been comfortable identifying with female characters

due

to the all-pervasive canonicity

larity

who

behaved

as

of the Genji in daily

of gender-crossing romances, or both, Lady Nijo

is

men. 41 Whether life,

or the popu-

distinctive

among

the autobiographical authors discussed here in modeling her behavior not

only on female characters from the Genji, such character of Genji himself. role in the practice

Of course,

Murasaki, but on the

as

the gender of authors played

little

of honka-dori: female poets could write “allusive varia-

tions” of verses by male poets as well as those

by female poets. But Lady

Nijo’s identification with males exceeds the lyrical

and becomes

a

funda-

mental part of her narrative creation of self.

She does past, all

this

by associating herself with the great

political exiles

of the

of whom were male: Sugawara no Michizane, Ariwara noYukihira

and Narilnra, and, of course, Genji. The association between the autobio-

Book One, when Lady Nijo alludes to a poem composed by Genji when he was in 42 exile in Suma. Such allusions start to reappear in Book III, 43 as events graphical self and famous exiles

seem

is

foreshadowed

as early as

upon her, but it is with the start of the travel account in they become a pervasive leitmotif. Of course, at the start of

to close in

Book IV

that

her journey east she east” [azuma-kudari],

is

retracing the steps of Narihira’s “journey to the

which was

traditionally believed to have

been moti-

vated by his desire to escape the political repercussions of his purported af-

ON BECOMING UKIFUNE woman

with the

fair

journeys were conceived of as

the Nijo Empress 44 Since such

become

destined to

55

.

progress from

one famous

another, at each of which the sensitive traveler

would write

a

ing to his or her poetic predecessors. Lady Nijo

Narihira

is

45

not surprising here

a

[

meisho ] to

poem,

allud-

poems of

allusions to the

s

In fact, the author

.

site

of The Sarashina Diary

also alludes to the Tales of Ise

on her journey along the same

road, even

though she

from the

Nonethe-

less,

is

actually traveling

towards the

east

these allusions to Narihira prepare us for Nijo

with famous exiles

explicit identification

s

book. At Asakusa temple

later in the

Musashi, she compares herself to the exiled Michizane

The

of the

dle

housed the

hall that

treeless plain,

statue

ofKannon

in the Plain

:

stood on a small

hill in

really did arise

“from

where the moon

of

46

the

midof

fields

remembered with a pang of nostalgia that tonight was the fifteenth, night on which moon-viewing parties were held at the palace. Go-

grass.”

the

I

had offered

it

to the

could not claim

and

palace,

deep

is

as

my

it

with

a

I

was “here with

me

now.”Yet

feelings, as “I prepare offerings

Michizane s.

a triply

me

gown as a keepsake, but because god Hachiman when dedicated my copy of a sutra,

Fukakusa had once presented

This

capital.

4

I

I

was unable to forget the

I

of incense,” were certainly

as

'

layered text. Nijo

s first

allusion

famous poem by Fu-

to a

is

jiwara no Yoshitsune:

yuku-suwe ha

mo

sera

hitotsu

where

no

my

musashino ni

become

kusa no hara yori

from the

idzuru tsuki-kageo.

the

However, the scene

as a

whole

Genji. There, Genji, in exile in

by Michizane, written from Majesty

is

here with

All three verses

night of the

me now;

— Michizane’s,

full

moon

always held textuality,

at

Nijo

path and the sky

one, fields

moon

of

grass,

that arises

48 !

based on an episode from The Tale of

Suma,

his place

each day Genji’s,

calls to

of I

mind

exile:

Chinese couplet

a

“This

gown from

His

prepare offerings of incense .” 49

and Nijo’s

—

are

composed on

the

which

a special

poetry-writing session was

the imperial court.

Through

this

insists

on herself as

Michizane and Genji), and

own

is

Plain,

of the Eighth Month, traditionally considered

the most beautiful, and for

her

Musashi

In

a

overdetermined inter-

victim of political intrigue

(as

were

which

to fix

Nijo makes

a pil-

finds a literary precedent with

experience.

Likewise,

at

the beginning of the final

grimage to the

island

Book

V, as

of Itsukushima, retracing the poetic itinerary

JOSHUA

56

MOSTOW

S.

when he accom-

recorded by her great-grandfather, Koga no Michichika, 3,1

panied Retired Emperor Takafusa,

she situates herself and her experience

within the literature of exile: At Toba

I

where

transferred to an

sea,

I

boarded

and when

I

boat that took

a

learned

me

oceangoing

we were

But

vessel.

passing

mouth of

to the

Suma

I

Yodo

River,

proved to be lonely

it

Bay,

the

at

thought of the courtier

Yukihira, and wanted to ask the breeze blowing though the mountain pass:

where Yukihira had

the location of the house

“lived alone with tears

and

my

des-

dripping seaweed.”

The

ship anchored near shore each night.

.

.

.Acutely aware that

made very little difference, saw myself as “the boat vanishing behind an island in morning mist.” understood Genji s feelings when 31 he begged his roan to carry him back to the capital. tination really

I

I

Again, Nij5 likens her experience to that of the exiles Yukihira and Genji. Yet, there

was no precedent

in

Japanese history for

a

female political

exile.

Nonetheless, Nijo was able not only to identify with the female characters

of the Genji, but with Genji himself. 52 In conclusion, then, across gender, as

and

it

a less

seems that

it

was due

to a willingness to identify

phallocentric definition of self and

by grounding herself in

a

reality, as

family literary tradition, that Lady Nijo ac-

complished her “conquest of identity through writing.” 33 That ognizing and accepting her self as in a “frantic

by

.

.

society,” she

.

a textual construct, rather

search for an inner

self,

for a kernel

Nijo’s

life,

that

by defining herself as

Lady Nijo came

raphy in

classical

it

a writer

than engaging

in

which attempted

confession.”

34

is

In

a re-

Lady

was by accepting and repeating

and embodying herself as

a text,

most profound and revealing autobiog-

to write the

Japanese

and

by rec-

self-castigation [that]

some examples of feminist

at least

reality imitated fiction,

that fiction,

and

is,

of meaning untouched

was able to avoid the “negative pattern

self-affirmation reverts back into anxiety

curring one in

well

literature.

55

Notes *

An

earlier version

Barry D. Steben,

of

this essay

eds., Contacts

appeared in Bernard

Hung-Kay Luk and

Between Cultures, Eastern Asia: Literature and

Humanities, vol. 3 (Selected Papers from the 33rd International Congress

and North African Studies, Toronto 1990); (Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1992), pp. 233-238.

of Asian

1.

Rachel M. Brownstein, Becoming

(New York: The Viking 2.

Ibid., p. xviii.

a Heroine:

Press, 1982), p. xxiv.

Reading About

Women

in

Novels

ON BECOMING UKIFUNE 3.

Edward G. Seidensdcker, Knopf, 1982),

4.

The

trans.,

Tale of Genji

Ochikubo (Tokyo: Hokuseido Press, 1965).

gatari

romances

no

(New

York: Alfred A.

pp. 436-7.

Wilfrid Whitehouse and Eizo Yanagisawa,

lustrated

57

’E

in the period, see also

(“Picturing'

The

in

The

trans.,

On

Talc of the

Lady

the didactic function of

Joshua

S.

il-

Mostow, “Genji Mono-

Tale of Genji], Genji Kenkyu [Genji

Studies] 2 (1997): 173-193. 5.

Watanabe Minoru has credited Michitsuna’s Mother with “inaugurating] female prose" (“Style and Point ofView in the Kagero nikki,” trans. Richard Bowring, Journal ofJapanese Studies, 10:2 (1984): 378), but she was clearly preceded by the anonymous female author of the Takamitsu Nikki [Diary ofTakamitsu], also

known

Lesser Captain of

To-no-Mine], written

as

Tonomine Shosho Monogatari:

the To-no-Mine Shosho Monogatari [Tale of the

A

in 962.

Translation

and

See Lynne K. Miyake,

University of California, Berkeley, 1985); and Joshua

Envy’ in the Takamitsu Nikki and

Study (Ph.D.

Critical S.

diss.,

Mostow, “‘Sword-

Influence on the Kagero Nikki,” Se-

Its

lected Papers in Asian Studies (Western Conference of the Association for

Asian Studies),

Her

new

efforts at

autobiography were

of Toyokage],

gatari [Tales

37 (1990).

series, no.

The

“ Tales of Toyokage,

preceded by the Toyokage Mono-

a thinly fictionalized

wara no Koremasa (924—972) of

Mostow,

also

his

account by Regent Fuji-

own amorous

exploits.

See Joshua

S.

by Regent Fujiwara no Koremasa (924—72),”

Transactions of the Asiatic Society ofJapan, fourth series, vol. 10 (1995):

111-138. 6.

Mostow, “The Amorous Statesman and the Poetess: The Polof Autobiography and the Kagero nikki, Japan Forum (Oxford), vol. 4,

See Joshua itics

S.

no. 2 (October 1992): 305-315. 7.

The Kagero Diary,

trans.

Sonja Arntzen (Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese

Studies, The University of Michigan, 1997), 8.

57.

Rita Felski, Beyond Feminist Aesthetics: Feminist Literature and

(Cambridge, 9.

p.

MA:

Harvard University

Ivan Morris, trans., lections

of a

Woman

As

I

Press, 1989), pp.

Change

94-95.

Crossed a Bridge of Dreams (Sarashina nikki): Recol-

Eleventh-Century Japan

in

Social

(New York: Penguin Books,

1971), 64. 10.

Ibid., p. 34.

11.

Inagaki Tai’ichi, ed., Sarashina Nikki, Koten shinshaku shirizu 26 (Tokyo:

Chudokan, 1986),

p.

18.

See also Sekine Yoshiko,

zenyakuchu (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1977), vol. 12.

Edith Sarra,

“Women’s

nikki,” Association

March

16, 1989.

Gender

in

Self- writings in

1, p.

ed., Sarashina

nikki

33.

Heian Japan and the Sarashina

of Teachers of Japanese Seminar, Washington, D.C.,

See also her

Fictions of Femininity: Literary Inventions of

Japanese Court Women’s Memoirs (forthcoming, Stanford Univer-

sity Press).

Kagero Diary, trans. Arntzen,

13.

Tire

14.

Watanabe/Bowring,

p.

377. For

Mostow, “Self and Landscape

p.

a

57.

critique of Watanabe, see Joshua

S.

in Kagero Nikki,” Revieiv ofJapanese Culture

JOSHUA

58

S.

MOSTOW

and Society (Center for Inter-Cultural Studies and Education, Josai Uni-

(December 1993): 8-19.

versity, Japan), vol. 5

15.

Heichu

the pathetically maladroit lover of the Heichu Monogatari. See

is

Downing Videen,

Susan

Press, 1989).

(Cambridge: Harvard University

Tales of Heiclul

For the position of the Heichu Monogatari

in the

development

of autobiographical writing, see Mostow, “Tales of Toyokage.” 16.

The Princeton Companion ten late”

to Classical Japanese Literature lists

“Abutsu”), but the generally accepted date of composition

(s.v.

around 1240, when the author was around 17 or 18 years Keene, 17.

Ito

Hundred Ages

Travelers of a

(New York: Henry

old.

1978),

p.

Abutsu

.

.

.

Holt, 1989),

Utatane,"

.

jectively,

.

.

Often with

and

also

it

this "ni ya" this there

is

is

a

43:4: 400.

if

138, quoted by Wallace,

Tsugita,

19.

Japanese does not in fact have

a

For

a translation

Nun

use of ni ya,

conscious attempt to portray herself ob-

p.

romance-like

that aims at a

novel”

a

(p.

result,

20).

394.

grammatical distinction between

third person, but the distinction can translation

Of Abutsu s

she were a character in

18.

Arntzens

omohi-

vague expression and idiomatic of this

a

becomes something

based on treating herself as p.

to

129.

from John R.Wallace,“Fitful Slumbers:

Monumenta Nipponica

Tsugita writes: “Again, author.

p.

Tsugita Kasumi, ed., Utatane Zen’yakuchu (Tokyo: Kodansha,

,

21. Translation adapted

s

is

See Donald

semete akugaruru moyohosu ni ya, nihaka ni udzumasa ni maudeten

tachinuru

be made,

still

of the prologue of

Tlie

as

first

and

can be seen in

Kagero Diary, quoted above.

of the Izumi Shikibu Nikki, see Edwin A. Cranston, The

Izumi Shikibu Diary (Cambridge: Harvard University 20.

Utatane as “writ-

Press, 1969).

See Earl Miner, “Japanese and Western Images of Courtly Love,” Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature, 15 (1966), Supplement: Fourth

Con-

ference on Oriental- Western Literary and Cultural Relations, 174— 79; and

Janet A. Walker, “Poetic Ideal and Fictional Reality in the Izumi Shikibu nikki," Harvard Journal ofAsiatic Studies, 37:1 (1977):

21.

On

honka-dori, see

etry

(Stanford University Press, 1961); and Joshua

Heart:

Robert H. Brower and

The Hyakunin

Isshu in

Earl Miner, Japanese Court PoS.

Mostow,

Pictures of the

Word and Image (University of Hawaii

1996), esp.

p. 16.

22.

Wallace,

404.

23.

Ibid., p.

24.

Ibid.,

25.

Michael Sprinker, “The End of Autobiography,”

p.

135-82.

Press,

406.

p.394.

Theoretical

and

sity Press,

1980), p.325.

Critical, ed.

in Autobiography: Essays

James Olney (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univer-

328-9.

26.

Ibid., p.

27.

Ibid., p.342.

28.

See Mostow,

Pictures

of the Heart,

p.

381; and Brower and Miner, pp.

252-257. 29.

Quoted and

translated

by Helen Craig McCullough, Brocade by Night:

‘Kokin Wakashu' and the Court Style

CA:

Stanford University Press, 1985),

in

Japanese Classical Poetry (Stanford,

p.

363.

ON BECOMING UKIFUNE 30.

Yukari, literally, “link;” also called katami

59

[memento, keepsake], or

katashiro,

paper doll used in purification ceremonies. The term was used generally to refer to using one lover as a substitute for another. See Washiyama Shia

no

geo, "Genji monogatari

mondai: murasaki no yukari, katashiro no koto,” Nihon bungaku 28 (Oct. 1979), and Suzuki Kazuo, "Genji monogatari ni okeru yukari ni tsuite, Alnrasaki 4 (Nov. 1965); cited by Haruo Shi— ichi

The Bridge of Dreams: A

rane,

Poetics


ei schuld a

thretyng her,

swalwyd hyr

in,

al

to syde

inflaumyd wyth brennyng lowys of

sum-tyme rampyng

&

sum-tym pullyng hyr

he forseyd tyme

at hyr,

halyng hir bo]ae nygth

&

sum-tyme

day duryng

(7).

[And now, because of the dread she had of damnation on the two bled and labored with

time she

said, as

ing particles of

spirits,

half a year, 8

she thought, devils fire as

sides

and

went out of her mind and was wondrously trou-

the other side, this creature

her,

span of

even comic response to her environment, elaborates,

evates, colors, extemporizes,

wyth

later,

experience to encompass

Birgitta’s physical peril into a

in a melodramatic,

permit her to

releases Birgitta to

weeks and odd

made her mouth

all

they might have swallowed her

sometimes threatening

her,

days.

And

in this

inflamed with burn-

in,

sometimes teasing

sometimes pulling her and

calling to her

both night and day during the aforementioned time].

In Birgitta’s crisis the physical spiritual

From

had masked the

spiritual; for

Margery, the

masks the physical. the lessons of “the mothers,”

Kempe knows

that childbirth

normal, but physically painful and possibly lethal process. Childbirth

dangerous for the infant

who may

not survive the process.

46

is

is

a

also

Unlike Bir-

whose biological motherhood figures greatly in her personal revelations, Margery Kempe does not refer to the infancy or childhood of any

gitta,

of her children

in her text.

This absence

is

particularly glaring with regard

VOX MATRIS to the birth of this

first

Kempe

child.

only asserting that she had

75

neither describes the birth in detail,

a difficult childbirth,

nor does she ever indicate

the existence of a child during the course of her severe postpartum depression.

We

cannot ever

know what

really

causes

Margery

to suppress ref-

erences to her child. Absence does not prove lack of existence, but from

her choice not to include the child if

her

child does survive,

first

proper mother during her

her text,

in

Margery

spiritual

we may assume

of serving

likely incapable

is

and psychological

Margery’s despair necessitates the service of

that even

crisis.

a spiritual healer.

But she

has the bad luck to find a singularly harsh and unsympathetic priest to

ten to her confession.

4

She

tells

him

that she has

as a

something

lis-

to confess

“whech sche had neuyr schewyd be-forn jaat tyme in alle hyr lyfe & whan sche cam to ]}e poynt for to seyn ]aat }amg whech sche had so long conselyd, hir confessowr was a lytyl to hastye & gan scharply to vndyrnemyn hir er j^an sche had fully seyd hir entent, & so sche wold no mor seyn for nowt he mygth do” (7) [which she had never confessed before that time in all her life. And when she came to the point of saying that thing which she had so long hidden, her confessor was to

undermine

her,

too hasty and began sharply

a little

and although she had

fully

intended to

tell,

so she

would

not longer speak no matter what he might do].

Kempe s

postpartum despair theatricalizes her

the next link in the line of spiritual mothers.

can she begin to accept her maternal

termined position,

role.

initial inability to

Only when

serve as

Jesus heals her

Perhaps because of her prede-

simple neighborhood priest cannot help Margery: she

a

needs divine intervention. Significantly, she sees her savior “in lyknesse of a

man, most

seen syth

seinly,

mannys eye” (8)

and amiable

tiful

son’s

is

ple, the

is

&

most amyable

the shape of a

J>at

eur mygth be

man, most seemly, most beau-

might be seen with human

Birgitta, the

paramount. Like

the Virgin

[in

that ever

biography of

figure

most bewtyuows,

eye].

As

in

Gregers-

beauty and power of the visiting heavenly

Birgitta’s Virgin,

he

is

dressed in

dressed in white, the color of purity, Jesus

silk,

is

but whereas

dressed in pur-

color of royalty. Again, Margery’s sense of the theatrical predisposes

her to see her visions in dramatic color. Birgitta, daughter of Mother Mary, gives

way

to Margery, daughter

of Mary’s Son.

Margery Margery wishes of her

asjilia comedia

to rise to Birgitta’s standards, but in her honest evaluation

spirituality she realizes that she

can only serve

as a

her spiritual mother. Hence, her self-portrait both follows

and deviates from ties

it.

For example,

when

comic parody of Birgitta’s

model

she suffers embarrassing indigni-

while traveling, she clowns to cover her pain. She, unlike Birgitta,

NANDA HOPENWASSER AND SIGNE WEGENER

76

from her

erases her children

text

with the sole exception of her comic em-

ulation of Birgitta’s troubled relationship with her son Karl.

manages

gitta

Whereas Bir-

from damnation with the help of the Virgin

to save Karl

curses as well as tears; her actions

unnamed son with threats and bespeak more the fishwife than the no-

blewoman

Ellis,

Mary and her holy

Margery

tears,

saves her

13—14;

(VII, Capitula

477—79;

Kempe

Capitula 1—2,

II,

221-225).

Kempe

my

upbraids her son:

cownsel,

womanys

charge the

I

feleschep

yf thu do not,

I

tyl

thu take a wyfe aftyr the lawe of the Chirche. And,

God

pray

222; Kempe, Staley, 207). counsel,

I

if

you do

not,

I

and ponysch the therfor” (Kempe,

[Now

you

my

until

pray

chastise the

“the synne of letchery’’

son retains

his

will

not leave the world

blessing to keep your

you

God

since

body clean

you and punish you

chastise

(Kempe

Karl’s

my

at

at least

from

Church. And

take a wife after the law of the

do not work by themselves;

initial threats

gitta’s

48

charge you by

woman’s fellowship

at

“Now sithyn thu wil not leevyn the world at my blissyng kepe thi body klene at the lest tro

But the

therefore].

counterpart indulges in

222; Kempe, Staley, 207). Whereas Bir-

comeliness throughout

his life;

Kempe’s son

suffers

physical disfigurement, caused, ostensibly, by his sins or by God’s punish-

ment. “Sone bloberys

as

colowr chawngyd, hys face wex

aftyr hys

it

had ben

a lepyr’’

grew

color changes; “his face a lepers’’

(Kempe 222; Kempe,

When

(Kempe, Staley, trans. 207).

207—08). His

Staley,

of pimples and pustules

full

of whelys and

ful

as if

he returns to Lynne,

he has become

had been

it

master

his

“The yong man telde wher hym likyd how hys modyr had bannyd hym, wher thorw, as he supposyd, God so grevowsly ponyschyd hym” (Kempe 222; Kempe, Staley, 208). [The young man spoke of how he believed his mother fires

him from

his position, believing that

had cursed him, why, Initially,

he cannot understand

why

had don ryth

evyl, for

owyn

(Kempe 222; Kempe,

childe”

evil, for

thorw

through her prayer,

But eventually, forced promises to

amend

God

he supposed,

as

to

hir prayer

come

so grievously punished him].

mother “curses” him,“syng sche

God

had takyn venjawns on hir

Staley, 108) [saying she

God had

his faults

his

to

a leper:

had done right

taken vengeance on her his

mother, he admits

through the help of

God

own his

child].

sin,

to the best

and

of

his

“He preyid hys modyr of hir blissyng, and specialy he preyd hir to prey for hym that owr Lord of hys hy mercy wolde forgevyn hym that he had trespasyd and takyn awey that gret sekenes for whech men fleddyn hys

ability:

company and [He begged pray for

hys felaschep as for a lepyr”

his

him

mother

that

tor her blessing,

our Lord

in his

(Kempe 222; Kempe, and

especially,

Staley, 108)

he begged her to

high mercy would forgive

him

had trespassed, and take away the great sickness for which

men

company and

heals.

fellowship as a leper].

Margery

prays; her

son

that

he

fled his

More-

VOX MATRIX over, as a result ot her

he survives

his

mayde

fayr

motherly ministrations, harsh

young manhood,

daughter for the

“Sithyn,

line:

child”

whan God

fair

maid

woman

initially

Staley, 108) [Since, as

Margery,

child],

to her

they

wolde, hys wife had

mother, the protector of her daughter-in-law escorting the younger

as

seem,

marry and produce another

to

lives

(Kempe 223; Kempe,

wife had a child, a

his

77

when

God

Anne,

like St.

a childe, a

wished, a

is

her son dies

grand-

in grace,

homeland.

Margery’s emulation of Birgitta not only asserts her place within the matrix, strates

it

also indicates her

need

Her

for a spiritual mother.

demon-

text

Margery’s neediness and her reliance on maternal and paternal

fig-

ures; to the

twentieth-century reader, her absent biological mother, unlike her foregrounded biological lather, appears an obvious gap in the text, al-

though the privileging of the paternal over the maternal

common now learn

few

in

details

autobiographical texts

as

was

is

almost

in earlier ones. Sadly,

as

we

of her early childhood. 49

childhood and her maternal care of her

we must deduce from how

adolescence

it

line

What we know of Margery’s many children in childhood and

she relates to the

Holy Family and

the children of others. Poignantly,

Margery appears to search for parental approval for the greater part of her life. Does that mean that she, like Birgitta, lost her mother as a young girl? If so, then her reliance on motherly models from the Holy Family makes psychological sense.TheVirgin Mary is

often portrayed in pictures, seated with her mother,

holding both the Virgin and the Baby Jesus. In Birgitta

ily,

and Margery find their places

to the Virgin, granddaughter if

this ideal

who

is

matriarchal fam-

daughter and granddaughter

and great granddaughter to

St.

Anne. So even

and Margery lack the love of biological mothers, they have these mothers to fill in the gaps, teaching them what they need to know

Birgitta

spiritual

to

as

Anne,

St.

be good Christian mothers.

A

near physical contact between Margery and Birgitta occurs on

Rome, when

Margery’s pilgrimage to Jerusalem and

handmaid

in

Rome.

she

visits

and Margery connect through the

Birgitta

Birgitta’s

medium

of another daughter, the maidservant, Catherine of Flanders; Margery meets and speaks with

a “real”

daughter of Birgitta,

healed by the saint and was treated travels

who

hand of Mother

tual

has touched the

power can be

when

Birgitta,

member of

as a

Margery symbolically

ing.

51

from one

transferred

Birgitta. If

woman

line continues

Birgitta to the

one

believes that spiri-

gift to

handmaid and then

telling

finally to

is

how and

Margery. Like

of Norwich, yet another of

Margery gains much from

through the

was

50

Thus hand of one

the family.

to another, this

through her intermediary, passes her

spiritual precursors,

So the

woman who

through time by touching the

the earlier blessing received from Julian

Kempes

a

Birgitta’s bless-

of personal history: from

Margery.

NANDA HOPENWASSER AND SIGNE WEGENER

78

Perhaps Margery secretly yearned to have taken the place of Catherine

of Flanders; perhaps she imagined that she was Katarina, accompanying her mother on pilgrimage. She may have thought, “Why was I born to my parents in truly

England and not to the holy

would

come of worthy

I

used her imaginative

gifts in

Birgitta in

Rome

kindred." But even if

such

or in Sweden?

Then

Margery occasionally

way, her grasp on reality told her that

a

her relationship to Birgitta remained tentative, foregrounded in her relationship to

God.

If

her faith in

God

would her

failed, so

ties to

the mater-

nal line.

Kempe edge of

takes pains to see that such a break does not occur.

Birgitta’s life history

woman who

and work provides her with the powerful

has survived

image of

a

Birgitta’s

motherly model gives Margery the strength to

life

in

emulation of her

Her knowl-

ideal. In

life’s

become a saint. live a womanly

adversities to

choosing Birgitta

as a spiritual

mother, she

mother she needs. She is able to survive her depression, pick herself up when childbirth and motherhood initially fail her and live a fulfilling life. Later, taking the cue from her finds

both the eternal Father and the

spiritual tual

mother,

mother,

to those

as

Kempe becomes

mother

who may

spiritual

visionary writer, serving, like her tex-

a

of readers,

to later generations

have witnessed her

life

as well as role

model

spent in service of God.

Notes 1.

“How

he Goode Wyfe tau^t hyr Doubter, quod Kate,”

dence, ed.

Frederick

J.

Furnivall,

EETS 258

A

Booke of

(London: Kegan, Paul, Trench,

Triibner, 1898), pp. 44-51; also qtd. in Barbara Hanawalt, Growing

Medieval London 2.

A

(New York: Oxford

Prece-

University Press, 1993),

p.

Up

in

75.

goodly selection of such works including “Symons Lesson of Wisdom

Manner of Children,” “The Young

for All

Children’s Book,” “Rhode’s

Book of Nurture and School of Good Manners,” “The ABC of Aristotle,” and “How the Good Wife Taught Her Daughter,” can be found in Meals and Manners

Kegan 3.

in

initial

as

in a

and

A

Booke of Precedence.

Knows

Social

Courtesy Text,” Speculum 71 (1996): 66—86, Riddy’s

article

Best:

an impetus and inspiration to the writing of

Growing Up

in

32 (London,

Reading

strumental in providing background for

The

EETS

Furnivall,

idea for this essay arose before the publication of Fe-

Riddy’s excellent article “Mother

Change served

J.

Paul, Trench, Triibner, 1868, rpt. 1904);

Although the licity

Olden Time, ed. Frederick

Medieval London

this

this essay.

Also in-

study were Barbara Hanawalt’s

(New York: Oxford

Ties that Bind, Peasant Families in Medieval

University Press, 1993);

England

(New York: Oxford

Women and Work in Preindustrial Europe (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986). The initial idea for this essay arose from reading Silvana Veccio, “The Good Wife,” in A History of University Press, 1986); and her

VOX MATHIS

4.

79

Women in the West: II. Silences of the Middle Ages, ed. Christiane KlapischZuber (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992), pp. 105—35. The two primary texts for this essay are Roger Ellis, ed., The Liber Celestis of St Bridget of Sweden: The Middle English Version of British Library

Claudius

EETS

B

i,

together with a

life

MS

of the saint from the same manuscript, vol.

291 (Oxford: Oxford University

I,

and Margery Kempe, The Book of Margery Kempe, ed. Sanford Brown Meech and Hope Emily

Allan, vol.

I,

lations into

EETS 212 Modern

Press, 1987);

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1940). All trans-

Nanda Hopenwasser and Signe We-

English are by

gener. 5.

Jill

Ker Conway writes

in

(New York: Alfred Knopf,

When Memory 1998),

Every autobiographer wants her or

his

life.

Most aim

some important

Speaks: Reflections on Autobiography

to persuade others to learn

from

to convince their readers to take

up

new spiritual path, be aware of new moral sense. To achieve this

cause, follow a

particular hazards, develop a

they cannot depart too dramatically from popularly accepted

which

stereotypes

man of action and

affirm the

or redemptive female. To do so

power, 6.

The

(p.

is

the suffering

to risk losing their persuasive

16)

following theoretical studies of autobiography are particularly useful

with regard to the investigation of

Kempe s Book

as

autobiographical

and Margery

St. Birgitta’s Revelations

texts:

A

Sidonie Smith,

Poetics of Women’s

Autobiography: Marginality and the Fictions of Self-Representation (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987); Estelle C.Jelineks pioneering Women’s

Autobiography: Essays

in

Criticism

(Bloomington, Indiana University

1980); Shari Benstock’s The Private biographical Writings

(Chapel

Hill,

Self:

NC:

Theory and

and, the most theoretical book, Janet Varner

7.

(New York: Norton,

Gunn,

was to lead

wanted

a religious life.

to

University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982).

marry,

“hon

(14) [She

gensen

in the

first

choice

in Birgitta och hennes uppenbarelser

asserts that

ingaatt giftermaal endast

Birgitta

emedan hon

had been forced to

blivit

married only because she was forced to do

also discusses

canonization

marry or have children; her

Toni Schmid

(Lund: Gleerups Forlag, 1940)

1988);

Autobiography: Towards a

According to the testimony of her daughter Katarina record, Birgitta never

of Women’s Auto-

University of North Carolina Press,

1988); Carolyn Heilbrun, Writing a Woman’s Life

Poetics of Experience (Philadelphia:

Practice

Press,

tvungen

soj.

daertil”

Johannes Jor-

her reluctance to marry in his chapter devoted to her

religious education (28—31). Nevertheless,

one may observe

that Birgitta

and Ulf appear to have been admirably suited to one another, having pro-

duced

a

large

throughout the

come her

a

life.

number of children and maintaining friendly relations marriage. Only after Ulf died did Birgitta, officially, be-

Bride of Christ, although she displayed pious behavior throughout

NANDA HOPENWASSER AND SIGNE WEGENER

80

8.

Such things do appear

in

ern hagiographies such

modern

as

biographies of St. Birgitta,

those written by

if

mod-

not in

Anthony Butkovitch. Johannes

Jorgensen’s extensive biography ot Birgitta, Saint Birgitta of Sweden

(New

Ingeborg Lund

York: Longmans, Green

Nanda Hopenwasser with her

now

recent works can personality and

KVHAAH

More

provide additional insight into Birgitta ’s

spirituality,

och hennes varld,

Birgitta

Hist ser 16 (Stockholm: 1971); Tore Nyberg, introd. to Birgitta

of Sweden: Life and Selected Revelations, Ed. Margerite Tjader Harris

(New

York: Classics of Western Spirituality, 1990), pp. 13-59; Sven Silen,

"The

Spirituality

of

St. Birgitta

(Roma: 1974),

Svezia

of Sweden,”

pp. 110-15;

of Saint Bridget of Sweden,”

(Roma:

1974), pp. 157-66;

spiritualitet,

Roger

Ellis,

“A Note on

the Spirituality

in Birgitta, a Swedish Saint: Celebrations of the

Century After Her Death

Sixth

in Birgitta, a Swedish Saint: Celebra-

Century After Her Death 1373-1973, ed. Ambasciata di

tions of the Sixth

9.

Co., 1954) provided

biographical introduction to Birgitta.

including Birgit Klockars,

life,

&

trans.

1373-1973,

Anna Jane Rossing,

Ambasciata

ed.

Studier

Svezia

di

den heliga Birgittas

i

(Stockholm: 1986).

The books of

Birgitta ’s Revelations follow an

approximate chronological

order with later books following earlier ones, but, Book, chronology

is

Margery Kempe s

as in

only approximate and some revelations are impossible

to date. Trygve Lunden’s definitive

Swedish edition of the

Revelations,

Him-

melska Uppenbarelser (Malmo: Allhelms Forlag, 1957) provides dating and

context for each revelation 10.

C.

M. Palmgren

as

much

as

is

possible.

in Sveriges Markligaste Kvitina, Birgitta Birgersdotter (Stock-

holm: Wilhelmssons Forlag, 1914) devotes

a

whole chapter

to the children

(170—81). Birgitta Birgersdotter and Ulf Gudmarsson had eight children in the following order: Mseritta (Marta) (1319), Karl (1321), Birger (1323),

Bengt (1326), Gudmar (1327), Katarina (1330), Ingeborg (1332), and Cecilia (1334) (175). Jorgensen relates that Ulf and Birgitta argued over the marriage of their oldest daughter Marta. Birgitta

young

that the girl

was too

marry and she did not approve of Ulf s choice of groom and the

to

fact that

felt

he chose without asking her advice. This

all

took place while Bir-

was pregnant with their youngest daughter, Cecilia (Jorgensen,

gitta

7 1—76). Karl, the second child and the oldest son, called “familjens” or “enfant terrible”

by Palmgren, married three times,

Gisladotter Sparre, second a Gizla,

and

third, a

Norwegian

first

called Gisla,

Swede, Katerina

a

Gyda,

or,

perhaps,

Dane, Karin Eriksdotter Glysing (179). Daughter-in-law

Karin seems to have had problems with Birgittas wayward son, and Birgitta

provided

to Karl, Sicily,

11.

sympathetic ear (151-52). Several revelations were devoted

a

whose

sexual liason with Giovanna, the

Queen of Naples and

disturbed his mother greatly (VII, 13-14).

Ingeborg died

relatively

(IV, 34; IV, 72). Birgitta

convent.

Only

young. Quite

as a

few revelations

refer to Katarina

was very upset when her youngest daughter

a revelation

would be loved

a

wife

as

from Christ instructing her well as a virgin set her

that her

mind

at ease.

left

the

daughter

VOX MATRIS 12.

Erik Noreen, “Heliga Birgitta

81

som Svensk

Forfattare,” in Birgittaboken, ed.

Andreas Lindblom (Stockholm: Nordisk Rotogravyr, 1954), pp. 59-73. Noreen details Birgitta s problems with her son (69-72), as does Palmgren (182-88). 13.

Fine clothes alone are not sufficient to Revelations.

One must

ing of clothes to

damn one

according to Birgitta

s

be overly proud or overly ostentatious in the wear-

sin. In

Book

chapter 30,

“Mary

explains that one does through wearing fine and costly clothes supposing that it were necessary (Lunden, 13). Both St. Birgitta and Margery Kempe appear to be highly conscious of what they wear and accord symbolic meaning to style

not

sin

and color 14.

IV,

in clothes.

According

Lunden, the Virgin Mary seems to have had a special interest in Karl, even before he got into trouble with Giovanna. In his introduction to Book IV, Revelation 74, he writes, “Birgitta sees in her ecstasy to

how Mary and

various saints dressed her son Karl in the various garments

of knights equipment. Each and every garment symbolizes virtue

which Karl ought

he ought to use”

Mary

to strive after.

Note how

(vol. 2, 16).

Mary’s raiment advice to Birgitta in

Book

a particular

also dictates prayers

which

this section parallels the

Virgin

I.

15.

Fogelklou sees Birgitta

16.

him and his soul, follows him through the gates of hell, grabs him, and brings him to the kingdom of God (125-26). Roger Ellis presents a thorough description of the manuscript production

as

the heroine of the text, the savior of her son. She

prays and fights for

of editions of Birgitta xv).

17.

s

Revelations during

Given the popularity of the

Kempe would cite Hope Emily Allen whole

tradition

Birgitta in her

her lifetime

(ix-

hardly surprising that Margery visit Birgitta s

note to the

EETS

maidservant.

edition discusses a

Of

these

women,

the only

one

cited by

herself is St. Bridget of Sweden; ‘a princess’; a lately canonized saint,

All quotes

of St.

Birgitta’s

royal English foundation,

and Kempe’s works

ing editions unless otherwise noted: cal

is

after

of continental female writers whose writings would have

and the patron of the new great 18.

it

Book and

in her prefatory

been “congenial to Margery.

Margery

text

and shortly

material by Gregersson)

Bridget of Sweden, ed.

Roger

will

St. Birgitta

Syon Abbey”

come from

EETS

the follow-

(including the biographi-

(Middle English), The Liber Ellis,

(liii).

Celestis of St.

291 (London: Oxford University

(modern Swedish) Himmelska Uppenbarelser, ed. and trans. Tryggve Lunden, vols. 1-4 (Stockholm: Malmo Allhems, 1957); (modern Press,

1987);

English) The Book of Saint Bride: Birgitta of Sweden’s Revelations, trans. Julia

Bolton Holloway (Newburyport: Focus, 1992); Margery Kempe, The Book of Margery Kempe, ed. Sanford

Brown Meech and Hope Emily

212 (London: Oxford University 19.

See Joshua ines in

S.

Mostow,

later

Ukifune: Autobiographical Hero-

Literature,” in this

to this essay, for an excellent exploration

phy influences

EETS

Press, 1940, rpt. 1961).

“On Becoming

Heien and Kamakura

Allen,

of how

volume, companion piece earlier fictive

autobiographical texts in medieval Japan.

autobiogra-

NANDA HOPENWASSER AND SIGNE WEGENER

82

20.

an aristocrat, could play politics

Birgitta,

much more

effectively

than

Margery. Whereas Birgitta could give advice, often unwanted, to princes,

21.

kings,

and popes. Margery generally had to make do with

minor

prelates,

city officials,

and the occasional bishop.

most

presents both parts of these dialogues, Birgitta

Whereas Margery

often only presents the half deriving from heavenly sources.

Margery ap-

pears to have had performative, holistic experiences; although Birgitta

seems to have had some experiences

as

holistic experiences, she

“auditions.”

22. Julia Bolton Holloway, “Bride, Margery, Julian, den’s Textual

most often presents her

Community

and Alice: Bridget of Swe-

Medieval England,” in Margery Kempe:A Book

in

McEntire (New York; Garland, 1992)

of Essays, ed. Sandra

poverty and financial troubles Margery incurs on her a direct reflection

23.

of Birgitta

Some

Holloway, 203-222.

Rome

refers to the

pilgrimage

as

financial troubles (206).

s

critics dispute the details

of Holloways “map,”

but the general parallelism of pilgrimages remains valid. 24.

The production of Birgitta s early version

of

texts

a revelation in

well documented. She either wrote an

is

Swedish, then handing

fessor/editor to translate into Latin, or she dictated her

sionary experience to her emanuensis. There

is

it

over to her con-

memory of her

no question

vi-

that Birgitta

could read and write both Swedish and Latin (although she learned Latin Margery, on the other hand,

late in life).

tells

us in her Book that she

is il-

the meaning, however, of illiteracy in this period and Margery’s

literate;

reasons for this disclosure can be disputed.

knows no

that she

Latin, not that she

is

I,

personally, feel, that this

means

unable to read the rudiments of

her vernacular language, English, or even possibly

some German

See Josephine K. Tarvers, “The Alleged Literacy of Margery

dialects.

Kempe:A Re-

consideration of the Evidence," Medieval Perspectives 11 (1996): 113— 24, for a

25.

discussion of Kempe’s “illiteracy.”

Clarissa

Kempe to

ter

W. Atkinson

(Ithaca,

from

the

World of Margery

University Press, 1983) devotes

Birgitta’s life

In the visionary dialogues

Margery 27.

NY: Cornell

and Pilgrim:The Book and

a

whole chap-

Margery’s family (67-101). She also places Margery processing

lessons learned

26.

in Mystic

as

and work (34—36, 168,175, 193).

both Jesus and the Virgin frequently refer to

“dowtyr.”

See Nanda Hopenwasser, “Citi Creatnra: Perceptions of Self in the Writing of

Marguerite d’Oingt,

glish

St. Birgitta

and Margery Kempe,” Dissertation, En-

Department, University of Alabama, 1992.

28.

Figure

29.

We

A

demonstrates these relationships.

are here using the following definition

Ninth

New

Collegiate Dictionary:

else originates

of “matrix” found

in Webster’s

“Something within which something

or develops,” emphasizing

its

connection with

its

derivation

from the Latin mater (733). 30.

Medieval motherhood has been in the field

a

popular topic of

late.

Important works

include groundbreaking works by Carolyn Walker

Bynum,

VOX MA T R IS Jesus as Mother: Studies

in the Spirituality

83

of the High Middle Ages (Berkeley:

University of California Press, 1983); and Clarissa Atkinson, The Oldest Vo-

Motherhood

cation: Christian sity Press,

31.

Warner

in the

Middle Ages (Ithaca,

NY: Cornell Univer-

1991).

From

in

the Beast to the Blonde:

On

Fairy Tales and Their Tellers (Lon-

don: Chatto and Windus, 1994) writes that in the Northern tradition during the reformation, both in Protestant and Catholic countries, the figure

of Anne reached

highest point, and the emphasis

on Gods family was paramount. The family of God was intimate, human, Christian souls were Jesus siblings, and his mother and grandmother were as mummy and granny to them

its

as well

(93— 94). This attitude rose from the maternal cul-

whom

matrix of Birgitta and Margery, for

tural

the maternal line was re-

ligiously significant.

32.

The

role

of female servant (handmaiden)

of the household.

Mother

proximate to that of daughter

is

household took under her wing and was responsible for the moral upbringing of all young unmarried women in the

of the

household, well into the nineteenth century. See Felicity Riddy,

“Mother Knows

Best:

Reading

Social

Change

lum 71 (1996): 66-86. Barbara Hanawalt,

(New York: Oxford

in

in a

Courtesy Text,” Specu-

Growing Up

in

Medieval London

University Press, 1993) maintains that daughters of the

household, true daughters and maidservants

alike,

were taught from such

texts (74-76).

33.

See Pamela Sheingorn,“The Maternal Behavior of God: Divine Father Fantasy Husband,” in Medieval Mothering, ed.John nie

Wheeler (New York: Garland,

cussion of 34.

God

Carmi Parsons and Bon-

1996), pp. 77-99, for a fascinating dis-

the Fathers maternal characteristics.

See Ton Brandenbarg’s “Saint Anne:

A

Holy Grandmother and Her Chil-

dren,” in Sanctity and Motherhood: Essays on Holy Mothers ed.

Anneke Mulder-Bakker (New York: Garland,

excellent discussion of the significance of

Middle Ages. Marina Warner devotes

Anne

in her recent

functions is

35.

as

book, From

a

St.

in the

Middle Ages,

1995), pp. 31-65, for an

Anne,

particularly in the later

whole chapter

the Beast to the Blonde,

to the cult

of

St.

emphasizing her

the perfect grandmother, teacher, and storyteller (81-95). She

the ancestor of the female

line.

See Rosemary Drage Hale, “Joseph ation in the Construction of

as

Male

Mother: Adaptation and Appropri-

Virtue,” in Medieval Mothering,

101-16, for an intriguing description of Joseph 36.

as

Clarissa Atkinson’s explanation

as

of the legend of Anne

is

particularly rele-

vant here:

According

to

Anne first married Joachim and had Virgin. Then she married Cleophas (the

legend,

Mary, the Blessed

brother of her son-in-law Joseph) and had the second Mary,

who became

the

mother of James the

Less,

pp.

maternal figure.

Joseph the

Just,

Simon and Jude. She married a third husband (Salome) and had the third Mary who married Zebedee and became the mother

NANDA HOPENWASSER AND SIGNE WEGENER

84

of James the Greater and John, the beloved disciple (and cousin) to whom Jesus entrusted his mother (John’s aunt). ( The Oldest Vocation, n37,160) 37.

See Isak Collijn, ed. Acta

et

Processus Canonizacionis Beate Birgitte (Uppsala:

Wiksells Boktryckeri, 1924). In his introduction Collijn explains and describes Birgitta’s canonization process,

when

holy canonization took place”

Birgitta’s

So

wasser).

the time

which was “finished by Oct

Birgitta

s

(III, trans.

7,

1391

Nanda Hopen-

canonization took place during Margery’s lifetime; by

Margery went on her pilgrimage

to

Rome,

had

St. Birgitta

al-

ready been canonized. 38.

Warner points out conception

Anne

at

as

the

that Jacobus

in

The Golden Legend describes

taking place as a result of the chaste embrace of Joachim and

Golden Gate of Jerusalem: “An emblematic moment”

ing “a sinless arrival” attribute

deVoragine

(

The Beast

to the

indicat-

Blonde, 83). Birgitta here does not

conception to the embrace, but does emphasize the couple’s near

chastity.

39.

gaging in sex

—

ception (Book 40.

Joachim and Anne had the purest of motives for enand that no lust was involved in Mary’s conprocreation

Birgitta stresses that

Note how

—

1,

Rev

9; Ellis, 16).

attention

little

(one long paragraph), and (several pages).

is

given to Mary’s joy and the actual childbirth

how much

attention

is

given to Mary’s sorrow

Her Sex: The Myth and Cult of the York:Vintage, 1983), pp. 206-25. lorosa in Alone of All

41.

Note

as

Mater Do-

Virgin

Mary (New

See Marina Warner’s chapter on the Virgin

that this vision

is

a direct

response to the power of the holy place,

for Birgitta writes that this detailed vision takes place

“when

I

was in

Bedlem” (Book VII, Rev 21; Ellis, 485). One may understand her theater of the mind as a direct response to the power of the Virgin Mary as mother to Birgitta

and other

have had more suffers

42.

43.

For

women who

difficult physical

more mental

a traditional

have suffered in childbed. Birgitta

may

experiences than Margery, but Margery

anguish.

metaphoric interpretation of that difference with regard

to the

iconography of Joseph, see Hale, pp. 101-16.

Note

that at least

“false” pregnancy,

once afterwards

Birgitta suffered

through

where her symptoms, following the

a religious

liturgical calendar,

made her appear pregnant even to witnesses who felt the babe move in her womb. Her association with the Virgin is confirmed by this experience. For an excellent analysis of this event see Claire Sahlin, “A Marvelous and Great Exultation of the Heart: Mystical Pregnancy and Marian Devotion in

Bridget of Sweden’s Revelations," in Studies of

tine

Order, vol.

1,

ed.

St. Birgitta

and

the Brigit-

James Hogg (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen

Press,

1993), pp. 108-28. 44. Jeanette Nieuland’s translation of this incident as recounted in the Petrus

and Petrus

Vita

b.

Brigide indicates that the

shortened; also Birgitta

is

Middle English version was

an active participant in the Middle English ver-

VOX MATHIS

85

sion inasmuch as the vision occurs to her. She

and Petrus Vita

is

more

passive in the Petrus

the vision appears to occur to Birgitta’s watchers rather than to Birgitta herself (302). Note also that in both versions, the Virgin as

appears dressed in white tor the Virgin

tor Birgitta

silk;

white was the predominant color

She wears white in the birthing visions also. 45. Holloway points out that St. Margaret was the patron saint of childbirth and that women named Margaret particularly cultivated Saints Margaret s

clothing.

and Bride, Margery of Lynn prayer to her ery. Also,

cedure that I

alleviate the pains

midwives loosened

unbound her 46.

would

among them”

performed

in

It

was thought

of childbed and assure

a safe deliv-

woman’s clothes and from the womb, a pro-

unbind the child

many

of the world.

parts

speculate that the child was a boy because of Margery’s doting

Rome

babies as they are suckled in

may have been ment of

female; her acting as

(78-79), but, of course, the

handmaid

on boy

first

child

to assure the proper treat-

the Christ child certainly reflects her readings, but her choice of

may

images

that a

possible knots in a

all

hair in an effort to

is still

(213).

also reflect a personal tragedy. If so, she

self for the tragedy,

may have blamed

her-

going into an extreme depression precipitated by

a

sense of personal guilt. 47.

Our image of this situation as realizes that

48.

For

Margery he has

this part

Book

oj

that

is

herself.

said the

of the essay

Margery Kempe,

MI: Medieval 49.

priest

he

is

Notice

wrong

we

also

TEAMS

almost

how

as

he

young and

tries to

as

untried in the

make amends

after

he

thing.

used Lynn Staley’s

new

edition of The

Middle English Text Series (Kalamazoo,

Institute Publications, 1996).

Nanda Hopenwasser queried what might have hapand made some suggestions as to why she may have been

In her dissertation,

pened

to her,

omitted from the

text.

Deborah

Lynn,” in Margery Kempe:

A

Ellis

Book of

in

“Margery Kempe and King’s

Essays,

ed. Sandra

McEntire (New

York: Garland, 1992) discusses Kempe’s environment in detail (139-63). 50.

Holloway

51.

RosalynnVoaden tical

identifies this

Knowledge

get of Sweden, a

in

maidservant

“Learning to be

as

Catherine of Flanders (208-09).

a Visionary:The

Transmission of Mys-

The Book of Margery Kempe and the Revelaciones of Bridpaper presented at the 34th International Congress on

in

Medieval Studies (Kalamazoo, MI, 6-9

May

1999).

*•

PART

II

COMPARATIVE STUDIES

T

he very act of doing any kind of comparative new.

tively

Not

until

literary study

rela-

is

1947 did the Modern Language Association

es-

Comparative Literature Section, and even then the conceptual scope was narrow, comparisons between American and British literature being the most frequent topic. Indeed, most early theory on comparative tablish a

had

literature

a

European emphasis and concerned

itself

primarily with

looking for direct links in transmission through source study and philology.

As

1

it

developed, comparative literature turned to intertextual studies

and became “the study of a

more than one tual discipline it

tions.’’

3

phenomenon from

the perspective of

national literature or in conjunction with another intellec-

or even several.” 2 Jean-Marie Carre went even further to

branch of

a

literary

call

literary history that studies “international spiritual rela-

comparing both Heian and and the cultures that made them possible.

Crossing the Bridge follows this lead,

medieval European literatures

While European comparative ferentiation

among

studies have often rigidly

national groups, this

adhered to the

book moves away from

dif-

that trend.

For the purposes of our comparison, the Christian, Latin, aristocratic Western European Middle Ages represents tity

a

cohesive and viable cultural iden-

than can be fruitfully compared with medieval Japan.

Only

recently has comparative literature shifted from a Eurocentric to a

global discipline. Excellent able to

4

But

as

gins.'

which make more

be

and hybridity within postcolonial

a return to the early

Critical study focused

on

intertextuality,

“anxiogenic.”

Culler admits that

standing of discourse, the harder texts, for

each depends for

its

it

is,

in

to

once

elitist

societies

may

ac-

literature’s ori-

on the other hand, has

Charles Bernheimer’s words,

“The more

it is

texts avail-

the history of

as

source studies of comparative

developed slowly, probably because 6

literature’s

Jonathan Culler has noted, topics such

cross-cultural contacts

1

translations,

wider audiences, have eroded comparative

reputation.

tually

new

sophisticated

ones under-

compare Western and non- Western

meaning and

identity

on

its

place within a

CROSSING THE BRIDGE

88

discursive system.”

One way

out of this problem, he suggests,

“comparative perspective geographically and ing the comparative perspective

as a

atures in the sense of setting

one

historically, instead

is

of imagin-

7

global overview.”

Comparatists agree that our objective

to locate the

is

not to evaluate national

against another in order to

make

a

liter-

judg-

ment. Natalie Melas argues against such inadvertent standards or norms,

which

8 open up understanding. This

restrict rather

proper to impose our

new

own

values

one. The eighteenth-century

von Herder

blatant insult to the majesty of Nature.”

do happen,

rialism

as in

a

is

im-

9

superior European culture

And

yet, lapses

Arthur Waley’s evaluations of Murasaki’s cultural it,

Murasaki,

under the influence of her somewhat childish predecessors, writes

manner which

fairy tale.”

The

a

is

is

of cultural impe-

heritage: “This chapter should be read with indulgence. In still

it

when reading another culture, is not a German philosopher Johann Gottfried

“The very thought of a

insisted,

idea, that

in

blend of the court chronicle with the conventional

1()

following essays strive to open up the texts of Heian and medieval

European

women

and to teach

us, in the

words of Earl Miner,

momentary for the 11 inevitable.” The comparative

to avoid

“taking the local for the universal, the

constant, and

above

essays

II

all,

the familiar for the

explore the ways Japanese and European medieval

through different generic venues

“The Voice of

Court

the

Woman

Comtessa de Dia, an Occitan

Komachi, both female

—

found voices

poetry, letters, romance, and art. In

Poet”

S.

Lea Millay compares the

with Izumi Shikibu and

trobairitz,

aristocratic

women

Ono no

Heian court poets. Applying the West-

ern theoretical construct of subjectivity, Millay sensitively reads the

and demonstrates

how

poems

these poets not only develop a speaking voice for

the female lover but also establish a subject position for the poets selves. In

of Part

“Romantic Entreaty

in

The Kagero Diary and The

and Heloise" John Wallace explores another way in which

them-

Letters ofAbelard

women

from

dis-

parate cultures formulate romantic appeals. Wallace looks at the rhetorical

design and effectiveness of the literary letters of two

Mother and

the Abbess Heloise, both of

The author of The

whom

women,

Michitsuna’s

write to absent husbands.

Kagero Diary, like Millay’s poets, crafts a poetic argu-

ment, while Heloise

relies

on the

rhetorical prose forms taught to her

her former teacher/now husband. Wallace examines the strategy and

biguous

fate

of each woman’s epistolary

In contrast,

Cynthia

Ho

in

that female authors

am-

entreaty.

“Words Alone Cannot Express:

Marie de France and Murasaki Shikibu ’’discusses not genuine rather fictional letters

by

Epistles in letters,

embedded within medieval romances. Ho

but

argues

Marie de France and Murasaki Shikibu portray the

power and persuasiveness of women’s

love letters.

Although the French

COMPARATIVE STUDIES epistles

within the Lais are eventually expendable, merely

end. The Tale of Genji illustrates the centrality

mance. Carol Harding

mance

89

in

means to an of written exchange in ro-

also investigates female

‘“True Lovers’: Love and Irony

in

a

authored views of ro-

Murasaki Shikibu and

Christine de Pizan.” Harding argues that both Christine’s Le Livre du due des vrai amants and The Tile of Genji problematize male standards of fin

amor or polygamous romance. Seen from the viewpoint of female narrators and characters, the ideals of the courtly and amorous worlds of

Heian Japan and medieval France become

a

source of social decay. While

the previous essays have argued for the

through poems,

and narrative

letters,

power of the female voice fiction, Marco Roman in “Re-

claiming the Self Through Silence: The Riverside Counselor’s

Stories

and

the Lais of Marie de France” explores the equally powerful tradition of

female silence

as a

forceful

mode of

“Haizumi” from The

expression.

and Marie’s “Eliduc” both present the motif with two wives. Invoking the model of silence from Christian

Riverside Counselor’s Stories

of

a

man

and Buddhist monastic

life,

the neglected wives force the question of ef-

communication. Mara Miller begins “The Lady in the Garden: Subjects and Objects in an Ideal World” by establishing the presence of both the male and female gaze in Heian texts. The site in Japanese paintfective

ings that represents both

women

gazing and being gazed upon

is

often

the garden, and Miller thus uses this location to contrast representations

of

women

both East and West.

Notes 1.

Friederich Werner, The Challenge of Comparative Literature (Chapel Hill,

NC: 2.

University of North Carolina Press, 1970),

Owen Aldrich, ed., of

versity 3.

p. 2.

Comparative Literature: Matter and Method (Urbana: Uni-

Illinois Press,

1969),

p. 1.

Qtd. in Ulrich Weisstein, Comparative

and

Literature

William Riggan (Bloomington: Indiana University 4.

Lee Haring, “What Would

A True

5.

Jonathan Culler, “Comparability,” World

6.

Charles Bernheimer, Comparative Literature

MD: Johns

Press, 1974), p. 5.

Comparative Literature Look Like?”

Teaching Oral Traditions, ed.John Miles Foley

(Baltimore,

Literary Theory, trans.

(New York: MLA,

Literature

Hopkins University

in

1998),

p.

in

34.

Today 69 (1995): 268.

the

Age of

Multiculturalism

Press, 1995), p. 15.

270.

7.

Ibid., p.

8.

Natalie Melas, “Versions of Incommensurability,” World Literature Today 69 (1995): 275-80.

9.

Qtd

in Barbara Miller, ed., Masterworks ofAsian Literature in Comparative Per-

spective

(Armonk, NY: M.

E. Sharpe, 1994),

p.

xxv.

CROSSING THE BRIDGE

90

10.

The

Tale of Getiji:A

Novel

in

Six Parts by Lady Murasaki, trans. Arthur Waley

Houghton Mifflin Co.), vol. I, p. 7. About the poems of her diary, he writes, “both poems contain a number of double meanings which it would be tedious to unravel” (p. x). (Boston:

1

1

.

Earl Miner, Comparative Poetics: An Intercultural Essay on Theories of Literature

(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990),

p.

238.

CHAPTER

5

THE VOICE OF THE COURT WOMAN POET 5.

Lea Millay

lthough the two cultures, Heian Japan and medieval Occitania, could 1 A. not possibly have interacted, and the languages of classical Japanese and Occitan are dissimilar, there is a strong commonality of viewpoint and feeling. In a consideration

mon ground

of court women’s

by comparing Izumi Shikibu (975?— 1035?)

poet of eleventh-century Japan 1140?)

—

a

subjectivity,

court

woman

poet

—with

I

search this

—

a

court

com-

woman

the Comtessa Beatrix de Dia

[trobairitz]

—who wrote during

century in France, with attending discussion of Heian poet

(b.

the twelfth

Ono no Ko-

machi (834?-?). Courtly values stimulated the writing of poetry that was at once social and intensely personal. Seen against the larger background of court society and within the system of Heian aesthetics and medieval fin amor, the core of the comparison

an analysis and interpretation of poems by Izumi

is

Shikibu and the Comtessa de Dia in which the delineation of the first-person subject is key. For the purposes of this chapter, subjectivity is seen both as a theoretical link

texts. Subjectivity as

been

between the two poets and as a way of reading the a way of reading troubadour and trobairitz lyric has by scholars

clearly established

in the

West, notably Sarah Kay and

Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner. Their work serves this effort to cross

as a

point of departure for

the bridge.

Izunh Shikibu lived

at

the height of her culture. As a poet

who

for aristocratic audiences, she caught the imagination of her age

flecting

its

ideals

and by

wrote by re-

crystallizing those ideals in a poetic structuring

of experience. During the Heian period, the preeminent form of poetry was the umka. Waka or “Japanese” poetry (as distinct from Chinese poetry) includes tanka, nagauta,

tanka or “short

poem,”

a

one

and sedoka. Our concern here line

poem of

is

with the

31 syllables in five phrases

— 92

S.

LEA MILLAY

with an alternating

syllabic pattern

waka was used

denote

to

eleventh centuries,

“women’s hand”). 2 moji

— “male

this

of 5/7/5/7/7. In

form

only.

1

women wrote waka in Men wrote in kambun

letters”),

which was adopted

turies as Japan’s first written language.

word

later ages the

and

In the ninth, tenth,

the kana script

(

or classical Chinese

in the fourth

—

onna-de

and

(

fifth

otoko

cen-

Richard Bowring writes: “Classi-

Chinese, the language of government, decree, and ‘knowledge’ for

cal

some

domain of the

centuries, was jealously guarded as the exclusive

male. Women were thereby effectively excluded from participation in the

from the source of authority. To perpetuate this state of affairs the useful fiction was generated that it was unbecoming for the female to learn Chinese.” 3 In Heian Japan, waka were woven into the fabric of monogatari [tales] and nikki [diaries] and

power

structure, linguistically cut off

Bowring notes

collected in imperial and private anthologies.

that fully

half of The Izumi Shikibu Diary consists of poetic exchanges [zotoka] and

poems interwoven

the 795 lize

in The Tale of Genji are often used to crystal-

the essence of a relationship or event.

women’s poetry love that

is

is

love

—

a stylized, discrete,

4

The main

though not

as

women,

form of constraints were

platonic,

spontaneous and refined. But because similar

placed on the authors

subject of the

way they expressed

particularly in the

love in their writing, they also share a concern with subverting those constraints. Paradoxically, the key to

their resistance

is

poetry.

While

never deviating from the waka form, and with few exceptions from the

Heian lexicon of acceptable words, poetry through which the

Thus while the age, in

the its

women

the principal

is

medium

elaborate a first-person (subject) position.

women’s poetry embodies the highest

3

cultural values ot

passionate intensity waka in the female

hand was

also a

powerful means for questioning and redefining the construction ol femininity

during the time.

The Comtessa

Beatrix de Dia also lived

the height of a culture

at

twelfth-century Occitania, the center in Southern France of a social and cultural Renaissance.

Of the

Comtessa de Dia excelled of Provencal love poetry sets

—

lyrical

genres cultivated by the

trobairitz,

the

in the canso or love song, the highest expression

th e grand chant courtois.

the general subject and tone of the

poem

6

as

The

first

stanza of a canso

well as the formal con-

ventions (in the five surviving cansos of the Comtessa de Dia, three to eight cobias doblas

of eight

lines each).

The shape of a

stanza,

with regard to rhyme, rhyme patterns, and meter

is

of the

poem

itself,

not limited by fixed

forms. In this respect the canso permits the poet greater freedom than does the

waka* The subject matter of a

canso,

however,

is

clearly delineated

by

the standards offin amor. As in Heian waka, the repetition of certain words

within a chosen vocabulary that

reflects courtly values, as well as

repeated

,

THE VOICE OF COURT and

motifs, themes,

Matilda

writes:

dour to invent her own shape

trobairitz

is

lyric

9

voice.

any trouba-

as free as

opening stanza (which will set the the entire song) with unique rhyme schemes and syllabic for-

pattern for

mulae.” 10

“Each

93

power of the

enriches the

allusions

Tomaryn Bruckner

WOMAN POET

for the

should be emphasized, however, that while poetry in general permits the expression of emotion, poetic form for waka and cans os alike It

tempers, moderates, and restrains.

Taking the canso

acknowledges

women

ing that the

when

range of voices in

a

almost

trobairitz poetry,

Meg Bogen

poems of multilayered meanings,

poets wrote in a “true

all artistic

endeavor was

person singular

first

collective.”

unambiguous language, and

for using direct, clarity

form of

the standard

as

11

She

assert-

time

at a

credits the trobairitz

for expressing

emotion with

and candor.

Sarah Kay, on the other hand, argues for a dieval court

women’s

subjectivity.

more complex view of me-

Kay contends

of the love

that the subject

gendered, and that “attributes assigned to the feminine are a source of continuing unease even in male-authored poetry, whilst for female-aulyric

is

thored texts they present tion.”

1-

Kay holds

major disincentive to first-person composithe troubadour lyrics written by men inscribe a

that

a

gender hierarchy that privileges the masculine over the feminine, and hierarchy

this

based on the belief that “the feminine

is

of the masculine, and

was

‘naturally’ corrupt.”

is

to construct a third

be-written”

(

Subjectivity

;

90— 91). To

solution for male poets

explain, however,

women

writers,

Kay

writes:

homosocial bonds provide the norms of moral and

gender categories”

(

why

of consensus, and use imagery

a position

among women by

they create division

the qualities

gender of “women-to-whom-love-poems-can-

medieval Occitan poetry by dours speak from

The

‘lacks’

that

Subjectivity

101).

;

separating

there

is

so

little

“Male troubain

which male

social interaction,

them

into

two

but

distinct

13

Kay grounds her argument in the question: “From what subject position could a woman compose?” She writes: “The ‘feminine’ of nusogymstic

fantasy

is

hardly

gender [domna]

is

a

to identify. Yet the ‘mixed’

by definition exclusive; although

male’

traits

make

for articulateness, whilst others

it

sanctions certain ‘fe-

(softness, beauty, sexual passivity), these are

power) are transplanted from

summarizes by themselves

which

position with

as

a

of

its

not ones which

characteristics (lordship

masculine ethos”

(Subjectivity,

102).

stating that although the trobairitz in their poetry

and

Kay

expose

agents of desire despite the risk of condemnation, the gen-

der system was repressive and inhibited the expression of desire: “Their subjectivity,

109,

1 1

1).

when

While

citama was

it is

not annexed,

in essence

I

agree,

more prudish about

is

it

silenced or oppressed”

(

Subjectivity

should be noted that Christian

Oc-

sex generally than Heian Japan, and that

94

S.

LEA MILLAY complex question of positionality

applied to males as well as females. This

embraces considerations of gender, male domination of the

women

derstanding of

etry

vital to

is

an un-

writing in any age.

and twelfth-century France,

aristocratic audiences.

The

women

principal concern of the po-

Despite the intellectual cultivation by both cultures of the

love.

is

well as factors like

the question

trobairitz,

In both eleventh-century Japan

wrote poetry for

as

and women’s relationship with lan-

social order

guage. Though specific here to the

and rank,

status,

genre of love poetry, the expression of love in poetry entailed certain

known

This

is

tions

and

fears.

women betray in their poetry women writing in classical Japanese

because the

various inhibi-

For the

as

writing in Occitan, there

a prevailing sense

is

words, “fear of committing a moral or social

unspoken accusations, and concern For the Heian

107).

risks.

women

of anxiety

in Sarah Kay’s

innocence in the face of

fault,

what people

at

—

well as those

will say’’

(

Subjectivity

;

writers the major source of anxiety was nei-

ther in relation to the gender system of male discourse nor because adul-

was disapproved of and punished. With regard to sexual

tery

between men and women, the Heian period was

a

remarkably

relations

liberal time.

women could have numerous lovers, alchanged for women once they married. With

During courtship both men and though

this

permissiveness

regard to language, the existing linguistic situation in Japan from the middle of the tenth century

and women, in

isolated

on was such

by their sex and

men

that

wrote

in classical

and with ample

class

Chinese

leisure time,

had

Richard Bowring’s words “recourse to Japanese and began to make

it

medium for the expression of their special concerns" Murasaki Shikibu, 10). The most important works of the period were written in kana by women: The Kagero Diary, The Izumi Shikibu Diary and shu, their

own, creating

a

(.

The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon, and The the

list

earliest

includes

“many

autobiographical works that

examples of the attempt by

women

ciety to define the self in textual terms”

The primary

Bowring notes that must be some of the

Tale of Genji.

living in a

male-dominated so-

Murasaki Shikibu, 11).

(.

cause of anxiety for Heian

women

was the marriage

sys-

tem of the time, which was changing from a matrilocal to a patrilocal system with the result that women were losing certain rights over their polygamy was the standard

children. Also,

for

men, not

for

women, and

thus the situation of even a high-ranking, artistically accomplished, and erate

woman

An

was often tenuous. Ivan Morris writes:

women

outstanding aspect of the psychology of Heian

the future.

lit-

A

sense of insecurity and a tendency to

of action are something that nearly Genji have in

common; and we

all

find

it

the

is

anxiety about

worry about each course

women

reflected in

characters in The Tale of

most other

literature

of

THE VOICE OF COURT the time. fear

.

95

.This anxiety takes various forms: fear of rumours and gossip,

.

of being abandoned by one’s

of committing oneself to

man

a

one may incur the

fear that

WOMAN POET

jected to persecution.

.

.

.

lover, fear for one’s children’s future, fear

as his

of the man’s principal wife and be sub-

hostility

For

concubine and then being dismissed,

women

these

all

passion are outweighed by fear of what

romantic feelings and sexual

may happen

to

them

if

they are not

14

careful.

As Morris observes, the women, and indirectly the men, suffered emofrom the consequences of polygamy, despite

tionally

lectual acceptance

Fear

and the tions

dominant

a

is

of the system

trobairitz,

ways

a

factor in the lives both of the

and where there

link

between

intel-

women

poets

itself.

is

fear there

is

of power. The language of poetry (waka and

ferent

and

their social

Heian

the need for manifestacansos) establishes in dif-

concern for external power, and the

fear,

expression of sexual love. In both trolled

by the court world. This,

offin amor, a

Heian Japan and medieval Occitama, love and power

whole

in

set

which of

(Songs, xxvii). In

love

is

seen

are

con-

as

Bruckner observes,

as

an “emotion that can be channeled into

is

the great paradox

socially useful actions (courtliness in the largest sense)”

Heian Japan, there

in a socially useful context.

is

a similar

Court occasions,

notion of the private

particularly those

poem

of itaawase i

(poetry matches), encouraged the development of poetic conventions and

modes that eventually were set as inviolable. Brower and Miner observe that poems were composed on fixed topics for social occasions, but also were exchanged more informally between acquaintances and lovers. This second occasion gave

rise to

an accepted

mode

of private, allegorical po-

15

Thus Heian waka can be seen as both personal and conventional, and the various poetic modes illustrate “the complex adjustment of personal response to social environment which is basic to the age ... a personal etry.

lyricism in a social context”

Both the troubadour

(_

Japanese Court Poetry, 198).

lyric (and the Jin

waka (and the courtly splendor that

was practiced

it

amor

it

proclaims) and the Heian

game by men and women. Poetry compo-

proclaims) are part of an elaborate

in court societies

sition, as intricate to the

observance of Heian court

amor, required virtuosity

and

skill.

The

ritual

and medieval fin

compose poems that emreply adeptly to poems re-

ability to

bodied the perfect image and allusion and to

ceived meant either acceptance and acclaim or rejection and ridicule court. In fact,

poet.

16

advancement

But given

a personal

in society at large rested

that poetry also

was

private,

and subjective means of expression,

emotions including

love, loss

of power, and

it

a

fear.

on

one’s

at

skill as a

afforded the poet herself

way

to express a range

of

96

LEA MILLAY

S.

In the cansos of the trobairitz

and

which

fear,

is

we

see this link

between power, sexual

played out in control of the written word. Bruckner

writes: “In troubadour lyric in general, the

power and

may

love

love,

one of the major themes of

strike us as

between

indissoluble link

their poetry,

nowhere more compelling than in the tensos and cansos of the trobairitz, where the sexual balance of power is the main issue debated, analyzed, and experienced” (Songs, xxvi). Concern for hierarchy and control is manifest in the trobairitz power to manipulate words and images, a power and

this

is

’

that often subverts the conventional roles courtois]

by

skillful reversals.

troubadours

is

As Bruckner

two

to conflate

identities,

of domna and states:

“The

drut feat

[

amant ; homme

women their own

of the

male and female,

in

singing voice” (Songs, xxvi). At the same time she recognizes that the expressions of desire are often ambivalently phrased, a “self-pro-

trobairitz ’

ambiguity even more multifaceted than the Robbins, quoted in Songs, xxv).

tective

mens”

(Kittye Delle

Heian period, the Japanese language powerfully reinforced the

In the

Encoded within poetic discourse, however, is a clear link between equality and desire. Richard Bowring writes: “The language of poetry is the one form of Japanese that is free of the more normal pragsocial hierarchy.

matic elements that reinforce the concept of hierarchy and status. .Japanese poetry was in fact the only form of non-hierarchical language .

available;

allowed contact between two people

it

And

have been able to communicate.

such a situation,

as

two

who

lovers

.

might not otherwise

were normally

in pre”

became the language of love par excellence (Murasaki Slukibu, 1). While it is true that many Heian poems were a simple means of communication between lovers, other poems embodied an cisely

it

acceptable release ol powerful emotions

—emotions

spair

that attend the loss

In court societies East etry not only to the

need

to the attendant anxiety ical, social, religious,

and West, for love

when

and/or

—jealousy,

of power and

women

de-

fear.

gave expression in their po-

and the desire

that

regret, anger, grief,

need and

to express love, but also

desire are unfulfilled. Polit-

linguistic forces that inhibited a

woman’s ex-

pression of and fulfillment in love are intricately tied to questions of subjectivity.

The Comtessa de Dia and Izumi Shikibu tapped

of subjectivity in their poetry to give shape

and

the source

and meaning to their

desires

fears.

Izumi Shikibu and the Comtessa de Dia both create strong subject positions in the personae of the passionate woman. To clarify what is meant by “passionate woman,” sets

I

give as

example the poet

an unparalleled standard for

Komachi s

this

who Ono no

Komachi,

personae East and West.

poetic style departs radically from the

lectual style

Ono no

17

more formal and

intel-

of Ki noTsurayuki and the compilers of the Kokinshu, the

first

THE VOICE OF COURT

WOMAN POET

imperial anthology of poetry written in Japanese. 18 Far

mannered than ifest in

less

the formal style, Komachi’s subjective genius

her tone (by turns witty,

97

decorous and

made man-

is

compassionate, intense),

reflective, ironic,

her psychological subtlety, emotional reasoning, exploration of the depths

of consciousness, and 187).

her subject

in

Komachi’s technique

is

Miner

that

is

a

all life is

of strong personal

Komachi’s poetry

for love in

has suggested that yume, in fact,

courtly love in Japanese poetry

yume always

love (Japanese Court Poetry,

is

direct declaration

The most powerful image [yume]. Earl

—which

shadowed by dream.

2"

as a

whole.

1

utsutsu [reality]

is

the

is

dream

the central symbol of

Coveted

''

feelings.

as

the symbol

is,

and by the Buddhist notion

Nonetheless, out of the complexity of the subject

of love comes Komachi’s most profound and passionate poetry. As Jane

when Komachi

Hirshfield observes,

dwells on the nature of love at

deepest, she embraces the realm of larger questions.

Ono no

“

poem

Komachi’s most passionate

is

its

21

hito ni

awamu

.

(KKS

.

1030):

hito ni

mune

awamu

tsuki

hashiribi ni

no naki

ni

wa omoiokite

kokoro yakeori 22

[On such a night as this When no moon lights your way I

wake,

My

my

to

me,

passion blazing,

breast a fire raging, exploding flame

While within me

my

heart chars .]

23

Komachi was highly skilled in the use of the poetic technique of kakekotoba [pivot word], which in this poem creates an intensity of intermingling 24 images nearly impossible to convey in translation. The first kakekotoba in the poem is tsuki, which means both “moon” and “way.” A more literal reading of the first two lines is: “On a night when there is no moon there is no chance for us to meet, for it does not light your way to me.” In the poem the suffix mu of awamu [an, “to meet”] conveys the sense of conjecture (probably he won’t come). Mu also has an overtone of yume, which can be read

as

mu

—

thus, the

the image of the remote

and yet too cold and night without a

way

Out of the dark omoiokite,

dream of

moon

distant to

is

that fails to

the implication that the

come. In

all,

a night

man

without

a

happen. In is

alluring

moon

is

a

to see the lover.

night, the

image of fire

rises.

which can be read “thoughts wake

the sense of fervor, regret in the heart

me

meeting

a

up.” The second reading of the

—

word

The second

me

up,” with

kakekotoba

omou lending

thus, “passionate thoughts

is

is

wake

omo-hi okite [the surface of

my

98

LEA MILLAY

S.

skin

on

is

In his translation, Earl

fire].

senses of omoiokite

The

wake,

“I

third kakekotoba

which means heart races.” flame], thus several

—

mune

hashiri

[breast]

breasts are racing fire.”

poem

combines both

Taken from the verb

hashiribi.

phrase can also be read

in the

beautifully

passion blazing.”

mune

is

to dash or run,

The “my

words

my

Miner

mune

as

The

means “my

hashiribi [bi (hi)

syllable hi [fire]

is

hashiru,

breast or is

fire

or

repeated in

with the effect of intensifying the speaker’s pas-

The poet has gone to sleep thinking that her lover probably won’t come because there is no moon. She wakes in the middle of the dark night with so much longing for him that her passion burns; her breast, or, more sion.

specifically,

The

last

her breasts are on

She

fire.

says, “I lie

awake longing, burning.”

phrase of the poem, kokoro [heart] yakeori [burns, chars] conveys

the intense subjective awareness that amidst the heart within her breast

The poem

all

the flames of the dark night,

reduced to ashes. awamu ...” is included in

“hito ni

is

Book Nineteen of

the

Kokinshu under the heading dai shirazu [topic unknown], which means that the compilers did not

casion leading to

its

poem

razu before a

know

either the subject of the

poem

or the oc-

composition. Brower and Miner observe that dai not only means that the topic was

unknown

to the

compilers because the poem’s dai had never been stated or had been but also that

was considered impolitic to

it

state the

position in the case of certain intimately private etry,

194).

poem

Book Nineteen

of the

shi-

lost,

circumstances of com-

poems

(Japanese Court Po-

Anthology includes waka and haikaika

(a

resembling the waka in external form, but distinctive in content) on

various subjects.

The poem was

haikaika. Early scholars

assumed

considered by the compilers to be that

humorous

a

authorial intent was the

defining characteristic of the fifty-eight haikaika in the Kokinshu since dictionaries define haikai as “jest.”

It is

not written to provoke humor, and compilers line

felt

Several of Komachi’s

she was older.

liana

no

iro

waga mi yo

wa

poems

One

give the impression that they were written

of these

Age

takes

no

ni furu

nagame

seshi

their color lost,

avail

my

beauty

In the long rain

is

KKS

utsurinikeri na itazura ni

Have passed away, to

was probably demoted because the

Brocade, 481, 487).

[The cherry blossoms

While

it

poem was

the use of imagery to be inappropriate, overstepping the fine

of decorum (McCullough,

when

obvious, however, that this

as

of my

it falls

regret.]

2 "’

ma

ni

113:

i

,

WOMAN POET

THE VOICE OF COURT The

first

phrase of the

poem,

poem and

also a

Hana no

symbol

for

as follows: utsurinikeri in

conven-

a six-syllable jiamari (rather than the

of the poets uneasiness and

tional five syllables), gives a sense slightly archaic tone.

99

iro

wa

[the flowers color)

is

also lends a

the subject of the

waga mi [my body). The other phrases

[alas,

translate

[my

has uselessly faded); waga mi yo ni furn

body aging in the world); nagame seshi ma ni [while the long rains fall). There are multiple meanings associated with iro (complexion of a beautiful

woman;

color; time passing; desire; sex;

tion of aspect, shiki).

26

mood; and

the Buddhist no-

In addition to the possible readings of

iro

there are

two kakekotoba in the poem that create a kind of harmonic resonance between themselves and a complex interweaving of images of passing time. also

Furu means both “aging” and “falling.” Nagame means both “long rains”

and “melancholy gazing.” The poet

says, “It

continues to rain while

passing the time this way, growing older and musing about

existence in the world.”

machi expresses

a

Through

my own

I

am

vain

of poetic technique, Ko-

a skillful use

wide range of conflicting emotions.

In a mingling of the

subjective world of her imagination and the outer world of nature, the

poet looks out her

window on

that she too will lose her beauty.

transitory

life is

and

2/

vain.

causes flowers to fade, conscious

a rain that

She

is

The poem

also aware in a Buddhist sense that “ liana no iro wa ...” expresses the

other side of Komachi’s passionate dream solitude, the realization that

fleeting (Hirshfield,

poignant

in

fulness that

We two

poem

—an

the long hours of waking

fleeting It is

and beauty even more this

knowing

that

is

so

awareness, a quiet resignation, a grace-

self-pity.

have discussed

at

length the distinctiveness of Komachi’s style in

representative poems. In the Kokinshu Preface, however, Tsurayuki

writes:

“Ono no Komachi

Her poetry ics”

not

life is

—

The Ink Dark Moon, 170).

Komachi’s is

human

life

is

belongs to the same line

beautiful but weak, like an ailing

as

Sotoorihime ot

woman

old.

wearing cosmet-

(quoted in McCullough, Brocade, 315). Tsurayuki s appraisal of Kopoetry

machi’s

in

the

tenth-century

Preface

passionate style and by extension of the poet

deed,

as

is

who made

Sarah Strong observes, while the eighteen

that are attributed to

Komachi

caricature it

poems

ot

the

her strength. Inin the

Kokinshu

display a near-unfailing virtuosity in the use

of poetic conventions and diction, they

wide range of posture and

a

voice.

28

tradition that has placed emphasis

reveal a poetic personae

with

a

Seen from the vantage point of a long

on the authority of the Kokinshu

as a

comment, the earliest written reference to Koher to be remembered as a declining poet of neg-

canonical text,Tsurayuki’s

machi,

sets

the stage for

ligible creative ability.

Recent scholarship

much to light concerning the vast legname Ono no Komachi. The legend in

has brought

end which grew up around the

100

S.

for her

when young, a seductive beauty known toward men. The consequences of that cruelty are

Komachi

brief is that the poet

haughty cruelty

born out

in

woman ugly,

No

of the

been so well established by

theatre, that those

may wonder what

poetry

was,

an old age of poverty, rejection, and pain. Komachi’s reputa-

tion as a heartless beauty has ularly that

LEA MILLAY

who know

poems

in the

her primarily from her

led this brilliant and passionate

and cruel

to be seen as seductive, haughty,

tradition, partic-

— and

ultimately as old,

and abandoned.

Sarah Strong, in her study of the poet and the legend surrounding her,

Komachi in the active No repertoire vividly present the salient motifs for which she has subsequently been known: poetic talent, seductive beauty in youth, cruelty toward men, and has observed that the five plays featuring

karmic retribution."' She observes that scholars in both Japan and the West have assumed that the medieval

No

playwrights based their interpretation

of figures from the past on direct reading of the

classical texts.

The work

of recent medieval scholars suggests, however, that they did not read the texts first-hand,

but were influenced by the interpretations found in the

commentaries. The

early medieval

period saw in Komachi

of the early medieval

fact that the critics

feminine type had more to do with

a particular

the nature of their reading than with the qualities intrinsic to her original

poems. 31 Strong emphasizes ’

were male and

that the early medieval critics

gender between

that the difference in

a

of the Kokinshu

writer and her crit-

accounts for the nature of the reading that was made. Strong writes:

ics

“The example

of

Komachi

volved a compromising of gestiveness of

women’s

interpretations.

and

their

The

suggests that early medieval critical process in-

compressing of the multivalent sug-

diversity, a

texts into specific, rigid,

and ultimately

interpretations objectified both the

meanings so

that the

two

entities (author

and

influential

women

text)

authors

were melded

together into a readily graspable, sharply defined female image” (‘‘The

Making of a Femme

Fatale,” 394).

As the legend surrounding Komachi became more complex, she seen

as

taking to herself

ward inconstant used of

delity.

for

31

affections

women who

lover. In the

all

female characters

—

have, or are suspected it

is

Komachi becomes affections

who

are

to

tendency to-

The word irogonomi is of having, more than one

specifically tied to

The medieval commentaries is

a

irogonomi naru onna.

medieval period

being irogonomi

who show

is

end up

in

stress that

concerns with

the price a

woman

misery and decrepitude. In

the archetype tor

all

fi-

pays

this sense

female characters with inconstant

punished by becoming old,

ugly,

and

pathetic. Thus the

echo of Tsurayuki’s words: “Her poetry is beautiful but weak, like an ailing woman wearing cosmetics.” Perhaps Tsurayuki was reprimanding Ko-

machi

for her lack

of decorum in certain poems.

Or

it is

possible that he

— THE VOICE OF COURT was unable to create

Or was

ous.

son, he

which

in the passionate style

merely the need to

it

WOMAN POET

restrain

and

felt

trivialized

— her

sentations in the

No.

later

though her male

as

It is

precisely those qualities

and passion. Not only

subjectivity

by Tsurayuki’s comments, she

threatened or was jeal-

and control? Whatever the rea-

undermines Komachi by discrediting

are her strengths

101

demonized

is

critics

is

she

her repre-

in

sought to protect cul-

power of her message, to objectify her subjectivity. The passionate style, however, became Komachi s legacy to successive generations of women poets Lady Ise, Izumi Shikibu, Lady tivated

from

society

the

—

Sagami, Princess Shokoshi, ending with Empress Eifuku in the fourteenth century. In fact,

Women

and

Komachi wrote

men

alike

love poetry that has never been equaled.

can read these poems and identify with the feel-

ings

and emotions expressed. Komachis poetry defined for

ture

what love

A

whole

woman one reason why

strong subjective stance in the personae of the passionate

poems

in this style are so vital.

after

Ono

no Komachi

mazu

Izumi Shikibu

is

is

the most noted poet in

to write in the passionate style.

mo

“kurogami no midare

shirazu uchifuseba ” 32 kakiyarishi hito zo koishiki

my

[Forgetting the tangles of lying alone, desiring

long black

hair,

I

wrote to you

33

you .]

In the classical Japanese the poem-speaker’s intense yearning rectly stated, but implied

is

—

not di-

she longs for her lover to straighten out her

long, tangled black hair after is

making

love with her again

3-4 .

The

statement

not one of passive longing. The poet desires her lover and writes to

him

so.

The word

the one

who

kakiyarishi

stroked

[my

you.” In the Heian period fairs, a

cul-

is.

speaks to readers across cultures and over time and this

Japan

a

is

means both

a kakekotoha that

hair]”

and “the

women

thing

first

I

were prohibited from

“I

tell

longed for

did was write to initiating love af-

censure that dates back to the creation myths, that

is,

stories telling

of the creation of the Japanese islands from the sexual union of two gods

—

Izanagi and Izanami, male and female respectively.

records that

when

Kojiki

Izanami suggests that she and Izanagi go behind the sa-

make love, the child. When, however,

of the union

cred pillar to

result

leech

Izanagi suggests the

ful islands

The

of Japan and

all

the kami are born.

poet succeeds in subverting that restriction. desiring subject of her lover’s active response.

poem, she

3^

By

is

a

hideously deformed

same

thing, the beauti-

In “kurogami no ...” the

constructing herself as the

legitimizes her desire and invites the

,

102

S.

Earl

Miner

LEA MILLAY

has observed that this

times that intimate physical touch (

36

Goshuishu XIII: 755).

what

is

poem is

evidence of one of the few

treated in an imperial anthology

Along with the sense of physical touch, however,

striking about the

poem

image of a Heian woman’s

the poet’s honesty.

is

sexuality,

and

unkempt the poet reveals herself. It show her emotions, her loss of control,

is

this

that

than an intimate statement and a unique reference

While many of Komachi’s poems

Long

hair

testify to

the

state

waking world

among

classical

The sionate

that yearning has to

of consciousness. Yearning brings neither

es-

woman,

moment, and

his ardent response.

she

tells

38

provides a comparative link with the following canso by

Estat

ai

en greu

cossirier

temps saubut

e voill sia totz

cum

eu

amat

l’ai

a sobrier;

ara vei q’ieu sui trahida

car eu

don en

non

en gran error

qand

lieig e

Ben

volria

un

donei m’amor

li

ai estat

tener

sui vestida.

mon

ser

cavallier

en mos bratz nut, per ereubut

q’el sen tengra

sol q’a lui fezes cosseillier;

car plus rn’en sui abellida

no

fetz Floris

eu

l'autrei

mon III.

is

of desire in the

reference to physical love and desire, to the personae of the pas-

per un cavallier q’ai agut,

II.

feels the intensity

moment

at this

the Comtessa de Dia:

I.

waka.

no

J

her lover that what matters

tan-

makes the poem more

power

naka and in the present

[yo no

is

gives

cape nor fulfillment in dreams. The poet “real”

a vital

honesty and willing-

confuse the thoughts and disorient one’s being, “kurogami no

evidence of an altered

is

in admitting that her hair 37

gled and ness to

is

sen,

de Blanchaflor:

mon

mos

cor e

m’amor

huoills e

ma

vida.

Bels amics, avinens e bos,

cora.us tenrai e e

mon

poder?

que iagues ab vos un

e qe.us des

un

bais

ser

amoros!

sapchatz gran talan n’auria qe.us tengues en luoc del marit,

ab so que m’aguessetz plevit

de

far tot so

qu’eu volria

39 .

WOMAN POET

THE VOICE OF COURT

[I.

I

103

have been in grievous yearning

whom

for a courtier

and

I

want

that

I

loved

now

known

it

because

and so

for

am

I

him my

love,

and pain

suffer confusion

I

time

betrayed

did not grant

I

all

him supremely;

see that

I

had,

I

both sleeping and awake.

II.

I

would

for

hold

like to

one evening naked

and he would be if

I

for

my

am

in

my

arms

though enraptured

as

were only serving I

courtier

as his pillow,

him

delighted with

more than Floris with Blanchefleur; grant him my heart and my love, I

my

Good,

III.

when

will

my

friend,

have you in

I

life.

my power

with you for an evening

lie

and

kiss

Know

and

eyes,

handsome

kind,

and

you lovingly?

that

to have

would

I

you

provided that

my

spirit,

longing

husband’s place,

have your promise

I

you

my

in

feel great

will

In their respective

do

all

I

would

wish.]

poems, Izumi Shikibu and the Comtessa de Dia cre-

ate personae, speaker’s voices that

convey personal feeling and emotion.

The personae

poem

poet

as

that “speaks” a given

an historical person, but rather

expression in the

poems

is

the Comtessa de Dias hereafter

[I

MF, j’ai

ete]

m’amor

was

(I.

classical

poem is

estat ai (1. 1)

For example,

[I

I

car eu (Jo

did not grant

form, with is

first-person speaker. In the

(MF) j’en

him my ai

ete

second stanza Ben

Modern ai

love;

French,

je [Ij)

non

li

(MF) parce que je

ai estat en

gran error

(I.

en grande peine] reveal

volria

of

indicating the

cognate with

donnai pas preuve d’amour sensuel] and don in confusion, uncertainty;

in the first stanza

have been, or in

a passe compose [perfect]

6) [because

Japanese and Occitan, in

40

a clear first person.

person singular. Reading forward,

lui

The two

thus can be read as first-person utterances, and as the following

In Occitan there

ne

voice that allows the poet

person within the context of the poem.

first

different ways, facilitate such a reading.

donei

not necessarily identical to the

a created

grammatical digression will show, both

first

is

mon

cavallier (II. 9)

7) a [I

104

S.

would

like to

my

hold

courtier;

LEA MILLAY

is first

person conditional, and in the third stanza com. us

will

have you; (MF) quand vous tiendrai-je]

I

forward, de

(MF) de

far tot so

faire tout

The poet un

qe.us des

donner un je]

ce que je voudrais]

amoros

baiser

d’amour

(e [et]

my

in

you

lovingly;

qe [qu’ie] qu [que]

husband’s place; (MF) de vous avoir a

que m’aguessetz plevit

were

(III.

me; (MF) que

to have pledged to

ond-person object of the

poet’s desire.

While the conjugation of verbs

in

the “I” of classical Japanese poetry represents a single personae,

Occitan permits

true,

social status, .

.

.

is

not

and

fluid

a first-person

its

between

shifting.”

diffuse sense

but

it

point of view that

as

well

as to others. Classical

idity

ing;

self-assertion

one

and

statement about writers had

social expectation. Indeed,

them

the protection they needed to

of

self, in

once general and

make

in-

specific, allows

Sonja Arntzen’s words, “a self with

soft

anxiety of how to approach texts that do not have the grammatical

who

is

a

western

translator’s anxiety, particularly

acute for

render with an eye to the exigencies of English. Given the flu-

of classical Japanese, any waka can lend

itself to

multiple ways of read-

however, because the process of translation tends to

poem

Japa-

does not negate the subjective voice.

category of subject those

While

nonetheless a voice that allows the poet

it is

tensely personal statements. Waga/ware, at

The

42

used these linguistic demands to their advantage, for the seem-

ing lack of subjectivity gave

43

is

does not require a grammatical subject; however, the ab-

to strike a balance

edges,”

and lack-

non-gender-

women

more

“I”

the ware persona

the general nature of the author’s subjectivity. Heian

for a

The

clear.

less

is

as a

women

a sec-

strong first-person

a

sence of the first-person pronoun should not be taken

the

have

is

remaining

statements that refer to herself is

[to

more subtle and supple than the pronoun of Occitan and Old French. Lynne Miyake writes:

differentiated, multi-personae voice

it

21—22)

[provided that you

of an experiencer/witness of an event or an emotion,

nese,

cognate with

promesse] reveal

j’aie votre

ing the exclusivity of personal pronouns in English

make

je vous puisse

place du mari]; and ab

la

“With seldom any delineation of person, gender, or

to

(III.

e

41

[waga /ware] of a classical Japanese waka

that

would wish;

I

ie [ieu is

reading, in classical Japanese the subject position

first-person

(MF)

past subjunctive)

(a

23)

all

person conditional.

is first

20) [and kiss

(III.

do

will

second person. In the third stanza

also establishes a clear

bais

you

[When

person future. Reading

is first

24) [that

(III.

chevalier]

tenrai (III. 18)

us [vous])]; n’auria / qe.us tengues en luoc del marit

you so

qu’eu volria

mon

(MF) Je voudrais bien temr

into a single interpretation, the reading that

that recognizes the poet as speaking in the

are generally held in Japanese tradition to translations in English treat

them

as

first

be read

is

crystallize a

often neglected

given is

the

person. Thus while waka in the first person,

many

general rather than personal statements.

THE VOICE OF COURT In

WOMAN POET

105

best to suspect a strong and clear subject in classical texts at ” times. There is no word in Izumi Shikibus poem “ kurogami no that all,

all

I

feel

it

.

corresponds to the first-person “I” used

44

naturally read as a subjective statement.

woman

a particular it is

Izumi Shikibu

most

it is

supported by the

is

A

bearing her name.

[situ]

.

That the poem was composed by

and not some vague person

included in four anthologies

and yet

in the translation,

.

fact that

comparison of

poem

with the canso of the Comtessa de Dia will prove, believe, the existence of the integument. 45 s

poem and

Izumi Shikibus

In

in the canso by the

poet or poet personae speaks of a the cause of

women

which

suffer

from

Comtessa de Dia, the of physical and emotional torment,

state

the absence of the one

is

Comtessa de Dia

desire, the

thought of opportunity

I

who

is

loved.

While both

also expresses regret at the

She might have had what she desired had she given her lover what he wanted sexual love. Now he has forsaken her. lost.

—

Along with

suffering and loss, both poets admit to confused emotions and

intense yearning. The Comtessa de Dia sings cavalher q'ai agut

whom

I

1-2)

(I.

en greu cossirier / per un

have been in grievous yearning / for

a courtier

had]. Izumi Shikibu says hito zo koishiki [the beloved, the

desiring].

The

women

object of desire for both

means nobleman and

lier

[I

estat ai

one,” within

lover;

am

I

“the loved one.” Caval-

familiar word, the unspecified

“some-

of waka usually implies the beloved. The

context

the

hito, a

is

one

Comtessa continues cum eu Vai amat a sohrier (1.4) [I loved him supremely]; Izumi Shikibu writes kurogami no midare mo shirazu [without knowing that

my

hair

eration.

The Comtessa

cessiveness

women

hair.

reveal that their desire

says a sohrier [excessively],

and lack of integration

her long tangled of,

Both

in disarray].

is

Her inner

is

A

is

beyond mod-

similar feeling

implied in Izumi Shikibu

disarray

so profound that she

is

s

of ex-

image of

unaware

is

or no longer cares about, her appearance.

Both heig e

women

qand

suffer.

sui vestida

The Comtessa

(I.

writes don

7—8) [and so

I

suffer

sleeping and awake]. The cause of her pain vei q’leu sui trahida (I. 5)

confusion and pain

of her

is

hair.

She

says:

aware that

my

hair

poems conjure

[now

I

see that

I

is

ai estat en

confusion and pain / both

that she feels

am

is

am

I

lying

down

woman

in

and

in the

[alone] [uchifuseba],

disheveled [kurogami no midare

the image of a

abandoned,

ara

betrayed], Izumi Shikibus

implicit in her solitude and longing,

“When

gran error / en

mo

I

am

shirazu}."

confused, yet elegant,

image un-

Both

deshabille.

Neither poet limits herself to reverie and passive waiting. Both compose

poems, which we may presume they send, and give voice to The Comtessa says Ben volria mon cavalher / term un ser e mos 9—10)

[I

would

like to

hold

arms]; Izumi Shikibu writes

thing else

my

my

their desire. bratz nut

(II.

courtier / for one evening naked in

my

mazu

kakiyarishi hito zo koishiki [before any-

thoughts go to the one

I

am

desiring and writing to].

Both

— 106

S.

LEA MILLAY love.

The Comtessa even

response to intimacy with her

qu’el sen tengra per

poets reveal that the cure for their suffering

imagines her

lover’s

ereubut / sol q’a lui fezes cosseillier

enraptured /

if

loving in the present to

11-12) [and he would be

(II.

were only serving

I

is

as his pillow].

The Comtessa

as

though

admits to

she also wants the strength of her love

moment, but

be remembered.

temps saubut

e voill sia totz

cum

eu

l'ai

amat

a sobrier;

(I.

3-4)

...

eu

*

mon

that

I

sen,

want

[I

mon

l’autrei

I

for

my

my love, my life.]

heart and

and

And we know from dently. The capacity

the for

body of Izumi Shikibu’s poems that she loved arabandonment, the deep response in love and the

for reciprocity that

is

so strongly intimated in “kurogami no ...” can

be seen in her poems taken tion, ate

15-16)

(II.

time

all

eyes,

need

vida.

him supremely;

him by

spirit,

ma

huoills e

known

loved

grant

my

it

mos

m’amor

cor e

oneness with

as a

whole

as

the desire for union, comple-

a lover that lends timelessness to

the fleeting passion-

embrace.

Izumi Shikibu and the Comtessa de Dia compose poetry that pressive

of love and

poetry

explicit in

is

ject position

loss, its

longing, sorrow, and regret.

subjectivity, in the elaboration

wherein each constructs herself

each uses the love

poem

(the written

word of

source of power. In the Comtessa de Dia’s sirier

...” there

is

as a

The power of

ex-

their

of a first-person sub-

Thus

desiring subject.

woman’s song)

the

poem

is

“

as a

Estat ai en greu cos-

strong interplay between desire and control, an open

a

challenge of the traditional sexual hierarchy. The Comtessa’s desire to hold

her lover in her husband’s place [com. us tenrai e [ab so que

mon

poder?]

m ’aguessetz plevit

(III.

on

18)

and promise

between

surface she appears to

power she would wish

the condition that he be in her to

do

all

/ de far tot so qu’eu volria] (III.

Shikibu’s poetry the interplay

While on the

is

desire

23—24). In Izumi

and control

is

less

overt.

uphold the values of the male-domi-

nated aesthetic, she actually challenges that aesthetic in the layered meanings of her

poems.

4(1

It

may seem

in “kurogami no

waiting and yearning, but in fact she Shikibu’s desire

is

is

...” that she

actively desiring

is

passively

and writing. Izumi

manifest in her appearance, her long tangled black hair,

an image of being out-of-control that controls. In capturing

this

image, the

WOMAN POET

THE VOICE OF COURT poem

poem and

invites a response, a reciprocating

107

the lovers presence. The

poems of both Izumi Shikibu and the Comtessa de Dia “Read this poem and visit me again!”

are love pleas:

Izumi Shikibu and the Comtessa de Dia both use the poem/song to

and court, even

tiate

the risk of censure. Court societies in medieval

at

France and Heian Japan had strong expectations regarding propriate conduct. Tradition held that

an

initiate

From hand

affair

Heian

it

nor to sing openly about

womans

was the it

Comtessa

on the other express

—

we know

this

Both poets

from

their

Izumi Shikibu and the Comtessa de Dia exercise

words and images,

a

—

the lexicon of

take pleasure in lov-

poems. In

this respect

their ability to manipulate

powerful tool in the court arena and sexual game.

The Comtessa de Dia and Izumi Shikibu challenge in traditional roles assigned to women. Matilda Bruckner cites finition

of love.

the vocabulary of medieval feudalism), and

their subjective desire.

ing and being loved, and

place neither to

in passionate declarations

and enhance courtly values (Izumi Shikibu

aesthetics; the

woman’s ap-

a

however, both poets use words that on the one

this restricted position,

articulate

ini-

that

Pierre Bee’s de-

womans song

of the general poetic model of medieval

monologue with sorrowful overtones”

other ways the

as

“a lyric

embraces the two elements of

separation and desire (“Fictions,” 875). The Comtessa de Dia, she writes “is quite adept at playing the roles of both domna and poet-lover, passive and active personae as projected

by the troubadour poets,

her expressions of desire, which

recall the tradition

sons de femme] as well” (“Fictions,” 877). Similarly,

of sorrow” Shikibu

and

'

of women’s songs

does

who

abandoned and

finally left

is

not entirely

reject

this

Izumi Shikibu’s poetry

asks

eternally waits

and

sorrow of love by

also

woman who

to balance the

joys as does the Comtessa in “Ab

proclaiming

its

and “Fin

me dona

ioi

fails

alegranssa

.

.

her

.

poems

ioi et

as a

ab ioven

anthologies during her lifetime and her renown

48

abandoned or

woman.

licentious

Shikibu both contributed to

been

as a

in imperial

poet grew steadily

her death, her poetic fame became involved with her reputation

relentless speculation

ate nature

this

by

49

and many supposed

set the

about her personal

lovers.

If,

however,

we

—

view of her

if

we

an

tone for what has life

—her

set aside the

and speculations about Izumi Shikibu and challenge the triarchal

as

Fujiwara Michinaga and Murasaki

view of her and

critics

...”

life.

Although many of Izumi Shikibu’s poems were included

after

m ’apais

are distinctive nonetheless

and profound sense of beauty and

for their gracefulness

many poems whole

poignantly express the suffering of love), her poetry taken

pines. If

a “discourse

While Izumi

alone.

(indeed,

tradition

us to question the archetype of the passive

[chan-

Izumi Shikibu challenges

model of the waiting woman who perpetuates

the traditional 4

combination with

in

traditional

passion-

legends

and pa-

concentrate on what she wrote rather than

108

LEA MILLAY

S.

—we

what has been written about her

poems

ing to the

works

ary

different

that

themselves, resist

meanings and

we

can see that they are multi-layered

unequivocal interpretation

and messages

feelings

various possible readings for any one crucial

gain a different perspective. Attend-

politically aware,

The 900

consummate

ues, adept in the bel esprit

and

surviving 31

of women,

in expressing courtly

love poems,

to

change the world

observes, within their circle

from

and aesthetic

of her time. Izumi Shikibu was

of the

all

’

aristocratic

is

in

which they

women

new

relations

their writings, particularly

Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon,

and The

in late tenth-

did not have the

lived, particularly the it,

val-

the center of

at

middle ranks, writing

system of the time, they observed and interpreted

clear

awareness of the

poems by Izumi Shikibu Her poems show that she

early eleventh-century Heian. Since these

power

An

poem, including the

constitute a formidable poetic achievement.

a circle

once.

at

convey

that

both to an understanding of the poet’s use of language and to an

appreciation of her legacy.

was

—poems

liter-

and,

as

marriage

Rein Raud

of power were conceived. 51

The Izumi Shikibu Diary and Tale of Genji, that the

It is

The

shu,

dominant

liter-

ary discourse was created largely in their hands, and that the “intrigues and

power were moved from real life into the discursivity” (Raud, The Role of Poetry, 246, 260). Thus Izumi Shikibu helped to shape literary language and to set poetic standards that are daunting. But apart from the struggles for

legacy that defines a literary pinnacle and embodies the values of a unique time, Izumi Shikibu also

and personal poet,

upon

poet

a

who

virtue. In

“A

Comtessa de Dia

own worth

well

as

chanter m’er de so q’ieu no volria

rather not], she

lists

.

.

.

.

”

—

a

woman who

de-

sings not only

—her [I

.

of the

beauty, fidelity, and

must sing of what

I’d

her qualities and attractions, values expressed through

the vocabulary ot fin amor; and yet, the lover en greu cossirier

and subjective way

through the process of writing.

but ot her

lover,

an intensely subjective

reflects in a personal

In her four surviving cansos, the

worth of her

as

and the teachings of Buddhism

love, spirituality,

fines herself ethically

must be acknowledged

[I

have been

in

fails

to respond. In “Estat ai

grievous yearning], she assumes the

courting role with authority and pride; and yet, in her statement sapchatz gran talan n’auria / qe.us tengues en luoc del marit / ab so que m’aguessetz plevit (III.

21—23) [know that

I

would

husband’s place. Provided that

I

feel great

longing / to have you in

have your promise], she uses both the con-

ditional [sapchatz gran talan n’auria],

which implies

that she has not yet

intimate with this man, and the subjunctive [que m’aguessetz tense of wishing for something that presses desire,

is

not

so.

itation to the linguistic tradition

from the male

the

The Comtessa openly ex-

within which she writes,

lover’s

been

plevit],

and yet her poems betray uncertainty. We can trace

clearly defined

my

a

this

hes-

poetic system

point of view. Male troubadours,

as

THE VOICE OF COURT

WOMAN POET

Sarah Kay observes, "view sexual activity with

and yet promote

guilty,

alting

’

(

Subjectivity

;

women

109

dangerous and

as

form of love which they describe as morally ex129). The male troubadours’ solution to the dilemma of a

sexual love, their "principle subterfuge,” in Kay’s words, was to differenti-

women

ate

into femna and domna, thus allowing for the “displacement into

the ‘mixed domna of

all

and

that they desire of sex

status,

and

for

con-

comitant assignation to the ‘feminine’ of anything guilty or disagreeable that could

be associated with their desire”

trobairitz refer to

themselves in their

poems

While the domna, they embrace this

(Subjectivity,

as

130).

role reluctantly.

Through transformation of

the poetic motifs in a range of variations,

the trobairitz bring unique and expressive voices to medieval lyric and to

conventional troubadour song. With regard to those voices, Bruckner writes: "In the context

of this

spontaneous expression of

women

a ‘real’

poets speaking in the

erate in a lyric

truthfully

whose

from the

lyric tradition

fiction

woman’s

first is

heart. If the

to

and

women

make

voice, even

when we

hear

real

us believe

its

own

claims to speak

we believe that fiction for 890). Though speaking of me-

song succeeds,

writers in general, Peter

reveals an essential truth

never get the direct,

person. They, like the troubadours, op-

the space of performance” (“Fictions,” 877, dieval

we may

Dronke

expresses a resonant idea

about the Comtessa de Dia: “The sponta-

neous movement of poetic answering, and the calculated movement of literary shaping, were the verse.’”’

2

The Comtessa’s

two constant and inseparable elements

voice, speaking within the lyric context,

dowed with a range of emotion, meaning, and intent. The way waka has been traditionally received in Japan, indeed we may presume poetry was read in the Heian period, pivots on thetic value

basic values

of makoto

[truth; sincerity; integrity].

Makoto

is

is

en-

the

way

the aes-

one of the

which was compiled

the late Nara or early Heian period. The presumption of makoto

and authenticity of the author’s voice

is

voice and experience of waka are the same. The is

[her]

by which Japanese poetry has been judged since the time of

the Manyoshu [Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves],

sincerity

in

is

in

that the

undeniable and that the

modern

reader, however,

neither an insider to the Heian court world nor necessarily an insider

to Japanese tradition,

poem the unknown. As Raud states:

and must acknowledge that

in the classical

meaning and intent remains “The speaker [of a poem] is in command of all the possibilities a linguistic system offers, and he [she] is able to make calculated decisions, whereas the interpreter is more or less in the dark and construes the meaning of the text out of the possibilities that seem to fit most adequately a general pattern” (The Role of Poetry, 21). Thus in our interpretations we must seek a new way of reading, one that allows for the distinction between the author’s original

110

LEA MILLAY

S.

poet’s

emotion and the poem’s emotion. While we cannot know the gen-

uineness of the poet’s feeling

reading

we

can

assess the

at

poem’s imagistic and subjective emotional conof an image or experience]. At the same

tent, hon’i [the essential nature

time, if

poem

we

the time of composition, with careful

are alert to historical, cultural,

can speak for

and

literary contexts, a classical

author.

its

Izumi Shikibu and the Comtessa de Dia, despite

restrictions, establish

subjective voices within the rhetoric of poetry. This voice expresses a range

of emotion pression of

—

love and

emotion

loss,

anger, fear, sorrow, acceptance,

in poetic

form

a first-person subject,

empowers the speaker. This is passionate woman, which strongly

in turn

one reason why the personae of the proclaims

and joy. The ex-

remains

vital to lyric tradition.

Izumi Shik-

poems discussed, they both yearn for a lost lover and do so excessively. Thus they are brought to suffering, which moves them to compose poetry to recall ibu and the Comtessa de Dia fully embrace this personae. In the

the

one loved. Herein

shared subjectivity.

rests their

A

word about the social and literary status of the two women. Izumi Sh’kibu was far more dependent upon her male patrons and readers than the Comtessa de Dia, who was born to power, even over men, and could occasionally exercise

powerful tocratic

men

it

independently. In Heian Japan, however, politically

Fujiwara Michinaga determined

like

women would

serve at court, the center of

others with status and rank such

would be included to preserve these

as

in the anthologies.

poems

if

context that

And who,

creative literary figure.

I

emotion and meaning distinctive

see

once

literary

poem

as a

all,

this

woman.

Izumi Shikibu

close with a at

after

not the male patron? All

we must

all

the aris-

endeavor;

poems

Fujiwara Kinto judged which

society tenuous and insecure for the writing tural

who among

was

in a position

made Heian court

It is

within

this cul-

highly influential and

that expresses several levels

(love, spirituality, religiosity),

which

is

of so

of her song:

aki fukeba

Tokiwa no yama no matsukaze

irozuku bakari mi

[When autumn

ni

zo shimi keru

mo

63

darkens, the color of the pine breeze of

Mt. Tokiwa permeates

my body

and

fills

me

with the deepest beauty.] 54

Notes 1

.

From

the tenth century on, the terms waka, tanka, and uta [poem, song]

are used

synonymously. For

a discussion

of waka form and history see Mark

Morris, Harvard Journal ofAsiatic Studies 46:2 (1986): 551-610; Earl Miner,

)

WOMAN POET

THE VOICE OF COURT

111

Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 50:2 (1990): 669-706; and Hiroaki Sato,

Monumenta Nipponica 42:3 2.

Onna-de

(1987): 348-356.

refers specifically to the cursivized

in the ninth century (from

phonetic script that developed

Chinese characters)

nacular Japanese. Kanabun (writing in kana was

kana and simple 3.

Richard Bowring, “The Female Hand Twentieth Century, ed.

Domna

that included

Forum, 1984), p. 55. Richard Bowring, Murasaki

Heian Japan: A

in

Practice

Reading,”

First

(New York: New York

to the

Cam-

73.

p.

as

“above

all

the elaboration of a first-per-

son (subject) position in the rhetoric of courtly poetry”

Subjectivity in Trou-

Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. definition, as indeed Kay does, but as it relates to

badour Poetry (Cambridge: this

in

Literary

Shikibu: The Tale of Genji (Cambridge:

Sarah Kay defines “subjectivity”

expand upon

both

ofAutobiography from the Tenth

C. Stanton

bridge University Press, 1988), 5.

form

a

kanji.

The Female Autograph: Theory and

4.

means of writing ver-

as a

1

.

I

will

the de-

lineation of the first-person subject in classical Japanese. 6.

William D. Paden years 1173 and the

lists

first

the

names of 16

7.

of Pennsylvania

also

wrote

For

a discussion

poem“Ab

Women

tions

Press, 1989), p. 24.

sirventes, tensos, partimens,

ioi et

between the

lived

half of the thirteenth century. Paden, ed., The Voice

of the Trobairitz: Perspectives on the sity

who

trobairitz

Troubadours (Philadelphia: Univer-

Of the

and exchanges of cobias.

of the conventions of canso ab ioven m’apais

of the Female Voice: The

.

.

lyrical genres, the trobairitz

.’’see

the Comtessa’s

as detailed in

Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner, “Fic-

Women Troubadours,”

Speculum 67 (1992):

877-880. 8.

Although waka form follows

31 -syllable pattern, with the excep-

a strict

tion of the six-syllable jiamari permitted in the

of kakekotoba allows the

tion

discussion of 9.

The

Ono

word

first

of the next

word

a

makurakotoba

is

An

Introduction

CA: Stanford University that later in the

poem

Introduction, p. 161). Thus to

ings

one

—

a

ettgo

.

.

.

.”

contribute to the

conventional attribute

a

is

to

given

a

meaning

be an engo

a

of,

22 and 96.

different

aesthetic principle of hon’i also

from Shinto jugyoji], in

beliefs

An

from

its

engo

im-

an earlier word (Miner,

word must have two mean-

primary one pertaining to the main statement, and

establishing a relationship with

of the

Japanese Court Poetry

Press, 1968), pp.

mediate context by association with, or echo

An

awamu

line [tamakura no / sode (the sleeve /

pillowing arm)]. Earl Miner, (Stanford,

conven-

usually occupying a five-syllable line and a modifying word,

usually the

is

ni

poetic conventions of makurakotoba and

A

ku, the poetic

poet hidden freedoms. See following

no Komachi’s poem “hito

breadth and depth of waka. for a

skilled

first

something

else in the

a

secondary

poem. The

was valued by poets of the time. Derived

and from the annual observances of the court [nen-

poetry hon’i conveyed the essential significance of an image

or experience. (See Miner,

An

Introduction, p. 162.)

112

S.

10.

1 1.

trans.,

Tomaryn Bruckner, Laurie Shepard, and Sarah White, eds. and Songs of the Women Troubadours (New York: Garland Publishing,

1995),

p. xiv.

Matilda

Meg Bogen, 1980),

12.

p.

Sarah Kay, Subjectivity

The two gender

15.

84—85.

who embodies

Oxford University

Robert Brower and

Press, 1964), pp.

refers to

iti

Songs, p. xxiv.)

Ancient Japan

(Ox-

CA:

Stan-

251-52.

Earl Miner, Japanese Court Poetry (Stanford, p.

an

by her admirer; an

virtues coveted

Ivan Morris, The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life

A

Domna

categories are feminine and domna.

ford University Press, 1961), 16.

Company,

Cambridge Uni-

Troubadour Poetry (Cambridge:

in

and unattainable woman. (See Bruckner,

erotic yet aloof

ford:

Sc

68. Discussion of subjectivity, pp. 65-68.

ideal desexualized lady

14.

(New York: W.W. Norton

The Women Troubadours

versity Press, 1990), pp. 13.

LEA MILLAY

196.

quotation from The Pillow Book shows the personal and social dimen-

sions

of poetic

skill:

On

the

He

then approached and gave

when there was a strong wind, a dark grey sky, and a little snow, a man from the Office of Grounds came to the Black Door and asked to speak to me. last

day of the Second Month,

me

a

from Kinto, the Imperial Adviser.

note which he said was

It

consisted of a sheet of

“And for a moment in my come.” The words were most ap-

pocket-paper on which was written heart /

I

feel that

spring has

was bound

to

me

what concerned

propriate for the weather; but

produce the opening

lines.

was

that

I

asked the messen-

I

me their names. They were all the type of men to put me on my mettle; but it was Kinto s presence among them that made me most

ger which gentlemen were present, and he gave

reluctant to give a

commonplace

Office of Grounds urged addition to bungling

my

me

answer.

to hurry;

reply,

I

with emotion, wrote the following

The snow

.

and

.The I

I

man from

realized that

was slow about

grace myself. “It can’t be helped,”

ing to be blooms /

.

17.

Almost nothing

is

longed to the Ono,

in

thought and, trembling

lines:

“As though pretend-

flakes scatter in the

wintry

sky.”

(New York:

Press, 1991), p. 135.

known about Komachis a clan

if,

should dis-

it, I

Ivan Morris, trans., The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon

Columbia University

the

with ancient

life

other than that she be-

religio-artistic functions.

Her name,

Helen McCullough has observed, contains the machi form of such court sobriquets as Mikuni no Machi and Sanjo no Machi, and thus she is thought as

to have

who

been

lived

a

palace attendant. Because she exchanged

around the middle of the ninth century,

it is

poems with men

believed that most

of her poetry dates from that time. McCullough, Brocade by Night: Kokin

Wakashu and

the

Court Style

in Japanese Classical

Poetry (Stanford,

CA:

Stan-

THE VOICE OF COURT ford University Press, 1985),

machi beyond

Komachi

the 18.

219.

p.

WOMAN POET

13

What we know about Ono no Ko-

must come from the poems,

that

1

1

10 of which survive in

shu.

The Kokin{waka)shu

[Collection ofAncient

and Modern Poems ] was ordered by

Emperor Daigo around the year 905. The compilers were Ki noTsurayuki, Ki no Tomonori, Oshikochi Mitsune, and Mibu no Tadamine. 19.

Earl Miner, “Japanese

and Western Images of Courtly Love.” Supplement

to

Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature 15 (1966): 175. 20.

In the Buddhist sense is

real

—

a

dream within

Ono

My

is

text for

Books, 1990),

Komachis poems

trans..

is

p.

The Kokinshu (KKS) numbers 23.

Translation by Earl Miner,

24.

A

is

a

An

poetic code

The Ink Dark Moon. Love Poems

Women

of the Ancient Court ofJapan

187.

that edited

wakashu. Shin Nihon koten bungaku

kakekotoba

dream; thus the dream, too,

itself a

dream.

no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu,

(New York: Vintage 22.

a

reality

and Mariko Aratani,

21. Jane Hirshfield

by

waking

taikei.

by Kojima Noriyuki. Kokin

(Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1989).

refer to this edition. Introduction to Japanese Court Poetry, p. 82.

word based on homonymy

different meanings, each intended to function as a part

that contains

two

of the poem’s im-

agery and content. 25.

Translation by Earl Miner,

26.

In Sanskrit, namarupa

Nama

is

An

Introduction to Japanese Court Poetry, p. 84.

means existence [nama (name) and

the immaterial; rupa

is

rupa (form)].

the material aspect of human existence (the

tangible body, form, color or shiki).

Nama

can be divided into feeling, per-

ception, volition, and consciousness. These together with rupa constitute the Five Aggregates [goun], 27.

Hana

[cherry blossom]

is

symbol of mujo, the Buddhist notion of the

a

transience of things. 28.

Sarah Strong,

“The Making of a Femme

Fatale:

Ono

no Komachi

in the

Monumenta Nipponica 49 (1994): 393. legend surrounding Ono no Komachi am indebted

Early Medieval Commentaries,” 29.

For

my discussion of the

I

“The Making of a Femme Fatale,” pp. 391-92 and 399. In Strong’s discussion of Komachis poem KKS 623 mirume naki waga mi o ura to shiraneba ya karenade ama no ashi tayuku kuru (Is it because / he is unaware this inlet / has no seaweed / that the fisherman tires his feet / with ceaseless visits to my shore?)], which was so influential in establishing her to Sarah Strong,

30.

[

reputation

as a cruel

personal statement

is

and

heartless beauty, she emphasizes that the

ambiguous and

Richard Bowring’s observation

that

still

poem’s

debated by scholars. She

ambiguity in

a text

can give

cites

rise to

an

work hard to provide a meaning that makes sense. Thus, the need to see Komachi as a here, a rejecter of men. Translation by Sarah Strong, “The certain type ultimately creative feeling of anxiety that forces the reader to

—

31.

Making of a Femme Fatale,” H. Richard Okada observes were well-versed

in the art

p.

394; citation,

that

men who

p.

396.

pursued amorous

of sexual play were described

affairs

and

as irogonomi

(lit.,

114

LEA MILLAY

S.

He

a predilection for color).

simply sex for

Heian context, not in

lust,

in terms

Irogonomi

.

.

mean

often taken to

.

or even love, must be viewed, in the mid-

of escapist or romantic tendencies but rather

terms of the imperial attitude toward sex for political and genealogical

purposes. to

or

sex’s sake,

“

writes:

.

.

and expected of a member of the ruling

H. Richard Okada,

in a negative way.

and Narrating

in

men

while irogonomi was accepted in

.’’Thus,

The

Tale of Genji

aristocracy,’’

as

“action proper

marked

it

woman

a

Figures of Resistance: Language, Poetry,

(Durham, NC: Duke University

Press,

1991), pp. 166 and 324. 32.

Nomura

Izumi Shikibu Nikki, Izumi Shikibu shu. Shincho Nihon

Seiichi,

koten shusei (Tokyo: Shinchosha, 1981), #27. 33.

Unless otherwise noted, translations of poems by Izumi Shikibu are

own.

indebted to conversations with Richard Bowring and Marilyn

am

I

Jeanne Miller for 34.

my

interpretation of the

Edward Kamens makes a a poem, that is, the poet

is

poem “ kurogami

think

Kamo

we know

Priestess: Daisaiin

Senshi and Hosshin Wakashu

Michigan, 1990),

p.

denote

poet Izumi Shikibu, but identical

35.

with

voice that

a a

we

that

Kamens, The Buddhist

creates.’’

28. In this essay

he writes:

Priestess,

With "The

can identify with

poem-speaker’s voice

her, but the

voice that Senshi

similar sense, to

.

the creator of the poem-speaker’s voice.

poem-speaker frequently does voice sentiments

we

”

no ...

between the poet and the speaker of

distinction

reference to Daisaiin Senshi, the Great

Senshi, as

my

really a

is

Poetry of the Great

Kamo

(Ann Arbor: University of

use the term “poem-speaker" in

I

we

a

can identify with the biographical

voice that also

is

created by her and not always

her.

Kami means “sacred” or “divine.” Alicia Matsunaga writes: “[kami] can be applied to natural phenomena such as wind and thunder; natural objects such is

as

the sun, mountains, rivers; ancestral spirits and guardians. The term

man and

applicable both to spirits beneficial to

structive. In a sense,

we

to those

who

can say the term indicates that which

are de-

awesome,

is

believed to possess extraordinary powers. Matsunaga, The Buddhist Philoso-

phy of Assimilation (Tokyo: Sophia University, 1969), p. 2. 36. Earl Miner translates the poem as follows: “Lying down alone, confused in yearning for you / that long black

hair, / desiring the

one

have forgot

I

who

stroked

it

/

I

/ the tangles

clear”

(An

am so of my

Introduc-

tion, p. 95).

37.

In the courtly age, the slightest disarrangement

of attire could cause severe

censure. See Richard Bowring, trans., Murasaki Shikibu: Her Diary and Po-

Memoirs (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University 151-53.

etic

38.

Komachi’s

ment

in

poem KKS 552 shows

dreams: Omoitsutsu nureba ya

samezaramashi that

the

o

[Was

it

awakened.]

The

power of yearning hito tio

perhaps because

he appeared to me?

Had

translation

is

I

known

my own.

Press, 1982),

#79, pp.

to bring fulfill-

mietsuramu yume

to shiriseba

asleep while thinking of

I

fell

I

was dreaming,

I

him

would not have

WOMAN POET

THE VOICE OF COURT 39.

Gabrielle Kussler-Ratye, “Les chansons de

Archivum Romanicwn

la

115

comtesse Beatrice de Die,”

(1917): 173— 74. All subsequent quotations of the

1

Comtessa de Dias poems in Occitan and in Modern French translation are taken from this edition and are identified in the text with stanza and verse numbers. The translations given 40.

am

1

indebted to conversations with Sarah

Comtessa de Dias poem “Estat

M.

41. Joan ically

my own. Kay for my interpretation

in English are

ai

en greu cossirier

.

.

addressing the lover

as ‘antics,’ in all

but one of their cansos

second person for anyone but the

lover.”

Study of a Female Rhetoric in the Trobairitz” in The

cism,

Tosa Diary: In the Interstices

The Woman's Hand: Gender and Theory

in

eds. Paul

Gordon Schalow and

University Press, 1996),

Sonja Arntzen,

43.

.

.

[and]

“Notes Toward the

Voice of the Trobairitz,

p.

In his study

in

of Gender and Criti-

Japanese Women's Writing,

Janet A. Walker (Stanford,

CA:

Stanford

63.

The Kagero Diary (Ann Arbor: University of Michi-

trans.,

gan Center for Japanese Studies, 1997), 44.

.

64.

Lynne K. Miyake, “ The

42.

.

Ferrante observes that the trobairitz use the second person “specif-

rarely use the

p.

of the

.”

p.

44.

of the Hosshin Wakashu, the devotional Buddhist poems of

Edward Kamens

Daisaiin Senshi,

person subject in

classical

also addresses this

Japanese. See

complexity of the

Kamens, The Buddhist

first-

Poetry, pp.

19-20. 45.

Both

Occitania and in Fleian Japan the

in

predominantly

mode

of poetic production

is

Cansos are texts that are sung, wherein “to sing” in-

oral.

cludes the notions both of “compose” and “love.” According to Paden, the

term

trobairitz

aritz,

expressing

poses’ as

The

(

combines the root of a

female agent. Thus

trobar,

trobairitz

Voice of the Trobairitz, p. 13).

well as written

down, (yomu

—

“to compose,” with the suffix

Waka

means “a

-

woman who com-

are uttered or recited [yomu]

to recite poetry;

—waka composer unknown.)

compose waka; chant

/

yomibito shirazu 46.

The ideal

“aesthetic”

is

not defined

way of viewing

of aware

as a

broad intellectual category, but

truth and reality in the

(a sensitivity to, a

Heian period. The

an

aesthetic

deep awareness of the ephemeral beauty of the

world) was the quintessential term for designating aware, aristocrats

as

this ideal. In

of the eleventh and twelfth centuries

also

addition to

were commit-

ted to the ideals of miyabi [“courtliness,” elegance with connotations of the

bright and sacred] and 47.

For

a discussion

bi

no ishiki [the consciousness of beauty],

of the “discourse of sorrow,” see Arntzen, The Kagero

Diary,

pp. 6-7.

48.

I

give the following

mi

leave

a firefly drifts

my

as

tama ka

yori akugare izuru

of him,

49.

poem

example: mono omoeba sawa no hotaru mo waga to

zo miru (Nomura, #125) (While thinking

above the marsh.

Is it

my

soul that

I

see like a jewel

body?].

Edwin A. Cranston, Court (Cambridge,

trans.,

MA:

The Izumi Shikibu Diary: A Romance of the Heian

Harvard University

Press, 1969), p. 3.

116

LEA MILLAY

S.

50.

Earl Miner,

panion

to

Hiroko Odagiri, and Robert Morrell,

eds.,

The

Princeton

Com-

NJ: Princeton University

Classical Japanese Literature (Princeton,

Press, 1985), p. 171.

51.

Rein Raud, The Role of

Ph.D. dissertation. Acta Collegii

Discursivity Analysis.

A Code Humamorum

Poetry in Classical Japanese Literature:

and Es-

toniense (Eesti Humanitaarinstituut, Tallinn, 1994), pp. 243-46. 52.

Women

Peter Dronke,

Writers of the Middle Ages

University Press, 1984), 53.

106.

Umetomo, Murakami Osamu, and Komatsu Tomi, eds., Izumi shu zenshaku (Tokyo: Toho Shobo, 1959), Number 51.

Saeki ibu

54.

p.

(Cambridge: Cambridge

I

am

indebted to correspondence with Professor Haruki

poem

pretation of Izumi Shikibu’s

The word

tokiwa originally takes

iwa [rock]. Since a rock

meaning

is

When

poem

tokiwa

work and

is

place north of Kyoto and thus Tokiwa

is

tokiwa also

is

extension, an evergreen year,

and

is

[jo

called tokiwa.

however,

is

not con-

used instead. Also, Mt. Tokiwa used

as

an utamakura. In the

is

a

poem

the pine trees ol Mt. Tokiwa, changes; that

my

body.” Writing about the

has observed that in contrast with the

entirely crimson.

When

become

pine needles

the

red.

wind blows and

the

mountains become

autumn deepens, even

the

Moreover, the wind that blows through the

momiji and matsu of Mt. Tokiwa appears to have the same color.

autumn

poem. Pro-

unchanging color of the

pine, the momiji [Japanese maples] of the surrounding

the color of

and

The poet says: “Just as during the wind blows and autumn deepens, even the color of the

color permeates and seeps into Ii

toko [everlasting]

an engo with matsu [pine].

autumn season the wind, which blows through fessor

By

eternity. Jdryoku,

thus tokiwa

sidered a poetic

inter-

and jdryoku have the same meaning, and

of unchanging

a feeling

my

that does not alter in eternity, the

change color throughout the

reading the

both lend

meaning from

its

fuhen [immutable, unchanging].

ryoku] does not

for

“aki fukeba.”

something

is

Ii

Shik-

carried by the

wind comes and

It is

though

penetrates the very

depths of the poet’s being.

The crimson

momiji are most brilliant

at

the

moment of decline,

point of ensuing death. This splendor, in contrast with the

at

the

more peaceful

and enduring green of pine, heightens the poet’s sense of solitude. The

wind blows through the colored leaves, and not a loved one envelops her. This is one way of reading. On another level, she transcends the feeling of aloneness to identify with the eternal in nature, which is sufficient unto itself.

The poet

captures the sensation of oneness with nature in a

of intense emotion.

moment

CHAPTER

6

ROMANTIC ENTREATY IN THE KAGERO DIARY AND THE LETTERS OF ABELARD AND HELOISE John R. Wallace

W

hen ones lover

romantic relationship, to what

loses interest in the

words might one turn to recuperate that relationship? Passages from The Kagerd Diary (tenth-century Japan) and The Letters ofAbelard and Heloise (twelfth-century France)

offer

premodern,

literary

examples of

such romantic entreaties from substantially different cultural contexts.

comparing these

passages,

I

will leave aside

1

In

any evaluation of the effective-

ness of their arguments, since both passages are only steps in the progres-

sion of a larger rhetorical

movement.

Further, such an evaluation

would

lead us toward the individuality of the authors, the specific nature of the

romantic relationships in which they found themselves, and the diverse cultural contexts that

of

analysis.

these

two

specifics

1

interest

is

in the similarity

now

out of romantic favor making en-

remarkably similar rhetorical choices:

by the writers that

literary

forms

in essence require responses skillfully

from

incorporates sub-

and accusations of failed obligations that are supported

which the husbands subscribe. It factors are more basically informative

social standards to

common

of some aspects of

contend, result from the shared

complexity of composition that

stantive arguments,

these

areas

disinterested lovers. Despite considerable cultural differ-

will identify

their spouses,

I

situations: individuals

specifically selected

by

my

passages; similarities that,

of the

treaties to

ences,

However,

inform their approaches. All these are valuable

is

my

position that

as to the authors’

choices than are differences resulting from dissimilar cultural contexts, differences that so often are seen as keys to a subtle understanding of texts.

“Understanding,”

in the

context of this

damentally constrained the rhetorical

essay,

means

possibilities

to recognize

how

fun-

of the romantic entreaty

JOHN

118

can be. In closing,

I

R.

WALLACE

note that despite impressive rhetorical

efforts,

both

what might be considered their goals. The letters that we have between Heloise (1100 or 1101—1163 or 1164) and Peter Abelard (1079-1142) are correspondence between the two after they took monastic vows. An innovative dialectical philosopher and popu-

writers essentially

lar

teacher

at

in

fail

Mont-Sainte-Genevieve

would develop

(the center that

the University of Paris), Peter Abelard was

at

into

the pinnacle of his early ca-

when the Canon Fulbert, owner of the house where Abelard lived, recruited him as a tutor for his niece. Fulbert’s niece Heloise, already reer

renowned

for her learning,

Abelard was in

was approximately 17

his late thirties.

2

the time, while

at

As Abelard recounts

it

graphical The Story of His Misfortunes [Historia calamitatum ],

lowed us

withdraw

to

open before

us,

in private, as love desired,

in his autobio-

“Her

studies al-

and then with our books

more words of love than of our reading passed between

us,

3 and more kissing than teaching.”

When to

Heloise became pregnant, the two fled Paris. Abelard attempted

make amends with

Fulbert by marrying his niece (over her objections),

but his subsequent treatment of Heloise was misconstrued by Fulbert affront.

The

bedroom two men who, Abelard

trated him. Abelard then left Paris to begin his

requiring Heloise

first

monk. 4 They never

lived

tells us,

attacked and cas-

wandering

life as a

scholar,

nun before he himself became a together again. Around 1132, after about ten years

to

become

a

a

copy

Misfortunes. Heloise’s letter, in Latin prose, uses this occasion to

con-

of near silence from her husband, Heloise unexpectedly obtained

tact

an

uncle consequently bribed Abelard’s servant to admit secretly

into Abelard’s

of his

as

him and

plead for a

more

regular correspondence.

5

In

many ways

it is

of Michitsuna no Hana.

similar to the Japanese poetic entreaty

The Kagero Diary was completed by Michitsuna’s Mother (Michitsuna

no Haha, 936P-995?)

in the 970s,

when

establishing control over the imperial tics.

The memoir

a

branch of the Fujiwara clan was

government through marriage

describes the 20 years of her marriage to Fujiwara

Kaneie (929-990). Kaneie would become the patriarch of branch of the Fujiwaras, though during he was

still

poli-

in the early,

much of the

though promising,

stages

of

this

no

ambitious

time of the memoir

his career.

Like every

generation of patriarchs of his family since his great-great-grandfather Yoshifusa (804—872), Kaneie was aggressively pursuing an agenda of ex-

panding influence over imperial decisions via romantic lished

liaisons that estab-

blood connections between emperors and members of

Mother

Michitsuna

s

where the

issue

fortunes.

As

it

his clan.

thus married into a situation (by her father’s decision)

of her

fertility

was of central importance to her

family’s

turned out, she gave birth to only one child, whereas

Kaneie’s primary wife (for aristocrats

it

was

a

polygynous society) gave

ROMANTIC ENTREATY whom

birth to the five children to

vantages. Kaneie proved unreliable

Kaneie would grant

from shortly

poem

A

close

look

Book the

at

expresses her worries.

1

of Heloise’s and

construction

Mother’s arguments to their husbands makes the passages possible. In her to her

life,

if that

is

not possible, then

when

chitsuna’s

nunnery

Mother was when

meaningful comparison of

to advise her sister

nuns

or,

correspondence. Heloise was in her

at least via

she wrote this

a

Michitsunas

Heloise pleads for Abelard’s return

first letter,

either by his visiting the

early thirties

after the

Michitsunas Mother writes her husband. The long

affairs,

her memoirs

in

the political ad-

all

consummation of following the collapse of one

the marriage, and in their third year together,

of his romantic

119

letter,

about ten years older than Mi-

she wrote the

poem we

will read.

6

Signifi-

cant events had occurred between the parting of the couple and this

When

resumption of correspondence.

was taken by him out of the

where she remained the property

until

city

all its

Abelard fled Paris in 1122, Heloise

and placed

in a

convent

at

Argenteuil,

nuns were evicted because of a claim on

made by an abbot of a

different monastery. In 1129, Abelard

bequeathed to these displaced nuns the Paraclete, the monastery he had founded at the time of his own exile, and he made Heloise their abbess.

Although

it is

possible that he

ing this time, her letters

insist

they struggled to eke out

might have publicly met with Heloise durhe neglected the Paraclete

sisters

even

a living in the abbey’s rustic setting. In the

as

few

years after the gifting of the Paraclete, Abelard wrote The Story of His Mis-

and Heloise acquired

fortunes,

a copy.

7

She uses

manner that retheme that will form

correspondence with him, addressing her calls

the

many ways

occasion to initiate

this

first letter in a

bound to one another, a core of her arguments: “To her master, or rather her the

they are

father,

husband,

or rather brother; his handmaid, or rather his daughter, wife or rather ter; to

Abelard, Heloise.”

Heloise uses The Story of His Misfortunes

as

more than just an excuse

breaking the long silence between them. She says that reading us [she

and her

of the abbey]

sisters

opening the old”

(111),

sis-

8

and so claims

fresh

that

wounds of

it

for

has “dealt

grief as well as re-

Abelard has incurred an obliga-

them since his Misfortunes caused the pain. She also uses model of how Abelard can set about consoling them, for if

tion to comfort Misfortunes as a

he can write to ily

such an act of consolation, then he can

write to her with the same intention and

about

letters

from absent

friends:

“Thank you

effect.

as eas-

She quotes Seneca

for writing to

me

often, the

which you can make your presence felt, for never have a letfrom you without the immediate feeling that we are together.'”' She

one way ter

a friend in

in

echoes Seneca entreaty:

I

later in

“While

I

am

her

own words

to present the

denied your presence, give

me

primary goal of her at least

through your

JOHN

120

words

R.

WALLACE

—of which you have enough and

of yourself.”

to spare

—some

sweet semblance

10

Further, she uses his autobiography against

him when

she argues that

he should correspond with the nuns and her because, by the account of his

own

they are

story,

now

his

only friends. To help

enemies instead of his

his

“daughters,” to “throw the pearls of your divine eloquence to the pigs”

of the obedient are

(112), to seek to help the stubborn instead efforts.

She and the Paraclete

whom he wrote

own,” she writes.

him than the man for “Think what you owe to your

Misfortunes.

“You have done your duty

so

much

ceivable

in obligation to us

dearest friends, not

as

fortunes.

story and have

from you.

cial relationships cial obligations.

next,

a greater

holy.”

12

makes use of opportunities presented

become

so distressed that

I

can write him you can write

If you

debt

can properly be called not friends

Heloise works toward the body of her letter in steps:

upon your directly

deftly

it is

comrades but daughters, or any other con-

name more tender and

Thus her argument

who

and comrade,

to a friend

discharged your debt to friendship and comradeship, but

which binds you

misplaced

sisters are closer to

The Story of His 11

all

sorely us,

have

I

need

with

in Mis-

come

to hear

whom

spe-

have existed from long ago, special relationships with spe-

She

steps

smoothly from one stage of this argument

to the

borrowing boldness from double entendres. By ostensibly speaking

How—“not comrades

nonromantically for her nun’s community, she can contact Abelard. ever, that they suggest personal

needs

is

no ones

secret

(

name more tender and holy”). Echoing Romans XV: 20, she writes, “You have built nothing here upon another man’s foundation.” 13 She compliments him by comparing him with Paul’s evangelical work, but in the same breath she reminds him of his special obligation to that which he created. Her words may refer to the Paraclete, but she speaks also of her own heart that never knew any man but daughters, or any other conceivable

other than Abelard. In her several letters, Heloise argued variously cial

from the belief that spe-

relationships incur special obligations, but in this letter she places the

weight of her words with her relationship

know

that

you

are

bound

for the further close tie

deeper

in

my

to

me

a love

and wife:“

by an obligation which

which

is

beyond

I

all

.

is all

of the marriage sacrament uniting

debt because of the love

everyone knows,

as lover

us,

.

.you must the greater

and

are the

have always borne for you,

bounds.” 14 She writes

about the qualities of true love, asserting that she has never been

at

as

length

selfish in

her love: “I wanted simply you, nothing of yours.” 15 She elaborates on the ideal that true love

beyond covetousness: “God

is

my

witness that

if

Au-

emperor of the whole world, thought fit to honor me with marand conferred all the earth on me to possess for ever, it would be

gustus,

riage

is

ROMANTIC ENTREATY

121

more honorable to me to be called not his Empress but your whore. 16 Thus in the conclusion of her letter she argues that the purity of her love sets for him responsibilities: “ consider then your injustice, if when deserve more you give me less.” In her letter, then, she asks for him to recognize obligations derived from commitments that come with certain relationships. Their romantic dearer and

.

.

1

.

'

I

most elaborate treatment, but the

relationship receives the

relationship of

teacher to student and their current status as fellow servants to God, with

him

her spiritual superior, are also evoked. Yet Heloise’s letter

as

well with accusations

— however

—

is

laced as

what can be described as obligations resulting from misdeeds. She reminds him that the original physical relationship between them was forced upon her: “Wholly guilty though am, am also, as you know, wholly innocent .” 18 (In a later that introduce

I

I

he will admit to

letter

gently put

“Even when you were unwilling,

this:

utmost of your power and tried to dissuade me, nature

as

resisted to the

yours was the weaker

often forced you to consent with threats and blows.” 19 ) She fur-

I

avowed love for her was nothing but lust: “It was desire, not affection which bound you to me, the flame of lust rather than love, so when the end came to what you desired, any show of feeling you used to make went with it. ... wish could think of some explanation which would excuse you and somehow cover up the way you hold me ther charges that his past

I

I

cheap.”

now

to

2"

She argues from

summon me

Finally, aside

to

point in her conclusion: “Is

this

God

than

it

was then

to satisfy

not

it

our

far better

lust ?”

21

from obligations derived from proper relationships and

obligations incurred by guilty actions, Heloise describes herself as entirely

bound

to Abelard: “I have finally denied myself every pleasure in obedi-

ence to your

more,

I

am

will,

yours

kept nothing for myself except to prove that now, even

.” 22

Again, she

you, and now, even more,

you

my /

—

it

cannot

“My

heart was not in

not with you

is

it is

nowhere;

me

but with

truly,

without

23

Of his castration she writes that “[it] robbed me of robbing me of you 24 As Kauffman suggests, this equation

exist .”

very self in

if it

insists,

.”

you places Heloise squarely within the genre of amorous epistolary dis-

course.

must

2^

Heloise makes herself Abelards possession, one for which he

care.

This has obligations

mantic appeal, too.

It

extreme pain, seeks

his

compassion

do

would want

.

to

Heloise uses Misfortunes

.

as

iterates

from the

her love even

as

These

are not

arguments of

but rather entreaties addressing his personal

.)

do

as well.

.

.

.).

an opportunity to contact Abelard, reminds

him of the web of public and personal attend, quotes

but the equation has ro-

grants the pleasure of ownership and, in stating her

obligation (you should desire (you

as its reference,

classics to

obligations to her to

which he must

add authority to her argument, and

she reprimands

him

for his willfulness.

re-

JOHN

122

Mother married Kaneie

Michitsuna’s

New Year

by the

that

regular.

Remaining

tocratic culture

owned by

WALLACE

R.

season, his visits to

in her

own home was

aris-

in quarters

her family. Although couples sometimes established an indepen-

home would be

calling at her

a love letter

emony), she used had

in a

row

woman. When

(the length

In the

his

year into the marriage she disthe next

month

of the Heian wedding cer-

confirm that he was seeing- another

a servant to

autumn of 957,

woman

hearing that

after

out of favor with Kaneie, she then wrote her choka

fallen

(long poem), leaving

A

normal.

(named Machi no Koji no Onna).

woman

secondary wife of Kaneie, so

a

is

intended for another

he stayed away three nights

this

not unusual, for in Heian

was usual practice for the wife to remain

it

dent residence, Michitsuna’s Mother

covered

autumn of 954. She writes her residence were becoming ir-

in the

it

for

him

to find. The choka

—

was not the standard po-

form the standard was the much shorter, 31 syllable waka (Yamato poem). To choose the choka format was in itself a statement, one surely meant to be a wake up call to her lover. etic

In her

poem (which

more than 120

runs

lines in English translation),

Mother asks Kaneie to behave in more reassuring ways to her and her young son, who requires Kaneie’s patronage for his career. The Michitsuna’s

argument underscores Kaneie’s inadequately

central

fulfilled obligations.

Kaneie had approached Michitsuna’s Mother’s father with marriage and promised to look

was assigned care,

post

a

as

after his

letter

Mother

writes: “I

of his commitment. But Kaneie’s

had heard he [my

you, those words, / ‘Do not forget

and later,‘“While there But, Michitsuna’s

if

I

is life,

rely

her,’

on

Mother complains:

consider the dust piled up

on mountains of our bedclothes, the that

it

cannot even match

number of nights I

have slept alone. 28

and,

parting,

you

said,

“See you soon.”

Thinking these words

must be

true,

our young pine

waits endlessly

mimicking your

voice. ...

29

daughter in Kaneie’s

left his

Michitsuna’s Mother’s residence nevertheless chitsuna’s

proposal of

daughter forever. When the father

provincial governor, he

reminding Kaneie by

his

[son]

thus

me,’ /

became father]

would

you

/

said,

had

it I

less

be

visits to

frequent.

left

so,

I

/

Mi-

words for

thought,”

remember

it

well.”

26 27

ROMANTIC ENTREATY Coupled with

123

main argument of unfulfilled responsibilities are Michitsunas Mothers comments regarding timing. She argues that Kaneie broke

this

promises too quickly while she has waited cooperatively for too long. She complains that his affection for her faltered almost as soon as the his

marriage was consummated: “That autumn ical

when

first

/

we met

[in

phys-

intimacy], was not the color / of your leaves of words / so pale even

then

.” 3 "

.

Of

.

my

too, /

yet,

I

her endless worrying she writes: “In times past and

knows no peace

heart

,” 31

now

and,

hope

lived in

with the

that in spring

line

of

returning geese, you too

would return

Time

to

home

your old

[from Machi no Koji’s house].

passed and no

eggs were

laid,

nothing happened, ...

These two main

32

of arguments form

lines

a strong,

braided

pair.

sunas Mother argues that Kaneie’s responsibilities derive from

Michithis

own

promises; she further argues that such promises should not be forgotten so

very quickly, especially in light of her

own

patience.

By

silently

enduring

Kaneie’s infidelity for three years, and waiting until the end of his recent

romantic

voice her concerns, Michitsuna

affair to

s

Mother argues

that she

bounds of proper behavior, while Kaneie has not. Because timing was an especially valued part of proper social manner in Heian culture, Michitsuna s Mother’s own careful conduct and her accusahas acted well within the

tions

of Kaneie’s misconduct carry especial weight.

Besides such arguments based on promises and

norms

(publicly sup-

ported principles), Michitsuna’s Mother approached Kaneie

at

the level of

personal emotions. In portraying herself as helpless, she seeks his romantic

sympathy.

never as

Comments

such

as

occur so frequently

fills”

karmically and emotionally

escape.

“my

“What heavy

as to

if

I

tears

would not

fall

But

if

I

world

my

sleeves?

place on

the scales spending

meeting you, in a

to a

of grief

onto

moment,

I

I

my

life

know would be

wanting you again

34 .

to

him

a refrain.

in

load of sins from former

were to go

where the

approach

bound

She contemplates leaving him but

What

heart flows in a river / of tears, the bay

without

confesses:

She depicts herself

ways that prevent her from lives

binds

me

to

you ?” 33

JOHN

124

WALLACE

R.

Yet in confessing love in these terms, in a backhanded at

the specter of leaving him. She writes: “I

would

way she

leave / but

I

also hints

do

not.’

3^

/ right on Kaneie. Angrily he replies, “Do not wait 36 now, become bound / to someone unbound.” ) While Michitsuna’s Mother describes herself as loving Kaneie so much that she will not leave him, she expresses her anger, too. Noting how

(The hint

not

is

meaningless

is

.

.

.

her son’s mimicking of her husband’s promise to return, she

“Each time

writes:

summary

In

lost

hear

I

it,

/

I

think

ill

of you .” 37

Mother

then, at the emotional level Michitsuna’s

seeks

Kaneie’s compassion for her anxiety about her future and' that of their son. In the indirect discourse of describing her, she reaffirms her affection for

timates

how

she

may

him. However,

social expectations,

Generically,

was most a

it is

at

makes

the same time she in-

complex mix of emotions

In terms of literary form, sentiment,

of

destitute his absence

well break off her relationship with him. Finally, her

shards of anger add to the

tions

how

woman

likely to require a response

request for a letter of consolation 38

poem.

arguments employed, and evoca-

both epistolary pleas are significantly

clear that each

Abelard granted to someone

in the

less

selected the

from her

one

literary

similar.

form

that

lover. Heloise’s letter blends

[epistola consolatoria], similar to

close than her,

and

a letter

the

one

seeking advice

Mother delivered her appeal by verse in a culture where one who left romantic poems unanswered was deemed heartless, or socially maladroit. The weightier chdka, especially one built around a plea for greater care to marriage promises, would be all but im[epistola deprecatoria ].

possible to ignore.

Michitsuna’s

Kauffman has argued

both used and

that Heloise has

transgressed the formal requirements of her selected genre. The Kagero Diary,

on the other hand,

cannot be considered

as

is

essentially the first

memoir of its kind and

so

challenging genre restrictions in the same way.

Nevertheless, the writers’ stances toward discursive restrictions are identical,

with both

women

verbalizing

more of their discontent than

a

wife of

their day “should.”

For her

letter,

Heloise fashioned

sional (her request for

(her

need

a careful

balance between the profes-

guidance in managing the nunnery) and personal

for Abelard’s presence to strengthen her). Michitsuna’s

similarly pairs public elements (Kaneie’s marital obligations)

ones (her romantic loneliness). The effect of

poem

a sense

of logical balance,

as

this

pairing

with Heloise; rather,

and private

not to give the

is

it

Mother

underscores the

source of Michitsuna’s Mother’s intense unhappiness, since her loneliness results

from

his

broken promises. In other words, attention to public and

private needs serve mainly to intensify the poem’s emotion. The overall rationality a critical

of Heloise’s

letter, in contrast, is

component of her

rhetoric.

one of its outstanding

Her interweaving of

features

and

the public and

ROMANTIC ENTREATY

125

private relationships that Abelard

pronged argument

Both passages care

in

its

ing up to the

could so

this

double-

are extraordinarily well constructed. In Heloise’s case, this

and

transitions

final request: “it

easily grant. ...

way you can

may

for

a

evident in the proses lucidity and the regulated flow of the argu-

is

ment, both

I

and she have enjoyed makes the completeness of Abelard’s debt.

in

how

a small thing

is

beg you to

I

she builds her case in steps lead-

restore

I

ask of

you and one you

me

your presence to

—by writing me some word of comfort,

in the

so that in this at least

and readiness to serve God .” 39 By the time made, the weight of the reasons put forward in

find increased strength

diminutive request

the letter for granting to ignore.

it

is

are so substantive that the favor

From beginning

to end, her letter

is

would be

difficult

structurally impressive. The

completeness and balance of her argument, together with the wide range of textual sources from which Heloise draws, afford the reader a strong impression of the authors intelligence.

of her thought on ethical idence in the

letters.

classical scholars that

issues,

Further,

The

breadth of her studies, the depth

and her rhetorical virtuosity

it is

also a

common

her writing style in and of

are

all

in ev-

observation by Western itself

is

admirable in

its

Latin eloquence. In Kageros case, there

is

a dazzling array

of poetic structures admired

at

the time, especially kakekotoba [pivot words, words selected and placed in

such

way

a

as to

generate overlapping grammatical phrases with different

meanings] and engo [related words, words that help bind poetic lines by associative meanings]. While these rhetorical effects are easy to create at a

complex compositions are far more difficult. Their quality and proliferation speak volumes for the time Michitsuna’s Mother insimple

level,

vested in the composition,

well as her poetic expertise.

as

Mother was

conjecture that Michitsuna’s

ondary wife primarily for esteem

women

this

with poetic

poetic

skill,

but

skill.

if

first

Heian

aristocrats held in high

Mother was indeed strengths that attracted him

Michitsuna’s

place. In this way, she differs

little

from the choice

Heloise makes to write in the learned prose, which was her

guage with her scholar-lover and an object of

no doubt, While

lan-

admiration and,

Heloise’s letter and Michitsuna’s Mother’s choka have a thorfeel

about them, they do not lack emotive content.

authors argued not just the validity of their complaints, but the ve-

racity

of their

Mother

is

indirectly.

were

his praise,

common

attraction.

oughly constructed

The

scholars

selected by Kaneie as a sec-

Kaneie’s poetic voice, she was displaying the to her in the

Some

love, as well.

less declarative,

Both

While Heloise

since

it

writers, however,

for a feeling

of completion.

says

it

plainly,

Michitsuna’s

was usual for lovers to express emphasize

how

their love

important their lovers

JOHN

126

women

Both

Now

differently.

Heloise’s anger that

it is

40

— was moderated

though again

—or transformed, such

as

“I

was not

when

.” 41

me

in

that she has “thought-ill”

comments

.

.

.

,

I

of her

in her case, too, the balance

with her need for him, not her displeasure with him.

is

Mother both

sonas, but again with differences. Heloise

present attractive narrative per-

appeal

s

is

of

in her blend

alert-

of mind, organization of thought, and passion expressed in the

ness

No

language of devotion, obedience, and submission.

doubt these

when Heloise was how bound she feels

sonal qualities that Abelard found exciting

Mother

Michitsuna’s

though

emphasizes

also

thought

attractive,

but her intensely distraught

problems with which Kaneie reply

poem

” 42

to this choka, “

and,“

it is

.

are per-

his student.

to Kaneie,

language of helplessness and patience instead of devotion or

in the

women

obedience. Within the world of Heian literature, suffering

so

she writes,

confess,

of Kaneie.Yet

Heloise and Michitsuna’s

sin

a lit-

overwhelmed me with grief and Michitsuna’s Mother, on the other hand, writes unambiguously

“Your lack of trust

shame

WALLACE

nevertheless note their displeasure as well,

surprised and troubled”

tle

R.

.

.

also

.around Mt. Fuji

.

difficult to visit her.

of mind was one of the

found himself at odds. As he

none other

.

state

/ the

/ than this

smoke

were

says in his

complaining

is

[ofjealousy] smolders ,”

your

43

and

Indeed, this self-occupied anxiety even today

divides audience opinion. Part of the readers experience of Kagerd

problem of evaluating the narrative voice:

is

is

this

her behavior attractive or even

reasonable? Finally,

each writer takes

whether she

believes her

you

said,

If the

on I

I

rely

is life,

remember

white waves

my

shore, this

husband loves

ceptable

it is

discursive

represented

particularly large suna’s Mother’s

of her

poem

are:

so.

44 .

asks

whether she can

rely

Romantic pessimism was

mode in

for

on Kaneie; she

practically the only ac-

Heian women, certainly

autobiographical

asks be-

in

narratives.

how

they

Michitsuna’s

more cause than many to worry since Kaneie had a number of affairs during his lifetime. Further, if Michithas

account of their relationship

and acted publicly ample,

final lines

describes

what

themselves

Mother probably

Mother

up

Mother

cause she doubts

her. Michitsuna’s

with regard to

on me,”

long to ask them about

Michitsuna’s

different position

well.

it

roll

is

somewhat

terms of a question. The

that relationship in the

“while there

a

in

is

ways that would advertise

when Machi no

Koji no

Onna was

accurate, he neglected her his limited interest.

relocated to a

new

For ex-

residence for

ROMANTIC ENTREATY her

Kaneie

childbirth,

Mothers

Heloises position rests

was true

apart.

One

love;

it

Abelard will want to comfort her because

that

now

could not have faded even though they

it

Mothers poem,

should be absolute;

Michitsuna’s

past

was not the necessary route.

of the striking things about Heloise

Michitsuna’s

her

more complicated. A good portion of her argument

on the assumption

theirs

are

is

paraded

ostentatiously

though

front gate,

127

is

live

when compared

s letter,

to

her idealism regarding love. To her, love

should be founded on pure, unselfish intentions that

it

supported with binding obligations. In the Heian

literary world, love

is

an excessive, unstable emotion more likely to engender suffering than benefits.

“True love"

marked by

its

—not

really

an operable term in Heian literature

poem works

ephemerality. Michitsuna’s Mother’s

context, embracing

pessimism even while asking for

its

a

—

will

within

more

be

this

reliable

commitment from her husband. Heloise for the most part addresses Abelard

who

and Christian letter,

fection

doubt

I

which bound you

creates a

had been

the

is

good husband one point in her

the

his aid to her. Yet at

think and indeed the world suspects. to

true:

not love.

sum

I

total

“My

love,

took

my

of

my

love .”

letter,

He

not

desire,

af-

4^

This

which Abelard

uses

love.”

if their

love

us both to sin, should be called

of my wretched pleasures

46

was

he would have to acknowledge

which brought

fill

It

me, the flame of lust rather than

the very foundation of her

rift at

to evade the obligations that

lust,

he

Heloise indeed doubts that such love ever existed in his heart: “I will

you what

tell

cannot but offer

as if

then says that

did he; thus, she should turn her attention to

God

in you,

and

this

was

loves her better than

Him.

way because of Christian teachings that put carnal love in opposition to true love. Romantic doubting is more unambiguous in Michitsuna’s Mother’s poem, but it causes less of a problem. Despite her pessimism about romance, Michitsuna’s Mother can press Abelard can evade her

Kaneie on the gardless tional

issue

of

in this

reliability,

of whether he has retained

warmth

since a

husband should be

reliable re-

or

his original physical attraction

for his wife. Heloise

cannot take

this tack, since

emo-

monastic

vows voided the obligations of marriage. Undaunted, she boldly appeals his inner sense

of obligation

that remains

Heloises and Michitsuna’s Mother’s

proceeds step by write.

step,

from

styles

that relationship.

of argument

asks for

action from him, only increased correspondence

on the other hand,

47 .

little

reliably, that

mend

ways.

Her

Heloise

in the

she has long suffered from

request

is

way of

this,

husband has

and thus he should

neither small nor as well defined as

of Heloise. These differences of argument

at least

Michitsuna’s Mother,

repeats a simple formula, namely, that her

not acted his

differ.

covering the various reasons Abelard should

She argues broadly and thoroughly then

to

is

that

reflect the training that the

two

JOHN

128

R.

WALLACE

received. Heloise received the highest level of education of the day, study-

ing a similar range of classical subjects

ing

some of her remarkable

as

her husband and no doubt learn-

from Abelard,

rhetorical skill

for his exceptional expertise in disputation

48 .

who

was known

Michitsuna’s Mother’s edu-

demeanor was incontext where a woman was

cation in the arts (especially poetry) and proper social

tended to help her solve her problems in

a

expected to promote her husbands career by childbirth and keeping her

problems to

herself.

Her

couched

tractive appeal

best recourse

was an emotional and poetically

in passive terms, an appeal that

wish and obligation to care lovingly for her,

as

well as

at-

would speak to his remind him of her

worth. Despite these different approaches, both writers seek to strengthen their claims tures, to

that she

by drawing authority from concepts normative to their cul-

which

husbands subscribed. Heloise drew on Latin

their

had studied with Abelard and the Bible

authority.

She quotes from these

texts to

both accepted

that

his decisions. Cicero’s

which

outlines unselfish friendship as

ations,

is

clearly

as prescriptive.

one of the

one

as first

add force to her reasoning, of

course, but they also outline the very values under

Abelard should make

classics

On

which she argues

Friendship [De amici tia],

that loyally fulfills one’s oblig-

texts that she wishes

Abelard would recognize

4Q

Besides quoting authority, Heloise evokes social

norms by making the

unsatisfactory state of their relationship a public object; she posits a wit-

nessing public that supports her position that he

“This

is

not merely

my own

opinion, beloved,

nothing personal or private about 1

held.’”

"

Michitsuna’s

Mother

is

also

it; it is

unfairly neglecting her:

it

is

everyone’s.

the general view

reminded Kaneie

outside the relationship (her father and son)

who

which

There is

is

widely

that there are those

are

aware of Kaneie’s

fickleness.

As

whereto Michitsuna’s Mother might turn, she did not have Heloise’s resources, since Heian Japan’s classics were written in

for authoritative texts

Chinese,

a

language that for

at least half a

century

women

had been

dis-

couraged from learning. She could have drawn more heavily from past poems, but widely admired poems did more to confirm her disadvantaged position than exert any ethical pressure

on her husband. She

finds a

com-

mon

discourse not through mutually revered texts, but rather in Kaneie’s

own

promises

51 .

Asymmetry

in

romantic relationships

themes. The chase, betrayal,

—

one of literature’s major imbalances of dominance and submission, reis

surely

make compelling romantic narrative. Heloise and Michitsuna’s Mother wed while very young to husbands who loomed large in their lives. The depth of their feelings set against the relative silence of

jection or loss

all

ROMANTIC ENTREATY the

men

129

they address makes for a sometimes bitter and all-too-real read-

ing experience. In

my

opinion,

it

is

tural contexts their strategies turn

instructive that despite different cul-

out to be quite

The dominant not as much from

similar.

guiding principles for these romantic entreaties derive

from

their respective, diverse cultural contexts as situational structure (perhaps

it

should be called

nearly identical basic

a

power

a

structure):

two

in-

dividuals in disadvantaged positions are appealing for the romantic interest

and proper attention in

who

from lovers

to responsibilities

have

lost interest

them. The petitioners, in these cases women, are confined by specific

rules

even

of discourse and behavior that they must employ to their benefit, they also must transgress those rules

as

strength into their arguments. Thus, both care. They select the literary

form

if

they wish to pack sufficient

women

write with exceptional

might best work

that

to their advantage,

while drawing on broadly held normative concepts that could provide

common

ground of discourse and reinforce

their appeals. Yet, even

a

when

selecting and following these formal requirements, they speak out against

the current treatment of their lovers.

with or,

nonthreatening tone even

a loving,

more

Both imbue

precisely, so they are able to

as

their writing primarily

they reprimand and complain

reprimand and complain. The balance

they strike between asserting their love, crafting an attractive voice, and de-

claiming their displeasure

They

are

illustrates

well the difficulty of their positions.

on the precarious cusp between

taking society

as

an

trusting

ally to press their lovers to redress

first

and

their lovers,

the wrongs they have

perpetrated. Ultimately, Abelard will only offer his “presence” in terms of prayers that Heloise

is

to recite daily

lining rules for her nuns,

and

on

his behalf, several professional letters

his corpse,

which he

out-

requests to be buried at

her nunnery. Kaneie, for his part, will not father another child with Michitsunas Mother; then, after 20 years of an unsettled marriage, he will cease visiting her almost entirely.

Her son

will

never receive the best of

Kaneie’s attention (though, being a legitimate son of Kaneie, his career

still

progressed better than most.)

One

can ask whether these

women

succeeded

in their brilliant dis-

cursive efforts. If the goal had been to change the hearts of their lovers,

then of course

we

satisfying presence

will never

of their

know.

lovers,

by what they have written, they

we

If their goal

then

failed

had been to recover the

we should conclude

that, at least

more than succeeded. The Heloise

read of in her letters could hardly have thought her

life

of getting the

occasional professional letter from her husband was better than their

together before they had taken monastic vows, and Michitsuna’s

makes

it

led to

Mother

20 years of arguments with her husband, their parting, was not her idea of a satisfying

perfectly clear that

which ultimately

life

JOHN

130

However

marriage.

Mother were,

WALLACE

R.

and eloquent Heloise and Michitsuna’s

earnest

the fundamentals of the structure

favor requesting renewed, sincere love

—an

individual out of

—perhaps means

that the

chance

of successful action, rhetorical or otherwise, was from the beginning simply too remote.

Notes 1.

I

used

base texts for this essay Betty Radice, trans., The Letters ofAbelard

as

MD:

and Heloise (Baltimore,

Uemura

Radice); and

Penguin Books, 1974) (hereafter cited

Etsuko, Kagero nikki kaishaku

annotations to The Kagero Diary], vol.

1

The

Studies,

Arntzen).

J.T.

The

is

Letters

as

based on the orig-

original Latin text of Heloise’s letters can be

Muckle,“The Personal

found

in

between Abelard and Heloise,” Medieval

47-94.

Irving Singer, Courtly and Romantic, The Nature of Love, vol. 2 (Chicago:

The

University of Chicago Press, 1984),

training Heloise received, see Elizabeth Heloise: Methods, Content,

88. For a description of the

p.

Mary McNamer, The

and Purpose of Learning

3.

Misfortunes, in Radice, p. 67.

4.

Misfortunes, in Radice, p. 75.

5.

McLeod

in the

“'Wholly

Sister:

Medieval

Women and

Cherewatuk and Ulrike Wiethaus nia Press, 1993),

p.

Glenda McLeod, Karen

(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylva-

errs

when

she says Heloise

is

in

her mid-twenties.

Kauffman, Discourse of Desire: Gender, Genre, and

Cornell University

7.

Heloise’s

8.

Ibid.

9.

Epistulae ad Lucilium p.

the Epistolary Genre, eds.

64.

Kauffman apparently

(Ithaca:

Press, 1991).

Guilty, Wholly Innocent’: Self-Definition in Heloi'se’s Letters to

Abelard,” in Dear

S.

Me-

addresses the unresolved issue of authorial authenticity and pro-

vides references for further reading of this debate. See,

Linda

Education of

Twelfth-Century,

NY:The Edwin Mellen

diaeval Studies, vol. 8 (Lewiston,

6.

is

The Kagero Diary (Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese

reading of the Kagero passage, however,

Studies 15 (1953): 2.

quote The Kagero Diary

I

University of Michigan, 1997), pp. 89-93 (hereafter cited

My

inal Japanese.

trans.,

[Compilation of

(Tokyo: Meiji shorn, 1983), pp.

360-92. The English translation from which Sonja Arntzen,

tais'ei

as

first letter,

in

Epistolary Fictions

Press, 1986), p. 76.

Radice,

p.

109.

by Seneca, quoted

in Heloise’s first letter, in

Radice,

110.

10.

Heloise’s

11.

Ibid., p. 112.

12.

Ibid., p. 111.

13.

Ibid., p. 111.

first letter,

in

Romans

Radice,

15.20:

p.

116.

“Thus

I

[Paul]

make

it

my

ambition to pro-

claim the good news, not where Christ has already been named, so that

do not build on someone

else’s

foundation,

.

.

.”

I

Bruce M. Metzger and

ROMANTIC ENTREATY Roland

E.

Murphy,

eds.,

The

ryphal /Deuterocanonical Books,

University Press, 1989), 14.

Heloise’s

letter,

first

would mean

p.

NT

131

New Oxford Annotated Bible new rev. standard ed. (New

with the Apoc-

York: Oxford

226.

McLeod

in Radice, p. 113.

argues that this “debt”

to twelfth-century readers “marital coitus”

and the “Pauline

marriage debt.” McLeod, “‘Wholly Guilty, Wholly Innocent,’” 15.

66.

Or, in another translation, “desiring you purely, not what was yours

Ibid. [te

p.

pure, non tua, concupiscens] .” Singer, p. 96.

16.

Heloise’s

17.

Ibid., p. 117.

18.

Ibid., p. 115.

19.

Abelard’s second ilar

in

first letter,

Radice,

letter, in

p.

114.

Radice,

147. As Verger points out, words sim-

p.

to Heloise’s statement appear in Abelard's

See Jacques Verger,

mann, 1996),

p.

much

later

“Ethics”

(1

L! amour castre: L’histoire d’Heloise et Abelard (Paris:

140?).

Her-

123. Clanchy goes so far as to argue that Heloise set the

agenda of Abelard’s theology. See M.T. Clanchy, Abelard:

A

Medieval Life

(Oxford: Blackwell, 1997), pp. 277-82. For Abelard’s “Ethics,” see D. E. Lus-

combe,

trans., Peter Abelard’s “Ethics”

in Radice, p.

20.

Heloise’s

21.

Ibid., p. 118.

22.

Ibid., p. 117.

23.

Ibid.

24.

Ibid., p. 113.

25.

Kauffman, Discourse of Desire,

26.

Arntzen,

27.

Ibid., p. 93.

28.

Ibid.

29.

Ibid.

30.

Ibid., p. 89.

31.

Ibid.

32.

Ibid., p. 91.

33.

Ibid.

34.

Ibid.

35.

I’ve

first letter,

p.

16.

69.

89.

modified Arntzen’s “but

translation

p.

1

(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971).

I

cannot get

supported by Uemura,

is

[TheTosa Dairy, Kagero Diary],

ed.

p.

away” (emphasis mine). Arntzen’s

386, and Tosa nikki / Kagero tnkki

Kikuchi Yasuhiko, Shinpen Nihon koten

bungaku zensliu 13 (Tokyo: Shogakukan, 1995), in question, yuki

mo

p.

116.

However, the phrase

hanarezu, grammatically does not necessarily indicate

(The context, however, allows such an interpretation.) It short phrase, but whether Michitsuna’s Mother is telling Kaneie that

a potential verb. is

a

she loves

him

so

much

in time, has elected

of effect she 36.

Arntzen,

37.

Ibid., p. 93.

p.

seeks.

97.

that she

cannot leave him, or that she,

not to leave him,

is

at this

pertinent in determining

point

what type

JOHN

132

WALLACE

R.

38.

Kauffman, Discourse of Desire,

39.

Heloise’s

40.

Ibid., p. 112.

41.

Ibid., p.

42.

Arntzen,

43.

Ibid., p. 95.

44.

Ibid., p. 93.

45.

Heloise’s

46.

Abelard’s second letter, in Radice,

47.

McLeod self

1

65.

p.

in Radice, p. 117.

first letter,

17. p.

97.

in

first letter,

is

Radice,

116.

p.

p.

153.

correct that Heloise appears interested in recovering a sense of

challenged by Abelard’s depiction of her in his Misfortunes. This

much

In her

argument McLeod addresses

Heloise’s letters

eating

essay’s analysis

its

between

effect in

first

detail

in

debts incurred. For Heloise’s

of the rhetoric of entreaty. the grammatical shift in

person singular and

merging Heloise’s various first letter

a

from her hus-

larger rhetorical project than simply asking for letters

band, but one outside the present

is

person

first

roles vis-a-vis

see especially,

plural, delin-

Abelard and the

McLeod, ‘“Wholly

Guilty, Wholly Innocent,”’ pp. 69-70.

48.

McNamer,

49.

See Michael Grant,

49.

p.

trans. Cicero

On

the

Good

Life (Baltimore:

Penguin

Books, 1971), pp. 175-227. 50.

Heloise’s

first

awareness of 51.

letter, in

this text in

Radice,

p.

116.

Radice mentions

her introduction. See Radice,

their

common

p. 18.

Portions of a choka in Utsuho monogatari [Tale of Utsuho, 970-999?], a ro-

mance of her day, resemble closely the choka of Michitsuna’s Mother. See Muroki Hideyuki, annot., Utsuho monogatari zen [The complete Tale of Utsuho] (Tokyo: Ofu, 1996), pp. 329—30. It is unclear which was written first, since neither text can be dated with confidence. If it precedes Mi-

—

chitsuna’s Mother’s

author has drawn

poem.

poem

(the less likely

a great deal

of the

possibilities,

of the content of her argument from that

Incidentally, in Utsuho the reason for the choka

narrator

however), our

— the brief waka cannot

satisfy

is

explained by the

the composers need for expression.

Michitsuna’s Mother’s reasons were likely similar.

CHAPTER

7

WORDS ALONE CANNOT EPISTLES IN

MARIE DE FRANCE

AND MURASAKI Cynthia

EXPRESS:

SHIKIBU

Ho

Epistolary Discourse

B

women

in courtly

strive to

bridge so-

oth Marie de France and Murasaki Shikibu are cultures, writing vernacular tales

well as geographical distances. In their romantic worlds, impedi-

cial as

ments

who

of lovers

—

the traditional suppression and containment of the female, and

—

on the male necessitate messages to fill the gap of silence or separation. Thus letters, the genre that fills the human desire for private, direct, evocative communication, take on central importance in the Western and Eastern versions of these courtly worlds. Marie the cultural constraints

de France’s consists love.

written in

of 12 poetic

The

cation,

Lais,

in

twelfth-century England,

stories thematically arranged

tale collection,

and

Anglo-Norman

letters, offers

with

around the topic of

interests in writing,

its

female

communi-

an interesting comparison to Murasaki Shikibu

monogatari, The Tale of Genji, a consideration of romantic love in

Japan of the eleventh century. Genji follows the

lives

s

Heian

of the hero and

his

family in episodic prose chapters embellished by numerous poetic insertions.

1

Letters appear in

formation, to

numerous

capacities in

make arrangements,

to

both works: to deliver in-

offer advice,

and of course

convey love sentiments. For both of these female authors, ter

and

let-

writing function to advance women’s agendas within the fictional

world; however, letter writing lover, for

ing

letters

to

at

both

men and women

is

not the sole prerogative of the female

are in fact enthusiastic authors.

the male and female halves of the epistolary dynamic,

By look-

we

will see

CYNTHIA HO

134

that the narration

of both works often proceeds

form of commu-

in the

which Richard Bowring has called “a civilized form of coupling and recoupling .” 2 While the composition and superficial usages of letters in the two texts are remarkably similar, this study inniques, ritual repartee,

an essential

vestigates

discourse.

While

for

difference

Marie de France

of their epistolary

natures

the

in

of constant

letters are static signs

Murasaki Shikibu, they are dynamic, persuasive symbols with

love, for

multivalent, potentially truant meanings.

The frequency with which

letters

appear in these two texts

on

reflects,

S cultures, letter-writing #

one

medieval women’s social

level,

takes

on

In both

reality.

special significance for female writers, since educational

#

and lan-

guage barriers exclude them from the wider range of masculine genres.

The

epistolary

mode,

women

modified by

public male vehicle,

initially a

meet

to

is

transformed and

private needs, as well as to serve as their

women

European

veiled entree into the public world. For

of the Middle

Ages, letters offered one of the few genres through which both the lay and religious could bypass formal education in Latin

and subvert the need for

literary patronage, the usual routes to success. Latin

was the predominate

language of power: in the words of Walter Ong, “In the High Middle

Ages

.

.

.

when

Latin passed out of vernacular usage, a sharp distinction was

who knew

who

.Which coincided with a division between a world in which women had some say Latin thus became a sex-linked and an almost exclusively male world. 3 language, used only by males .” The Latin letter in the European Middle

set

up between those

and those

it

.

Ages

is

forms

did not.

.

.

.

.

theoretically constructed as a public forum, following prescribed

laid

out in

or

ars dictaminiis

composition of letters. European prescribed pattern and used tant avenues

ars dictandi,

women

of female public influence 4

in

gitimate access to Chinese and

one of the impor-

women, denied

advantage of the space for them to write epistles ."

came

hicle for writing, the Japanese letter sexes, seeing

acquired

both public and private

that

“The everyday

sions for writing notes cessfully in these

and

life

Initially a

male ve-

permeate the culture of both

use, until the art

of the

woman.

letter

writing

Ivan Morris

of the aristocracy offered endless occa-

letters,

and the

ability to acquit oneself suc-

exchanges was the ultimate criterion of acceptability.” 6

Female letter-writing

womans

to

a central cultural role for the aristocratic

comments

le-

associated tools of public power, took

its

5

full

for the

medieval Europe was through

In the same way, Heian

.

handbooks

refashioned the constraints of the

to such great effect that

it

the personal letters of women

rhetorical

is

lack of writing

such is

a

primary

itself striking.

activity

The

in

both

evil ladies

of

texts

that

Bisclavret

a

and

Equitan demonstrate their emotional inadequacy by never engaging in love letters.

And

as

Eva Rosenn notes, the

fact that

women

never write to their

1

WORDS ALONE CANNOT EXPRESS spouses, despite the utmost seriousness of lovers’

of the love

highlights the importance

lais,

by

7

communication

their lack

of involvement

demon-

is

dramas of the work.

in the epistolary

Jane Altman defines “Epistolarity” as “the use of the erties to create

the

in

In Genji the marginaliza-

two neglected wives, the Kokiden Lady and Aoi,

tion of the strated

affair.

135

letter’s

formal prop-

meaning.” 8 In both of these works, the formal,

essential,

message-bearing properties of the correspondence extend well beyond

what modern readers might consider to be a “letter”: the written word is augmented or even replaced by a living, speaking messenger, by textual art (calligraphy, paper, perfume),

and by meaningful tokens. More than

spontaneous collages, the communications

these works are

in

just dis-

full

courses of desire. Richard Bowring’s assessment of the letters in Genji applies as well to the Lais:

by its

“The

letter

that token the physical object, carrier,

becomes

a fetish.”

form,

its

communication has both

and the messenger

—

an

letter.

Immediacy and permaof speaking

to sustain the illusion

all,

—speaking

the lover’s words and act-

manifests this fiction. In addition, this part-

nership derives from the cultural

of medieval

realities

literacy.

twelfth century, France’s turn to literacy produced a transitional literate

On

of spoken and inscribed messages re-

coexist. Lovers write, after

ing in the lover’s best interests

when both

hand,

its

on twin modes of oral and writ-

produces the dual temporal meaning of the

to the loved one,

accomplishments,

and symbolic implications.

practical

abstract level, the joint appearance

nency can

its

9

In both works, the textual insistence

ten

of absence; and

a substitute, a sign

is

In the

moment

and nonliterate practices coexisted. 10 Even though the

standard of education was not very high (for either sex), Marie portrays her

twelfth-century Chevrefoil, for

read,

noblewomen

as

communications with her

access to reading,

many were not

ments, “This odd fact

women

to disseminate

Medieval female authors

varied

as

Kempe, and Margery Easton obstacles even for a

are

Queen

aristocratic

fully vested

women

woman who

it;

to

be

how

passive,

had

com-

to receive

not active.”

17

Hildegard of Bingen, Margery

as

known

were taught

In

able to

taught to write. As David Matthews

eloquent:

is

literature.

having the female

But while

1

lover.

in

more knowledge, but not how

The

in

example, she changes her source to make the

demonstrating her pointed interest

in the

and involved

literate

to have

is

employed an amanuensis.

able to write

Milun: “[the Lady] used her ingenuity so well

/ that

is

also reflected in

she obtained

some

and parchment” (11.254-55). Although Marie’s

women

need additional messengers or readers to give

oral confirmation

ink

are literate, they

of the

written text. These reiterations seek to forestall the sense ol slippage in

moving from

meaning one

risks in

performance

in the Lais also reflects

oral to written

communication. Oral

medieval practice: writers assumed

CYNTHIA HO

136

that their readers simultaneously heard

and saw the

text, since

read aloud during composition and private reading.'

3

words were

In Milun, the lady

demonstrates the equivalency of reading and reading aloud: “she had

whole letter, / and heard the contents” (249—50). In Heian Japan, where aristocratic men and women were literate and well educated in what Ivan Morris calls “the non-academic forms of cul-

looked

ture,”

the

at

14

demonstrations of reading and writing

of daily

life.

Thus, the

were an

skills

essential part

important in medieval Europe, of women’s

issue, so

education and opportunity, does not pertain here. However, Richard

Okada

points out the essential integration of the oral and the written in

Japanese writing

much

European

like that in the

hand, the written does not, indeed cannot, the oral

—

the oral authorizes the written;

come

culture:

“on the one

into existence without

on the other hand, the written

becomes a permanent document that provides the legitimacy of that which authorized it.” 13 Because one’s “hand” was an important reflection of oneself to the extent that “belief that

was

a better

guide to

handling of

a person’s

his

brush

and character than what he

his breeding, sensitivity,

becomes more personal than in is evident when the Omi Lady is

actually said or wrote,” letter production

the West.

16

The

insult

answered by her

came from

when

of using

sister’s

maid,

a scribe

who

the lady herself” (453).

tries to 17

make

it

“seem

Genji’s letter to the Safllower Princess

(684) are

private letter

is

two of many

confirmed by the

answer

Letters in Genji are performative acts

they are delivered and appreciated; the buzz of

ond Princess

that the

(1

around

17) andYugiri’s letter to the Sec-

instances. The

rare instance

meaning

normal openness of the

when

read in front of others. Since reading love letters

“private” has a substantially different

women

is

a

character does not

not

a silent project,

in medieval versus

modern

contexts.

The

oral

and written juxtaposition

formal properties of the

letters.

Other

in the texts

is

only one part of the

physical evidence acting as symbolic

systems reveal further details of character and personal identity. 18

The

physical attributes of the lovers aren’t very important in the romances. All of Marie’s is

women

are beautiful

beyond compare and

all

of

and the

his lovers

men

are courtly

have wonderful

description and character differentiation

we

and proud; Genji hair.

The

usually expect in

physical

modern

works

are here replaced

lovers’

decoding, either by referencing to cultural sign systems or to more

by natural or crafted objects that require the

intimate narratives within the couple’s history. in the letters are

1

’'

Many

tokens from nature that speak to

sociations, although natural objects in

a

times the artifacts

wide complex of

European and Heian

have the same meaning. “Nature” did not have

a stable

texts

meaning

as-

do not

for

Euro-

pean medieval readers: for some, the natural world of plants and animals

WORDS ALONE CANNOT EXPRESS

137

around them was simply God’s gift for mankind’s use and subjugation, while for others it represented the fallen world. 2 " Nature is rarely admired for

itself,

but rather for

on

rely heavily

the

ality of

symbolic value. In contrast, Murasaki’s lovers

its

also

natural elements as figures, but here they speak to the re-

moment

or convey codes about the appreciation of life’s fleet-

ing quality. 21

Marie and Murasaki both consistently

media

insert letters as multiple

throughout their works, and they intend them to act as true love’s communications, emphasizing separation and hopes for reunion. But the letters’ functions within the narratives of the two works, and consequently signs

their signification, are different. Francois Jost distinguishes

fundamental uses of the

between two

which the

letter in fiction: “static,” in

merely

letter

reports events and the writer and receiver play a passive role, and “kinetic,” in

which action progresses through the

agents in the plot.

work

are static

22

and

letters themselves,

of instances, the

In the majority

functioning

letters in the

French

confirming and solidifying the narrative

passive,

Because the Lais so often concern

woman

a

line.

enclosed, guarded, and

lenced, the letters bind the lovers by circumventing that surveillance.

Japanese

open.

in the

The

metaphors of love. Conventionally, is

letters in the

that Marie’s lovers send are

as

having

immediately read

symbols. While

represents something else is left

terminate in

its

The

a

symbol

beyond

is

also

Lais,

meaning, and the

a

The

letters

letters in Genji,

how-

anything that stands for or

from the sign

itself, it differs

often as an unstated suggestion;

it

possible meanings. Murasaki’s writers

profoundly aware of the polysemous

then, are signs,

as clear signitiers that substi-

tute for a fixed cultural or personal meaning.

application

si-

element of communica-

a sign, a basic

anything that can be construed

ever, are

23

however, are kinetic. They actively propel elusive actions

letters,

and emotions out

tion,

as

possibilities

is

in that

its

mysteriously inde-

and readers

are both

of their messages.

Letters of the Lais In Marie’s Lais, letters literally packed with signifying formal properties

function

as

the traditional connector between

two separated

Milan, emblematic letters mediate the romance of a young long-suffering lover:

throughout their love,

and second

first

lives in

in the

between the

“Undertake

a

woman’s

messenger

/ to help

me

woman and

her

write to each other

imitation of the give-and-take of their physical narrative epistle that relates her female ex-

perience to her son. 24 At the opening of the

communique,

who

lovers

lovers. In

who

carries

speak to

my

both

lai,

a

both lovers use the oral

speech and

a

token ring:

beloved / and to keep our

com-

munications secret”(33— 35). Critics note Marie’s identification of her

CYNTHIA HO

138

objects, signs that stand for the undescribed private con-

totem

lovers with

of the

jointure [conjoining]

lovers; in the introduction to their translation,

Hanning and Ferrante comment that “the most recognizable signature of her work is the symbolic creature or artifacts around which a lai is orga25 In Milun the lovers who must separate communicate using a mesnized.” senger swan, which not only symbolizes their love but also becomes part of the meaning of the message /

He had

hid

him

it

a

carries:

it

swan of which he was fond;

among

its

he

/

letter,

a letter

and sealed

tied the letter to

He summoned one

feathers. /

messenger” (163— 168). The

his

“He wrote

its

it.

neck,

/

and made

ol his squires /

the messenger, the swan (the

written word, the oral confirmation, and the natural object) together produce a variety of ways of speaking. Of all the Lais, only Milun reproduces

which convincingly replicate a medieval love Following medieval decorum, at the top of the letter he has writ-

the contents of the missive.

ten his

name

letters,

in salutation,

“Milun,” and her reaction to the

name

reflects

“When she saw her lover’s (236—7). He tells her that “he was

the word’s iconic substitution for his presence:

name

/ she kissed

suffering night

a

it

and

hundred times”

day. /

Now

was

it

power

entirely in her

him” (239-241), and she replies, “She couldn’t have any him” (272-5). In this case we see the letter as a physical

and the messenger swan token their

love. The

—

—

of signs that,

medieval metaphor of love sickness expresses

The swan

too, carries

woman,

a

it

its

without ambiguity,

common

a

as a

“swan song” only

substitutes speaking

alive despite the lovers’ separation.

The combined

and

easily deci-

long-established sign of commitment.

emblematic meaning,

to classical tradition sings

the silenced

is

emanating

entity

plainly speak their content: Milun’s

communications

pherable sentiment, and the ring

or cure

the written text, the rings exchanged,

web

create a

kill

pleasure without

from, passing between, and touching each of the lovers. physical properties of the message

to

mute

at its

death.

with the

While these

bird that according

But

here, like

keep love

letters to

letters are vital to the

hap-

piness of the lovers, they are static in that over the years they witness to

undying, unchanging love.

When

The

gloss

of the text

secure in both hearts.

the inevitable happens, and the lady must hide the baby she has

borne, she creates an epistolary artifact like the

and “a

is

as a

statement of his lineage.

swan, the baby bears the message around his neck: his father’s ring

letter

with

it,

/ in

which

will

be written

his father’s

unfortunate story of his mother” (77-79). Included fine textiles to further testify to the

cloth; /

Much

beneath

his

head

/ they

as

name

/

and the

well are a trove of

rank of the parents, “a white linen

placed

a fine

pillow / and over

him

a

cov-

around with martin fur” (99-1 04). The mother’s choice of fine furnishings further elaborates the sign of the baby’s identity. T. Heslop’s study of contemporary paintings reveals that the most straightforward erlet, /

hemmed

all

1

WORDS ALONE CANNOT EXPRESS method of

indicating status and personality in the twelfth century

through “the depiction of attributes such

When

grown son learns of his speak to him equally: the ring,

ter

139

the

is

clothing and equipment.”

as

pieces of his

mothers

27

parentage,

all

the

the foster mother’s oral con-

firmation, and the tokens (296— 299).

letter,

The

letter has

let-

unequivocally served

Ott

*

purpose.

its

In Laustic the correspondence

component

tokening, but the written

rial

metonymic: The message

between

same mate-

lovers involves the

shrinks as the letter

becomes

substitutes for the unrecoverable love.

When

a

Lady, enclosed and closely watched by her husband, uses the nightingale’s

song

as

an excuse for lingering near the tower

window where

she

is

com-

muning with her lover, the husband kills the bird and presents its dead body to her. 2 Thus thwarted, the Lady composes her final act of communication with her lover, “1 shall send him the nightingale / and relate the '

adventure.” Included in her message little

bird

the textile wrapping of samite, the

is

and her servant “charged with her message” (134— 144).

itself,

Here, she has combined the same four meaning-bearing components Miluti a

—

token, or

relic

gold and writing” (136).

in

the

shroud?

little bird’s

entire story

it

corpse

and

A

cryptic love note?

What

A

a

symbol

silk

—

into

covering

could she have sewn on

dedication for the

little

bird?

a tersely narrated icon.

a final reliquary,

Her

lover in turn

makes the

lit-

“very precious and very dear,” and “he carried

with him always” (149— 156). The reliquary substitutes completely and

nally for the enclosed

and silenced lover and echoes her

memorialize the relationship.

It’s

other male correspondents in the In this

lai,

the nightingale

also for the

more

is

noteworthy Lais,

a sign for

is

initiative

fi-

to

that the Lady’s lover, like

not responsible for the suffering.

the private narrative of the lover and

public association of the bird’s long and evocative history

in love poetry. Marie’s readers tle

is

of her ordeal? Whatever the scripted content, she converts

her suffering into tle

a rich textile,

of her love sentiment. The gold-enriched

“embroidered

The

an oral message,

a physical text,

as in

would immediately have connected the

bird to other literary works that associate

it

with

lovers, love poets,

lit-

and

the danger of love. In addition, Marie also intended her readers to recall

Ovid’s gruesome slightly different,

tale

of Philomela,

in

which the

helpless

but nevertheless evocative situation)

is

woman

(in a

violently silenced

and then enclosed by an abusive man. The narrative tapestry Philomena writes to recount her misfortunes recalls the Lady’s embroidered samite that also relates her tale.

An

illustration

of this famous

tale

of the Metamor’1

would have been an appropriate theme for the bird’s covering. Chevrefoil, the shortest and in some ways the most puzzling of the lais, centers its entire narrative around one complex and highly digested letter.

phoses

Tristan carves a message for the

Queen (whom we know

to

be Iseut of the

CYNTHIA HO

140

famous est

triangle, Tristan, Iseut,

where he knows she

Then

will

and King Mark) on be passing,

branch in the for-

a tree

in order to catch

follows the most discussed passage of the

her attention.

lai:

This was the message of the writing

had sent to her:

that he

he had been there

long time,

a

had waited and remained to find out

how for

he could see her,

he could not

With as

and discover

the

without

live

two of them

her.

was just

it

with the honeysuckle

it is

that attaches itself to the tree(61-70).

The problem

that has attracted

Tristan wrote

on the

stick.

much

Marie

critical attention

says that Tristan

the exact content

is

wrote “ summe de

I’ecrit,”

message of the writing." So what would that be?

translated here as “the

Critics suggest that these

words

refer to a previous letter Tristan sent to the

Queen prior to meeting in the forest; that Tristan carved these words (in ogam letters) on a rod; that he put his name and the couplet bearing the central botanical image; even the full burden of lines 63— 78. 31 The conmysterious

tent, as

as that in Laustic,

is

not

as

verbally inscribed artifact represents the relationship lovers love.

and the way

Thomas Reed

it

communicates so

way this one of these two famous

important

as

the

clearly to Iseut the truth

of their

argues convincingly that the importance here

is

the

semiotic quality of the text:

Iseut

meant

is

ining

it

to respond to the stick, inscribed with Tristan

entwined by

a

branch of

a

s

name by imag-

honeysuckle. Thus, to his text (which

stands for himself) she adds a gloss (standing for herself). ... In

the

poem seems

standing

to be saying this his “letter”

as his life

is

enhanced by her

tion, the lovers nonetheless

(and thus

This

safe)

letter, like

sion of

all

the

Many

fact, this

the

communicated

intention and interpretation.

one

message succinctly: “she (79—82). In

love.

in Laustic, written

knew what

it

embellished by her under-

Denied public self-determinain a perfect

between true

message between the two lovers

Ehduc

as

wedding of covert

32

loves, delivers

was, / she recognized

more expanded multitoken

critics cite

is

sum, then,

letters

is

a

all

its

the letters”

compressed ver-

of the other

tales.

the culmination of Marie’s investigations into

romance. Emanuel Mickel, for example, argues that Marie progresses through three types of love, finally arriving at the selfless love of Eliduc 33 ,

WORDS ALONE CANNOT EXPRESS

141

Letters in the previous tales have served mainly to transcend the physical

obstacles to love

But

fulfillment.

s

complex codified messages of previous have served

when

as sure signs ot the lover,

hoped

the

mantic love

moves away from

Eliduc

tales.

The

once used

for alliance of the lovers

static letters in

to simulate union,

achieved.

is

on the Marie that

reliance

When

fall

away

earthly ro-

consummated, however, the lovers follow the course seen in medieval literature from Laxdaela Saga to Book of Margery Kempe: They turn their hearts and communications to God. The progression in Eliduc is steadily up the Platonic ladder toward the better good: away from is

fully

mediated communication to reunion with the beloved; and away from

human,

carnal love to the divine love of

ventionally,

much

like Miluti ,

an exchange of letters,

go well

at this first

with

ring and

a

a

God. The romance begins con-

chamberlain

a belt.

as

messenger, expediting

Metaphoric lovemaking does not

exchange, for Eliduc takes both the message and the

gifts literally (either

because of Eliduc’s loyalty to

berlain’s misrepresentation).

When

foreshadows the conclusion of the

this defies tale

when

his

wife or the cham-

her expectations, the Lady

she takes the unusual step of

forswearing mediated lovemaking through disembodied

through you or anyone

him

ask

tures

for anything /

me”

meaning

(443—7).

else, / until

I

want

Her vow

later in the

speak to him myself / do

show him myself / how

to

to display the depth

when

lai,

I

her shock

induces her deathlike trance, and Eliduc lates

letters,

at

lays

1

“Never,

want

him

love for

learning about Eliduc’s wife

her out for burial.

He emu-

possible meaning.

The

as

love. In his crisis Eliduc builds a stable, rich,

yet clearly signifying message, finely

wrought and reducible

to only

chapel, the Lady’s placement in front of the

bed holding her pristine body

signify, in

sion in a heavenly eternal love for

tor-

of her love takes on ironic

the lovers in Laustic and tries to express his grief by crafting her

emblematic narrative of

to

an

and

one

altar, a

Sharon Coolidge’s terms, “a fu-

God. Purely human

love, celebrated in

earthly beds of passion, ceases at death, but heavenly love, a true charity,

pushes beyond the boundaries of fashion the signifying of the

who

body of the beloved

But herein message.

lies

The

girl /

triangulation of

.

.

.

now

she

knew

It is

in this

found by Eliduc’s wife, /

the truth”(1010— 1017).

communication here decenters the roman-

illustrates that this tale

of static and conventional love

(1

4

the problem: the wife, not the lover, reads and decodes the

paradigm, and further

ally,

is

'

immediately and clearly reads the message: “she entered the chapel

and saw the bed of the

tic

this life to everlasting life.”

letters in the face

is

about the obsolescence

of a greater

love.

Eventu-

him “many days” been turning them to God and they

the healed Lady marries Eliduc and lives with

149), but this great love has already

join the

women,

life

of the

cloister.

not earthly love

At the end of the letters,

lai,

Eliduc writes both of the

but spiritually inquisitive “Messages to

CYNTHIA HO

142

them

how

/ to find out

they were” (1174-5). All three are

argument, are merely

earlier tales, in this teleological

opment of human Maries

In

desire for

Lais

all

tifact, as a reliable,

the letters are

cultural

with

elements of nature

static,

a stage in the

devel-

lover, the divine.

—written words,

letter

—

oral

act together as a single ar-

maintaining and cultivating an established, monoga-

(Monogamy

committed love

here

a certitude, a

rather idiosyncratically defined as

is

in disregard

and personal connotations

of marriage vows). The established

in the letters

of the Lais imbue them

firmly anchored gloss that allows

termediaries until a finer union narrative

of the

univocal signifier that cements romance. For that reason,

relationship.

exclusive,

letters

union with the ultimate

components of the

the

recitations, textiles, tokens,

mous

God. The human love

letters, their prayers, to

ing their love

now compos-

—

them

to serve as in-

either carnal or heavenly

—within

the

achieved.

is

Symbolic Messages of Gettji

The

physical appearance of the letters in Genji are remarkably similar to

those of Marie’s lovers in their composition from various meaningful

media

that

produce

fine fabrics, text.

Used

a fully

nuanced whole. Natural tokens,

and exquisite writing materials

for

numerous public and

are

all

oral recitations,

important parts of the

private agendas, they are dynamic, in-

fluencing the development of the narrative, and they are also symbolic,

providing evocative glosses on the actions and emotions of the characters.

The polemic

nature of Genji’s letters

enues for the writer to argue

mous mutuality

his

make them

persuasive seductions, av-

or her desirability.

in Genji destabilizes the voice

The

lack of

of the female

monoga-

lover,

who,

despite her considerable powers in the private sphere, nevertheless survives

by precarious dependence on the letters

whim

of the male

lover.

She writes love

because she wants them to accomplish certain things for her, and in

Genji most letters are

more or

less successful, if “success”

the male lover’s attention and force

him

into

means they gain

some kind of

response. For

Genji, writing from the position of social power, letters also serve as advocates, to

overrun the woman’s defenses or to continue the conquest. Genji

has several examples of

women who,

ble their forerunner the

Kagero

Woman ter

.

.

.

to a greater or lesser extent, resem-

diarist,

or what Jensen

Seduced, betrayed, suffering,

this

woman

of anguished and masochistic lament to the

hind.”

of the

3^

The twofold agenda of symbolic Heian

lover’s desirability

and

a plea for

calls

“the Epistolary

writes letter after let-

man who

has

left

her be-

love letters, a presentation

consummation,

creates an

atmos-

phere of evaluation and judgment. Narratives surrounding the sending and receiving of letters in Genji reiterate unceasingly that the writer invites cri-

WORDS ALONE CANNOT EXPRESS A

narrative pattern develops in Genji:

and the contents

are shared, then the recipient, atten-

tique and that readers dispense after a letter arrives

dants,

143

it.

and/or the narrator judges the epistolary

effort.

Thus,

the formal

all

properties of the letters actively propel the various narrative lines in

Genji performs

as a

which

writer or a reader. Rather than acting as replacements

for personal intercourse, like the letters in Marie’s Lais, these love messages

embody

dynamic engagement of the complex relationships within themselves. Genji s decoding of these letters guides his perception of his the

various lovers.

Suetsumuhana, the Safflower Princess,

much

an evasive sign that Genji,

While other

women

use their

a

is

woman whose

to his chagrin, reads too belatedly.

skills alluringly,

was

this deficiency:

true, but

though the

“The

in the

fully misreads this striking

is

courtship

princess had been reared in seclusion,

such extreme reticence was simply in bad taste”

nurse’s daughter

com-

she withholds any

munications from him. The narrator’s comments early point to

letters are

(1 18).

it

Al-

forced to reply for her (120), Genji will-

faux pas: his determination to replace

a lost

romance of her ruined home, and his esteem of her status leave him bound to what observers and the narrator clearly identify as an inappropriate woman. Tayu had warned, “She is not, fear, what you are looking for” (1 17). In this highly semiotic text, Genji mistakenly commits to her before reading any of her missives. When her love, his titillation over the

I

first letter finally

because

it

sirability.

does

come

clearly confirms

to

him, “Genji scarcely looked

what he

(121)

at it”

has already discovered, her

(unde-

Despite advantages of her birth that allow her to mitigate her

epistolary ineptness, her shyness prevents her from her writing duties;

she

is

unable to pick appropriate paper; her poetic diction

overly observant of literary primers; and her handwriting

is

is

clumsy and

out-of-date.

The production of her first letter to Genji shows her problems with love communiques: “More and more confused, she was not capable of She set [her poem] down putting together the most ordinary notes. on paper so old that the purple had faded to an alkaline gray. The hand .

was

a

strong one

all

.

.

the same, in an old-fashioned style, the lines straight

and prim” (121). As an emblematic argument of her worth, the letter fails in content and presentation. Another attempt to achieve an ideal mix of appropriate epistolary elements results in a New Year’s composition of letter, pletely.

Of

poem, clumsy old hamper, and robe

the written portion, “nothing about

com-

that miscarries

it

suggested feminine

elegance” and of the robe, “every stitch and line seemed to

insist

on

a

peculiar lack of distinction” (128). This careful compilation of calligraphy, paper, words, and precious textile functions, unfortunately for the Princess, as an accurate sign.

The

multivalency of her symbolic

letters

CYNTHIA HO

144

plays to her advantage

and allows room for Genji to construct

own

his

meaning. Throughout the monogatari the Princess only retains some re-

manage to evoke in Genji reverberations of her aristocratic lineage and good training. Genji’s comment on her old-fashioned diction, which he si-

spectability because her

wholly inadequate

multaneously ridicules and esteems

style

unable to rid

is

itself

an aristocratic value,

as

ample: ‘“A most courtly and elegant

letters nevertheless

lady,’ said

mire

this

demonstrated

at times, lingers as a

Another of letter, also

The

tenacious fidelity”’ (389).

him

Akashi Lady’s powerful, fecund

suitability.

a

royalty,

her

of the

poem

offends her.

letters

and expose

witness

equal to the task.

man

the old

.

.

finally

.Though he would answered

in

Norma

contemptuous “vacuous non-

she personally reply, her father finally substitutes: avail.

as ac-

to the Lady, choosing

first letter

Although aware

her rooms and urged haste, but to no

un-

demonstrates again the risk of

Field suggests that her careful reading of the sense’’

a

power of the

walnut-colored paper from Korea (258), but she does not answer. 37

am

The difference, however, is the The romance with the Akashi

a highly epistolary affair that

interpretation. Genji takes pains with his

I

36

hesitant to respond

this case,

curately as those of the Safflower Princess.

Lady becomes

Princess’s very

Genji’s ladies, aware of the delicate symbolic

through her correspondence. In

herselt

sleeves.

somewhat grudgingly ad-

powerful subtext.

begins her relationship with

one ex-

Genji. ‘Her conservative

of Chinese robes and wet

rather conservative person myself, and must

is

that

“The

essential that

it is

old

man

rushed to

She thought her hand quite un-

certainly have

her place. ...

It

was

wished in the

it

otherwise,

most uncom-

promisingly old-fashioned hard, on sturdy Michinoku paper; but there was

something spruce and dashing about it too. Yes, ‘forward’ was the proper word” (259). Genji makes the opposite initial error from the one he makes with the Safflower Princess. Whereas with the former he overvalues, with the Akashi Lady he undervalues. To his second letter, the Akashi Lady’s

poem his

is

a fitting response,

denying the gentleman’s sentiments yet echoing

words. Yet despite her provincial origins, she

vated and artistically talented

women

in

one of the most cultiGenji and excels in calligraphy, is

music, and poetry, the three most important accomplishments required of a

court

lady.

poetry on

a

As many scholars have pointed out, the Akashi Lady composes wider range of occasions and topoi than any other character.

Haruo Shirane

notes,

and the court she

is

“But though her cultivation

is

recognized by Genji

never permitted to act with the freedom and dignity

commensurate with her achievements.” 38 She nevertheless maintains her powerful pen throughout the text. On his New Year’s visit to all of his ladies,

leads

Genji sees her elegant jottings and their evocation of

him

to

spend the night with her (413).

a radiant

joy

— WORDS ALONE CANNOT EXPRESS Like the Akashi Lady, the

her desirability

as a

Rokujo

145

form defines

Lady’s fine epistolary

female lover. Genji and the Rokujo Lady share the

most turbulent relationship of all of Genji’s couplings, exacerbated by troubling issues of communication. The possibility lurks within any dialectic exchange that, despite even superb skill, persuasion on one or both sides will

Musing on one of the Rokujo

fail.

Lady’s letters, Genji performs just

such an appreciative yet truant reading: “The hand was the very best he

knew.

was

It

ladies there

a difficult

who

was none

sideration and

none

world, which refused to give satisfaction. Among his

to

could be dismissed

whom

he could give

completely beneath con-

as

his

whole love”(167). What

the Lady had clearly intended as a stable sign of loving interest provides

him

instead with a platform for

ladies in his

life, a

numerous

all

the other fine

reading she might never have expected. The love letters

of the Rokujo Lady are dynamic,

compared

associations to

to the static letters

communicate

alive,

of the

Lais,

and somewhat mysterious when

whose meanings never go

astray

While the Akashi Lady is noted for her poetic achievements, the Rokujo Lady excels in her discrimination and or

to

fail

calligraphy:

ment.

.

.

.

“She had long been famous

She was

deniably superior

cannot

accurately.

solidify

a lady skill

for

her subtlety and refine-

of almost too good taste”(174). Despite her un-

at

creating a compelling symbolic message, she

her position with Genji. Her discourses of desire repulsed,

the impulse to speak surges out around the convention of letters, and

most

Genji’s inattentiveness to this

elegant, cultivated,

communicators explains her ghostly emanations.

him an

3"

and

sensitive

of

After Aoi’s death, the

composed epistle “on dark bluegray paper attached to a half-opened bud of chrysanthemum. In the best more beauof taste, he thought. The hand was that of the Rokujo Lady tiful than ever” (173). The message is on paper the color of mourning robes and of nun’s garb, signifying the sender and receiver’s unity of mood; the enclosed chrysanthemum tokens the homophone in line 2, “hear,” which reverberates with her sentiment that “these autumn skies make it impossible for me to be silent” (173). Again, the two are figuratively bound together in a web of words, one speaking, the other implored to hear. As a

Rokujo Lady

sends

evocatively

.

“consciously staged utterance” her letter

is

superb.

4"

And

.

.

yet this message,

no subversive elements should interfere, does not effect. Genji “wanted to fling the note away from him,

so tightly scripted that

have

its

hoped

but could not.

for It

seemed

to

him

altogether too disingenuous” (173). Field

argues convincingly that the very elegance and aggressiveness of the letter defeats

41 it.

The Lady

realizes

she very uncharacteristically

her gamble, for

—

for the love

“waited until she was alone to read the

meaning

all

too clearly” (173).

The

when

she receives the reply,

communications

letter.

scene in

in this text

Her conscience told her his which Genji calls on her at

CYNTHIA HO

146

the temporary shrine epitomizes their highly wrought, symbolic inter-

changes. When she intends to

and pursues

her: “it

become

would seem

a

nun, Genji turns the tables on her,

that even

now

he urged her to change her

plans”(188). Using a branch of the sacred tree and an evocative

argues ironically for the compatibility between

urged on him. His religious

sensibility

is

them

in accord

that she

two

these

The

had

earlier

with her own: “With

heart unchanging as this evergreen / This sacred tree,

gate” (187).

poem he

enter the sacred

I

love letters’ ultimate inability to bridge the separation in

peerless writers brings

them

the Lady are both rendered speech/letterless: ings for each other.

.

.

and no words could

when

they part, “Their feel-

had run the whole range of sorrows and

.

suffice for

all

and

to an unusual impasse: Genji

irritations,

they wanted to say to each other.

.

.

.

Perhaps because their feelings were in such tumult, they found that the

poems they might have exchanged were eluding them”(188). Here, symbolic centrality of the

tion.

laid bare: the

is

reflected in the collapse of

communica-

’

s

love relationships

Even though they do eventually write

respondence, elegant,

her

is

letter in Genji

lovers’ essential incompatibility

is

again, the love, like their cor-

Her

too ambiguous to survive.

becomes “cold and austere”

own

initiative”

when he

is

(233).

lovely calligraphy,

a

long message “replete with

statements of the deepest affection,” the relationship, broken

ment of failed communication, is

an aporia, the

impasse

final

is

experience with her

is

life,

the most intense. While the failure to

Rokujo Lady symbolizes

sity

of the epistolary experience with Murasaki in

resolved.

of Genji’s

the

and

mo-

they have reached

no longer be

clearly the central love

is

state

at their

the symbolic possibilities reach such

self-contradictory meanings that they can

Because Murasaki

The

over (233).

when

still

Although she seeks him out “on

Suma with

at

the

his epistolary

compose with

the impasse of their relationship, the intensignals their

bond

in this

another world. In the mannered, mediated world of Genji and

Murasaki, the continual tension between distance and contact has both aesthetic

and

erotic power. While the

French lovers of the Lais

strive to

be

reunited and forgo the need for mediated communication, the Heian lovers’

union

of the love

intensifies their use

letters. In

the early chapters,

Genji molds the orphaned Murasaki into the perfect wife, and she pleases

him with

all

the aspects of her composition, because she

sion of the ideal female:

come

to resemble his,

“He

though

have

letters

even

left his artless

tle” (559).

Although

a perfect subject for his

life,

signals to the

daughter in

the

all,

his ver-

Her writing had improved. It had was gentler and more ladylike. He con-

it

deavors” (199). Throughout her

one of her

after

smiled.

on having such

gratulated himself

is,

in a

Murasaki proves herself consistently;

Suzako emperor

that

house where the other

first

pedagogical en-

part of the

tale, this

“He

ladies

should not

were so sub-

perfection makes

WORDS ALONE CANNOT EXPRESS Murasaki she

comes

into her

phy or poetic cording to

some of the other

intriguing than

less

own.

creativity,

Norma

4'

While other

Murasaki

Field,

record of her internal journey.”

ladies are

the second part,

noted for their

calligra-

the most intensely introspective. Ac-

is

poems offer a surprisingly revealing The intense emotions that arise out of

“Murasaki 43

ladies, in

147

s

Genji’s marriage to the Third Princess illuminate the centrality of writing in

Genji and Murasaki

tice their writing,

is

her scribbling

with the Third Princess:

down

old

poems

love relationship.

While other

Murasaki actually uses her

An example

herself.

s

that fitted her

the paper on

mood

The

communicate with

which she had

well as this

as

was not the most perfect of poems, perhaps, but point” (555).

also prac-

Genji prepares to spend the night

as

“He took up

letters to

women

jotted

poem of her own.

It

was honest and to the

it

them as Genji goes through the motions of his alliance with the Third Princess. The contrast in two sets of communications is telling. First, in his perfunctory next morning letter pain increases for both of

to the Third Princess, Genji carefully structures the correct missive: elegant

poem

paper, a

token,

to express his satisfaction with the marriage

all

weather.

with delicate and courtly allusions, and

“He

chose white paper and attached

it

a perfectly selected

and

his regret at the

to a sprig

of plum blos-

som. ‘Not heavy enough to block the way between us / The

snow

this

morning

priate, highly

yet distress

me’”

The

(557).

bit as

bad

(558) jars with the perfection of Murasaki. In contrast

charged scene that follows, reminiscent of the

had seen her private poems. While other, the absence

may not be

letters are

He

writing was not perhaps her very best, but

great

charm and

earlier

meant

itself.

44

The

as

he had feared”

is

the emotionally

moment when

to call

he

up the absent

physical:

She slipped her jottings under an inkstone.

The

of

perfectly selected, appro-

conventional components reflect the marriage

Third Princess’s embarrassing reply “every

flurries

subtlety. “I detect a

change

took them up. it

had

in the

a

green

upon the hills / Is autumn come to them? / Is it coming to me?” He wrote beside it, as if he too were at writing practice: “No change do we see in the white of the waterfowl. / Not so constant the lower leaves of hagi”(564).

The

poetic messages

come

alive at that

moment between Murasaki and

Genji: written in the presence of the recipient, they clearly

and directly than could speech

tions have struck their relationship,

itself.

when

When

they have

communicate more

the most intense

become

emo-

wordless, they

turn to reading and writing in each other’s presence. After Murasaki’s death,

Genji particularly remembers

this

evening (724). Despite the conventional

CYNTHIA HO

148

Western epistolary wisdom exemplified by Marie de France, substitute for the beloved, here the act

the presence of the lover

Concerning love with

trasted

tween people

who may

with speech, however, nication

less direct

The

true.

between separated goal,

diated

But

Eliduc,

simply unambiguous

direct speech

Marie

lovers,

tools used also

it is

the

all

this

profoundly true that

more in

is

is

satisfying for that subtlety.

Rokujo Lady

turn

writing

not syn-

fosters the

the most heartfelt, and true expres-

signals the

Genji

s

failure at

emptiness of their

profoundly with

contrasts

force their readers to understand, and in that process

and

letter

in Genji, letters are such care-

Murasaki’s mutual composition and comprehension.

established

Letters are

communication. Separation

less direct

cooperative writing with the

and

moving beyond me-

symbols that their very indirectness

mystery of love. Here, the

the ulti-

during the search for something

onymous with disconnection, however. For fully crafted polyvalent

is

humanly or divine reunion.

separates people through less direct

is

undeniably

is

with the beloved

illustrates true love

to achieve

human

For Murasaki’s

relationship,

this

Lais,

commu-

in maintaining a romantic relationship

static, letters

parties.

and with

sions of love are

contrasted

writing separates people and makes

For the lovers of Marie’s

communication

greater.

when

Milun, Laustic, and Chevrefoil demonstrate the utility of

affairs in

highly evocative, yet

mate

when con-

that connects people, bridging a gap be-

be unable to speak to each other;

letter

.” 45

to the other.

Ellen Peel observes, “Letter writing

medium

a

is

of writing complements, enhances,

—making each doubly “present”

letters,

silence,

that letters

Genji

and

The letters of Genji of communion, love

reestablished.

Notes 1

.

Marie de France, The

Lais of Marie de France, trans.

Joan Ferrante (Durham, The

Tale of Genji,

Knopf, 1991). 2.

trans.

NC:

Labyrinth Press, 1978); Murasaki Shikibu,

Edward G. Seidensticker (New York: Alfred A.

All quotations are taken

Richard Bowring, “The Female Hand The Female Autograph, ed.

Robert Hanning and

Domna

from these in

editions.

HeianJapan:A

First

Reading,” in

Stanton (Chicago: University of Chicago

Press, 1984), p. 53. 3.

Walter Ong, “Latin Language

as a

Renaissance Puberty Rite,” Studies

in

Philology 61 (1959): 106-9. 4.

Karen Cherewatuk and Ulrike Wiethaus, and

the Epistolary

eds.,

Dear

Sister:

Medieval

Women

Genre (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,

1993), pp. 1-4. 5.

For Japanese Diary:

The

womens

Interstices

use of the vernacular, see

Lynne Miyake,

“

The Tosa

of Gender and Criticism” in The Woman’s Hand:

WORDS ALONE CANNOT EXPRESS Gender and Theory

Japanese Women’s Writing, ed. Paul

in

and Janet Walker (Stanford: Stanford University 6.

1964), 7.

10.

Jane Gurkin Altman,

Bowring,

On

p.

1991),

Epistolarity.

of Marie’s

Politics

Poetics,” in In

226.

p.

Approaches

to

a

Form (Columbus: Ohio

p. 4.

53.

European

The

literacy see Brian Stock,

Language and Models

of Interpretation

Implications of Literacy: Written

the Eleventh

in

and Twelfth Centuries

Hanna

(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983), pp. 5-10; and Vollrath, “Oral

Vox

Inti.,

Century Poet, ed. Chantal Marechal

Twelfth

NY: Edwin Mellen,

University Press, 1982), 9.

A

Marie de France:

oj

(Lewiston, 8.

York: Kodansha

187.

p.

Eva Rosenn, “The Sexual and Textual Quest

Gordon Schalow

Press, 1996), p. 50f.

(New

Ivan Morris, The World of the Shining Prince

149

Modes

of Perception in Eleventh

intexts: Orality atid Textuality in the

Century Chronicles,”

Middle Ages, ed. A. N.

in

Doane and

Carol Braun Pasternack (Madison: University ofWisconsin Press, 1993),

p.

102. 11.

Thomas

L.

Reed, Jr., “Glossing the Hazel: Authority, Intention, and

Inter-

pretation in Marie de Frances ‘Chevrefoil,’” Exemplaria 7 (1995): 125.

Reed 12.

discusses the sources familiar to Marie.

David Matthews, “Reading the ity in

Woman

Reading: Culture and

Commod-

Chretien’s ‘Pesme Aventure’ Episode,” Forum for Modern Language

Studies 30(1994): 119.

Women

Lucas,

Western Science

the issue of female education see also Angela

Middle Ages

in the

140; David Noble,

On

A

(New

York:

St.

Martins

Press, 1983), p.

World Without Women: The Christian Clerical Culture of

(New York: Alfred Knopf,

1993), pp. 139 and 142; Dolores

Warwick, “The Marriage of Woman and Werewolf: Poetics of Estrange-

ment

in

Marie de France’s

‘Bisclavret,’” in

and James Thompson Westphal, The

(New York: Burt 13.

Doane and

Pasternack,

Literacy of the Laity in the

p.

183;

Middle Ages

Franklin, 1960), pp.69 and 124.

Alberto Manguel,

A

History of Reading

(New York: Viking

Press, 1996), p.

47. 14.

Morris,

15.

H. Richard Okada, The

p.

177.

Tale of Genji

Figures of Resistance: Language, Poetry

and Other Mid-Heian

1991),

16.

Morris,

183.

17.

In another example, the Priestess

p.

spondence with him

would be rude 18.

in

(Durham, NC: Duke Univer-

28.

sity Press,

p.

Texts,

and Narrating

“was

far

from easy about being

[Genji], but her nurse

and others

in corre-

insisted that

it

to use an intermediary” (287).

Piere Bourdieu, a French theoretician

on

cultural practices, has

argued that

just such symbolic systems express social relations. See Pierre Bourdieu,

The Field of Cultural

Production, ed.

University Press, 1990),

p.

32.

Randal Johnson (New York: Columbia

CYNTHIA HO

150

19.

Nancy Bradley Warren,

“Objects, Possession and Identity in the Lais of

Marie de France,” Romance Language Annual 6 (1994): 189. 20.

On

concepts of nature see Ernst Robert Curtius, European Literature and

the Latin

Middle Ages,

(New

Willard Trask

trans.

York: Pantheon Books,

1953), p.3 1 9; and The Medieval World View of Nature:

(New York:

Joyce Salisbury 21.

An

Earl Miner,

Altman,

Qtd.

23.

One example

in

p.

p. xi.

deviates

from the usual

girl’s

letters

written appeal effectively exploits her fe-

Andrew Cowell, “Deadly letters: ‘Deus ‘Lais’ and The Dangerous Nature of 88(1997): 221-42 also discusses

Hanning and

26.

On

Ferrante,

this

“Women

Narrators in the

Italian Studies

58 (1985): 23;

amanz,’ Marie’s ‘Prologue’ to the the Gloss,” The Romanic Review

lai.

p. 2.

meanings of the swan

“Swan and

in the

Middle Ages, see June Hall McCash,

the Nightingale: Natural Unity in a Hostile

World

in the Lais

M. King-

of Marie de France,” French Studies 49 (1995): 385-396; and A.

“The Swan

horn,

in

Deus

have power, •literally, to get the

of Marie de France,” Stanford French and

25.

Stanford

passive letters in the Lais. In Les

male experience and sorrow. Diana M. Faust,

Faust, p. 22.

CA:

Epistolarity, p. 7.

job done. Here, the young

24.

Essays, ed.

144.

Amanz, Marie demonstrates female

Lais

Book of

Introduction to Japanese Court Poetry (Stanford,

University Press, 1968), 22.

Garland, 1993),

A

Legend and

Literature,” Neophilologus

78 (1994):

509-20. 27.

T. A. Heslop,

“Romanesque

the Shepherds,” in England

Painting and Social Distinction:The in

the Twelfth-Century: Proceedings of the

Harlaxton Symposium (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1990), 28.

Another a

lai,

Le

Fresne, also presents a child

p.

packaged

1988

137. as a

message bundle:

linen garment, an embroidered silk robe (token of the father’s sojourn in

ounce of pure gold / and had a around the rim of the setting”(121-134) all

the crusades), a ring that “contained a

ruby

set in

it

/

with lettering

full

witness to the child’s nobility. Warren, 29.

Magi and

p.

190.

Michelle Freeman notes the significance of the object

shown by

its

phys-

poem. Michelle A. Freeman, “Marie de France’s PoThe Implications for a Feminine Translatio," PMLA

the

ical centrality in

etics

is

of Silence:

99(1984): 867. 30.

The

nightingale

gale,” pp.

discussed in June Hall

is

89-91; and Warren,

p.

McCash, “Swan and

the Nightin-

191. Ovid’s tale of Philomela

is

found

in

Metamorphoses, trans. Rolfe Humphries, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1983), pp.

143-51. Although the bird

nightingale, later tradition identified 31.

Brewser

Fitz,

see

as

not specifically

58 (1979): 185. For an even

Jean

Frappier,

Chevrefeuille,” Annales

De

as

the

France’s Chevrefoil."

fuller discussion

“Contribution

Universitatis

named

such.

“Desire and Interpretation: Marie

Yale French Studies

troversy,

it

is

Saraviensis

au

debat

sur

of this conle

lai

du

6 (1957): 214-224; and

,

WORDS ALONE CANNOT EXPRESS Keith Bushby,

“Ceo

fu

Thomas Reed, “Glossing and Ailinn

twined);

it

(lovers

1

l’escrit”

many

associations:

which

itself,

line 61) Again,”

Chevrefoil

99. In addition, this sign that Tris-

p.

who metamorphosed

invokes the hazel

(

— 15.

the Hazel,”

tan leaves for Iseut signifies

Baile

de

74 (1995): pp.

Philological Quarterly,

32.

summe

la

151

it

recalls the Irish

legend of

to trees

and remain eternally

stands for

wisdom, eloquence,

and poetry, and by further extension writing; and

may

it

as well

connote

measuring device often made of wood, pp. 1 17-18. 33. Emanuel Mickel, “A Reconsideration of the Lais of Marie de France,” the

tally stick, a

Speculum 46 (1971): 39—65. 34.

Sharon Coolidge, “Eliduc and the Iconography of Love,” Mediaeval

Studies

54 (1992): 280-1. 35.

Although Jensen flect

Women and

Illinois Press, Voice: Essays

1989),

later

phenomenon, her comments

failures as

the

1995),

Novel

p. 1.

Ann

re-

Jensen, Writing Love:

1605—1776 (Carbondale: Southern

in France,

Also see Elizabeth Goldsmith, Writing

the

Female

on Epistolary Literature (Boston: Northeastern University Press,

p. viii,

A number in

much

the dynamics of Genji as well. Katharine

Letters,

36.

discusses a

which

of

discusses this type

of Ovidian

letter writer.

have concurred concerning the Safflower Princess’s

critics

an epistolary mistress. See

Norma

Field,

The Splendor of Longing

theTale of Genji (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987),

p.

89;

Aileen Gatten, “'Weird Ladies’: Narrative Strategy in the Genji Monogatari," Journal of the Association of Teachers ofJapanese 20(1975): 40;

Okada,

p.

244; and

Haruo

Shirane, The Bridge

of

Oini Lady presents an excellent counterpoint here letter skills clearly reflect

Richard

Dreams, pp. 33—68. as

The

someone whose bad

her inadequacies.

72.

37.

Splendor of Longing,

38.

Haruo Shirane, p. 83. See also Norma Field, pp. 64-202. A number of critics have discussed her excessive energy. According to Haruo Shirane, “the woman’s hidden impulses do not lose their force but are instead displaced and projected outward in the form of evil or wan-

39.

dering

spirits.

p.

Like repressed impulses, the actions or words of

often alien or incomprehensible to the

or

it

and the knowledge of wasted turbingly 40.

Norma the

from whose body

it

issues,

The Bridge of Dreams, p. 114. To Field, “Excessive energy, fueled by thwarted ambition, vain passion,

may simply be unknown

Norma

woman

a spirit are

memorable

Field,

character.”

to her.”

talents

makes the Rokujo Lady

The Splendor of Longing,

The Splendor of Longing,

p.

p.

a

dis-

56.

54, provides this careful reading

poem. “Consciously staged utterance”

is

of

used by Linda A. Kauffman,

Discourses of Desire: Gender, Genre, and Epistolary Fictions (Ithaca,

NY: Cor-

nell University Press, 1986), p. 25.

41.

The Splendor of Longing,

42.

See for example Hiruo Shirane’s evaluation: “though she and the Fujitsubo

p.

59.

Lady occupy the highest pedestals and stand at the center of the larger plot, neither woman is as fully drawn or as dramatically powerful as many of the

CYNTHIA HO

152

lesser characters.

Murasaki does not become

a

major character

until part

two when she confronts the uncertainty oflove and marriage,” The of Dreams,

p.

113.

43.

Ibid., 182.

44.

Helen Craig McCullough, Brocade by Night: ‘Kokin Wakashu’ and Style in Japanese Classical Poetry (Stanford,

CA:

the

Court

Stanford University Press,

48-52 and 138-9, speaks extensively about the blossoms and snow as an early spring poetic motif.

tradition

of plum

Ellen Peel, “Mediation and Mediators: Letters, Screens and other

Go-Be-

1985), pp.

45.

Bridge

tweens in the

Tale of Genji,” in Approaches to Teaching

Tale of Genji, ed.

Edward Kamens (New York: MLA,

Murasaki Shikibu’s The 1993),

p.

109.

—

CHAPTER

8

“TRUE LOVERS”:

LOVE AND IRONY IN MURASAKI SHIKIBU

AND CHRISTINE DE PIZAN Carol E. Harding

O

ne of The

Tale of Genji

whose

Lady,

women. Rokujo’s

role as

—

tween virtue ca.

fact, to

1000) presents with immaculate detail

few hundred years

ideals. In

kill,

Rokujo

Genji’s other

more

public existence

be empress. The opposi-

Rokujo demonstrate the fine line characters often tread beand vice. Through such ambiguous characters, Lady Murasaki

ciety can be a source a

seen in counterpoint to her

is

the

is

an image of the destructive power of jealousy

highly refined lady, one groomed, in

tions within

(fl.

most memorable characters

jealous spirit attacks, and can even

or of love gone sour as a

s

her Le

of

later,

draws

a

vrais

the very ideals of a so-

de Pizan, half a world and

social decay. Christine

du due des

livre

how

very similar picture of problematic amants

(ca.

1403-5), Christine shows

us a love affair that develops according to the “rules,” only to have the rules

serve to strangle the

The

courts of eleventh-century Heian Japan and fifteenth-century

France shared art

affair.

of love.

a

high regard for

A number

Tale of Genji

and poor

is

not

a

social refinement, including the

ideals are illustrated in livre

du due des

Lady Murasaki’s The vrais

amants. Equally

the thematic treatment of love as the pastime ex-

of refined people. While the is

and

and Christine de Pizan’s Le

evident in both texts clusively

of these

artistic

issue

of

political separation

of rich

key point in these works, the world beyond the court

is

heavily marginalized in courtly literature, and the courts absorption in love affairs that ignore social realities parallels the elitism the courts tended to encourage.

Courtly society idealized love

members of the

elite

were allowed

to love.

in

such

a

way

that

only the

CAROL

154

Amorous

HARDING

E.

refinement, however desirable a social

subjected to a

fair bit

of ironic scrutiny

with authorial ambivalence. The court

gotten victim

of marriage established

polygamous

o(fm

nevertheless

authorial praise mingles often

as

so self-absorbed

it

tends to forget

Lady Murasaki

amor.

one

in Christian tradition are

woman’s

of the

tradition, providing a picture

however

combine

positive in isolation,

in, at best,

ambiguous

The conduct of Genji’s secret son

is

in

for-

side

of the

social (as well as

emo-

displays the

dangers of the system. Both authors emphasize that refined

tional)

is

impinge on their existence. Christine points out

that other social elements that the ideals

is

trait,

complex matrices

ideals,

that culminate

signals for the society.

harmonv

love affairs threatens social

J

named emperor, and Rokujo’s jealous

rivals for Genji’s affection. In

Le

livre

in

both

texts.

spirit kills

du due, the lovers resort to

lies

her

and

subterfuge to avoid discovery by the Lady’s husband; the Lady’s relaxed,

open manner,

that reveals awareness

would

trast,

of her

own

The

to social degeneration shines

to a tension

misbehavior. Virtuous behavior, in con-

further the social contracts and result in

sonal and social relations.

harmonious per-

irony that idealized behavior contributes

through

mantic ideals of both courts, in life.

way

indicative of her clear conscience, gives

fact,

in

both works. The social and ro-

misrepresent the

realities

of court

Christine and Lady Murasaki massage this gap, drawing on the tra-

ditions of cial

European chivalry and Japanese

aesthetics to develop their so-

panoramas. Although Christine may not have seen the text of

Geoffrey de Charny’s Livre de ideas

found

in

hood. Lady Murasaki, unusual ment,

as

she was surely familiar with the

that prescribe the rituals

it

could read both

chevalerie,

classical

well as Ki

where he expresses

and expectations of knight-

among Heian women, knew Chinese and

Chinese and Japanese

no Tsurayuki’s

on

texts

aesthetic refine-

influential preface to the Kokinshu,

his belief in the

emotional foundation of Japanese

poetry.

The

societies

of Heian Japan and medieval France each displayed

a

highly developed, though unique and entirely separate, courtly ethic that

focused attention on specific behaviors and attitudes. refined ethic to hoist their societies

is

evidenced

in the interactions

authors use this

their respective petards

damning consequences of following

ing the

ment

on

The

by

illustrat-

the ethic. Specifically, refine-

between the lover and beloved,

as

well as characters’ expectations regarding the conduct of love relationships.

Even when love

women titudes

affairs are

not exclusive,

as for

Prince Genji,

men and

both clearly expect to see certain courtly, refined virtues. The

of both

men and women

reflect the social restrictions

give their audiences

toward love and their

they labor within.

what they expect and

The

lovers,

at-

however, also

authors in one sense

desire; in

another sense, they

“TRUE LOVERS”

1

55

manipulate the characters' virtues to issue ambiguous signals about accepted values. Both authors use the context of love affairs to examine the

of social

validity

ideals.

To understand the

ideals of love

and

ual love affairs in each text

and look

narrator and characters. But

first let

we must examine

lovers,

commentary

at the

me comment

on the

expectations reflected in each text, because comparing

must be exclusive

norm

(in

individ-

offered by both differing societal

system where love

a

France) to one where controlled promiscuity was the

(in

Japan) can get complicated.

Heian Japan accepted various degrees of sexual freedom for both men and women, varying depending upon rank. Virginity, except perhaps for principal wives, was not a requirement before marriage,

among

within

fatuated,

whether the

builds a vast his

life,

whom

he

is

successful (that

specifically for

and maintains

ladies to affairs,

home

affair

his old

whom

with is,

he becomes in-

He women in

consummated) or

not.

secondary residence for yet other

as a

of obligation. Years

ladies

times that

housing the most important

home

feels a sense

he will send notes to

woman

a

relation-

love affairs

his

many

system. Lady Murasaki pointedly remarks

unusual in never forgetting

is

wide variety of

a

of long-term commitment. Genji conducts

this

common. The

might or might not develop into

ships in addition to the casual affair that sort

affairs

with principal and secondary wives,

tasai,

and unofficial concubines, regularized

official

Genji

and casual

the nobility, while not always approved, were very

Heian system of polygyny, ippu

some

1

simply to

after

even unsuccessful

them know he

let

gotten them. In spite of their numbers, most of Genji’s ladies

has not forfeel particu-

larly blessed in his attentions.

his

by turns admired and condemned, and

Genji’s promiscuity

is

“constancy” toward

all

tification, for

his

women

seems to be merely

a ploy,

at

or

pursuing yet another woman. By the second chapter,

times a

jus-

we

are

numerous little adventures. It might give him a name for frivolity,

told that “he did not escape criticism for

seemed indeed

that his indiscretions

and he did what he could to hide them. But is

the malicious

work of the

gossips)

affairs,

women’s

secret affairs (such

“all

affairs, too,

and

a

not dislike

talk” (20).

these interesting and

then he would be laughed to shame.”

2

Still, it

amusing

Gossips discuss

reputation for excessive promiscuity was detri-

mental for both genders. However,

who do

most

became common

he had refrained entirely from pursuing little

his

as

wrong rumors

we if

learn,

“There

are those

[women]

they are about the right

men”

(Murasaki, 145). Because court circles tolerated a wide degree of promiscuity, the limit

of that tolerance, where conduct moves from promiscuous

to scandalous, reveals

and Christian Europe.

most

tellingly the parallels

between Heian society

CAROL

156

HARDING

E.

The level of acceptable promiscuity in fifteenth-century France was much lower; Christian ideals of chastity and monogamy controlled relaof/m amor were widely disseminated through the stories and songs of the courts, and the “game” of courtly love was taken as seriously as the “game” of the tournament, both symbolic elements of upper-class ideals. 3 While both societies paid close attention to tionships. Nevertheless, the traditions

class

and keeping within proper degrees of rank

France restricted lovers in ways Heian Japan did not. Ex-

ships, Christian

dissolute. is

Men who

was expected.

clusivity

The

“collected”

Christine’s fictional

que Pen

rumor

voix courir /

la

loved

I

My

taken seriously. I

my

only

when he

consequences of beauty played

was

in,

chagrin was so great

trespasses

at

ilz

ordonnance

esmeurent

hearing the rumor

thought

I

on the emperors’

/

(Ce

/ Paroles

I

would

women

fly,

about

4

Genji

die of grief].

becoming pub-

does he truly fear the

his actions.

women

in

France were not sequestered, so physical

a larger role in attracting admirers;

but even

men and women

proper, gra-

so,

above their otherwise

gossip and jealousy can be a threat in both societies, the

French lovers are more endangered by the than by jealous lovers

mon

the prospect of an affair

at

cious behavior could raise both

While

croy que

about which they exchanged gossip that was

such chagrin

Unlike in Japan,

peers.

would-be lover

me pesa / Que de dueil cuiday mourir / Que ma belle Dame amoie” [many people

beautiful Lady, that

rarely experiences lic;

Duke comments, “Si

pesa. / Et de ce tant

noticed the state

how

were dangerous and

are loves absolute enemies.

apperceurent / Plusieurs gens, dont

estre)

Quant j’ouy

women

lady should be careful to ascertain that her

hers alone. In addition, gossip and

peut bien

to pursue love relation-

rivals.

The Duke’s

Lady’s

the spies and gossips,

lozengiers,

honor

beware the spy her husband keeps near

a

jewel to protect, so the

her,

and the Duke wins her

is

love in part because he promises to conduct the affair with keen regard for

her reputation. In one

letter,

the Lady responds to his outpouring of love

by saying, “saches de vray que ou

cas

que m’en requerries ou que j’ap-

perceusse que entente eussiez a chose qui a deshonneur tourner peust, ne a

mal reprouche, jamais n’y avendries” (Letter

that,

should you ask me, or should

I

II,

perceive, that

11.

12-14) [know truly

you might intend some-

thing that could turn to dishonor, or to evil reproach, that

would never

achieve] (Christine, 93).

ma

him,

“Quoy que vous

baise

vie / J’aye voulente n’envie /

soie saine /

De

De

ou embrace, faire

reprouche en toute guise”

embrace you and

kiss

you

— do not

have the will or desire to commit

a

goal

you

Even when she admits the Duke

her private chamber, the Lady does not submit herself cally tells

a

is

(11.

/

fully.

Que

to

She emphati-

jamais jour de

chose villaine / Et dont je ne

2742-47) [even though

may

my life, me open to

believe that ever, any day of

base act that might leave

I

I

TRUE LOVERS” every kind of reproach] (Christine, 102). This

157

unlike most of Genji’s

lady,

conquests, sets the limits to the relationship.

Sexual fulfillment

not part of

is

secrecy of the relationship

of the

lovers. In spite

couples love game, but once the

this

broken, mere rumor

is

loyal to his

one

ried

woman

sets.

However, when her old companion writes

but

is illicit,

it

lady.

their conscience

conduct of the free

this

is

mar-

to the

of the

sin

affair,

Lady to warn her of

all

chaste though

and

their extremity be.

it

Even though

of adultery, they must accept that the gos-

them the worst possible behavior. So, within these two social systems, what attributes contribute most to reputation for refinement in men? With Genji, his physical beauty is one impute

sips will

a

is

His love for

Duke

remains barely acceptable within the limits she

the rumors circulating, societal strictures appear in affect the future

to separate the

not grant him sexual access, the

fact she will

expected to remain chaste and

enough

is

of his major tial

assets,

impression.

He

dancer.

to

but

He

ini-

an accomplished musician, poet, calligrapher, and

is

own and

sensitive to his

is

tuned behavior enhances the

his tasteful, finely

and

others’ emotions; his courtesy

attention to the details of propriety are keen; and his unique brand of con-

stancy to his

many women

Murasaki’s characters ships, a lack

reveals an unusual sense

condemn,

for

men

in general, fickleness in relation-

of consideration for others, obstinacy,

and jealousy openly displayed. Genji’s sonYugiri to his

love and praised for his constancy;

first

taking only one wife (not by the wife, role),

which

We

that

parallel

noblemen

rewarded for

still,

is

he

is

later

his loyalty

berated for

very happy with her solo

Yugiri

like

rarely see the

rests

on

admires some physical pursuits,

prowess

courts.

We

his strength is

his artistic

should also note that

and phrases, and

know

also to

even Genji admits

—

desire.

Heian court expected of its

excels, involved the extensive

to

the court

two protagonists and the two Genji, like most Heian men, never has to associates,

knowledge of and

use poetry, especially the 31 -syllable waka form.

were expected

His

in dance, poetry,

women. While

in the

of unfulfilled

specific skill a “refined”

which Genji

taste in

like equestrian archery,

major difference

a

good

achievements

as a courtier.

(Murasaki, 581). This lack of emphasis on physi-

suffer the physical side effects

One

the expectations of their rank,

Heian nobleman “working,” except

painting, dress, and, of course, great

such are not

fulfill

concerns with propriety.

reputation in the world

in

who

is

selfishness, dishonesty,

and ends up acceptably dividing himself between two. Heian society

demands

cal

of responsibility. Lady

the poetic tradition well

Men

enough

and

and

ability to

women

alike

to recognize lines

be able to compose on the spot using catch phrases

from other poems. Consider the following interchange between Genji and his

new

lady,Yugao:

CAROL

158

“This

is

a

‘And did

[Now he

it

does

it

I

must

spontaneously composes

say that

it

seems

like a

poem:]

a

men of old, me so new and

confuse them too, the

This road through the dawn, for

How

HARDING

novel adventure, [says Genji], and

of trouble.

lot

E.

seem

to

strange’

you?”

She turned shyly away.

“And is the moon, unsure of the hills it approaches, Foredoomed to lose its way in the empty skies?” “I

am

afraid” (Murasaki, 68-69).

much more ob-

In Japanese, of course, the syllable count and wordplay are vious, but even in English

we

unclear pathway to build her

moon)

will

become

can see the lady use Genji’s references to an

own poem

expressing her fears that she (the

through conducting

lost

caught up in vague, foreshadowing

fears,

this affair

with him. Although

both poets exhibit

a sense

no aware, a term referring to the ability of a person to be tionally,

and aware

is

a

key indicator of refined

of mono

moved emo-

sensibilities in the

Heian

some Japanese

ideals:

court.

Refinement physical beauty,

men

for

in the

conforming

and polite demeanor serve itary training

Duke,

parallels

to courtly tastes in dress

as initial

and performance

than the Japanese.

French court

are

The French

and entertainment,

points of judgment. Additionally, mil-

more important

for the

court also prized poetic

through

like Genji, reveals his sensitivity

letters

French courtier

skills.

Christine’s

and poetry, display-

ing the appropriate social accomplishments, constancy and concern for his Lady.

We

see 19 lyrics inserted in the Duke’s narrative (with

pended). Eighteen of the

poems

are his,

which,

as

Thelma

more ap-

Fenster notes in

her introduction to the text, enhances and reinforces his lover persona. 5 Christine uses a wide variety of forms, illustrate

some with

the Duke’s refined abilities as poet,

And what his friends

is

about refinement for

above

all

submissive,

all

virtuoso techniques, to

inspired by his Lady.

women? The ideal woman to Genji and but many of the admired male accom-

plishments, such as poetry, calligraphy, music, and visual

mired

whom thing.

in

women.

Genji

Genji’s close friend describes

later in fact appropriates):

She did not want

my

to be guilty

taste, are also

one of his

“She served

me

women

ad-

(Yugao,

diligently in every-

of the smallest thing that might go

had

at first

thought her rather strong-willed, but she

proved to be docile and

pliant.

She thought constantly about hiding her

against

less

wishes.

I

me off, and she did what causing me embarrassment. She

favorable qualities, afraid that they might put

she could to avoid displaying herself and

— “TRUE LOVERS was

model of devotion.

a

159

which

except, he goes on, her jealousy (Murasaki, 27-28), unless

it

extreme.

is

The venomous

illness in

for this spirit

excessive

shyness,

defect the

is

negative female attri-

physical and behavioral eccentricities, blandness (that

no strong

a

credited with caus-

is

women. Other

impertinence, excessive

include

butes

three of Genji’s

not

is

of Genji’s Rokujo Lady

spirit

major example of jealousy gone amok, ing serious

wrong with her”

In a word, there was nothing

is,

forwardness,

no strong

faults yet

and provinciality (eccentricity compounded by

virtues either),

ignorance of the proprieties). Genji’s secondary wife, Murasaki (not to be confused with the author,

Lady Murasaki), Murasaki

is

is

put forward

as his

own

into his household; from the

first,

Genji has plans for her: “What

he thinks, “if he could take her into

And

this

is

109).

ladies

Although Genji pursues

a

his

house and make her

a delight,”

his ideal!”

what he does; he oversees her educa-

precisely

beginning with “Young

tion,

mate. Ten-year-old

kidnapped by Genji and surreptitiously brought

essentially

(Murasaki, 90).

ideal, perfect

should do

as

they are told” (Murasaki,

number of other

relationships,

Murasaki

slowly grows on him, and she inspires a greater degree of fidelity in

woman

than any other Christine’s

Genji’s ladies,

is

him

able to do.

Duke describes his Lady’s virtues at length, and as with we also see her personality in her letters and poems. She is,

of course, beautiful, well bred, and respected, noble but not arrogant

The Lady responds

151-58). in

mind

at

not allow

it

ening

him

to pine

away once she

reject Genji,

is

though he

convinced of suffers

often seems, their lack of good taste illness.)

the Lady

is

own honor

keeping her

every stage of the relationship. She does possess pity and will

(When women and,

carefully to his love,

(11.

keenly their lack of pity

—he does not

Because lovesickness threatens the Duke’s

to

some extent constrained

cousin and intermediary

tells

Dieu, pas ne souffrist / Q’un amer, / Et que on

la

her that “Si tel

life, it

jone enfant

seems

as if

The Duke’s

venoit ennorter / Que, pour soffrist /

devroit blasmer / Se de

2039-44) [he had come there

suffer life-threat-

to accept his love. la

and honor.

his love

A mort

ma mort

pour

la

trop

cause estoit”

(11.

to exhort her, for God’s sake, not to suffer

young person might die from loving her so much, and that she should be blamed if she were the cause of my death] (Christine, 85). This image of the lady as physician and healer comes directly from the courtly love tradition, but is twisted here into a means of persuasion. The that such a very

Lady must accept

this

healing role or suffer “blame”

—

a

diminution of her

honor and an indication of a lack of womanly compassion. Such a reduction of the healer metaphor to a rhetorical tool, or even a power play, raises questions about the relationship, questions reinforced by the Lady’s ulti-

mate

fate.

CAROL

160

The

HARDING

E.

process of falling in love and beginning a love relationship reveals

certain tensions surrounding propriety in both societies.

blewomen secluded behind

make an exploratory

amined minutely: how

the paper folded,

is

ing devotion to

and musical

Norma

details’’ as

preference.’’

6

man

decides she

will contrive a

companions

woman’s

way

—of

woman

to visit the lady

possesses the

is

(especially if

Where

is

but loudly, in to continue or

he

Genji) he

is

affair.

A

woman’s

he can win them over,

the lady in the French court

Heian lady

refusal, the

man

and consummate the

practically sealed.

power of

subtly,

encourages the

are often the key to a man’s access; if fate

wit,

of calligraphy, of flo-

dress,

These languages speak

worth pursuing

is

and

sensitivity

is

Field describes the court’s “excruciat-

“other languages

Heian court. Whether the

not, if a

the

he might write

what type and color paper

poem show

the calligraphy refined, does the

is

the scent agreeable? Critic

the

in conversation or

poem. Her answers, oral or written, often course of the relationship. Men’s and women’s letters are ex-

determine the

ral

engage her

visit to

always accompanied by a

a letter,

used,

only

officially accessible

how did love affairs ever begin? Generally, man hearing about a woman; he then might

begin with the

affairs

and screens,

and husbands,

to their fathers

Heian

curtains

With Heian no-

is

often afforded

op-

little

portunity to refuse.

The Western

tradition

of the beloved has

little

of love entering through the eyes upon the sight

to-face encounter, in

Heian

woman

it is

of the

(usually

Heian

place in

tradition

a

man

of the open, face-

society; instead

we

see the furtive kaimami, glimpses

spying on

a

woman)

through

are stolen

gaps in hedges, fences, or curtains. Genji’s relationships with Fujitsubo (discussed below)

—whom he saw

—and Murasaki

near

sion.

are

as a

among

love

great

when

a

him

kept

his father

the few exceptions to the rule of seclu-

Even with Murasaki, however,

(Murasaki, 87-88). Genji’s

boy because

small

Genji’s

first

nephew Kashiwagi

view of her

kaimami

is

catches a glimpse of his

misbehaving kitten opened the

princess’s

curtains

(Murasaki, 584). Genji’s sonYugiri and Kumoinokari are devoted cousins

brought up in their grandparents’ berated by the

after

some

older. Carelessness can bring

of the emperor’s

together,

festivals

difficulty,

about an

becomes

affair in yet

one way “that

deed

it

a lady invited

results in his first

tell

weeks

that she

later.

is

no

they grow

his wife) as

another way:

her

own

left

one

after

open, he observes

new

this

downfall” (Murasaki, 151), and in-

encounter with Oborozukiyo,

to Genji’s half-brother, the

can

is

Genji, slightly drunk, wanders around the dark

palace looking for a companion. Finding a door is

and the grandmother

father for allowing Yugiri to maintain contact with

girl’s

Kumoinokari (who,

home

who

is

betrothed

emperor. From her “delicate” voice, Genji

servant, but

he has no precise idea

who

she

is

until

— “TRUE LOVERS”

161

Since interaction between the sexes was severely restricted

woman

the extent that just seeing a

could be construed

judgment

dence provided by

color combinations, musical

A

other dimensions. discretion

is

double standard does

necessary unless the

arose from the physical eviskill,

knowledge of protocol added

such. Maturity, wit, tact, dignity, and

woman

and yet

men and women, and

exist for is

to

rape

as visual

often the only bases for forming a letters, scent,

—even

officially

named

as the

man’s

wife or concubine.

Perhaps one way to demonstrate the ideal of refinement for Heian

examine

fairs is to

its

opposite. Aileen Gatten in her article

“Weird

af-

Ladies:

Narrative Strategy in the Genji Monogatari" discusses the situations of several distinctly

unrefined

Suetsumuhana

are

women 8 The .

elderly Naishi

both products of courtly

where one might expect courtly rules. Naishi, in

to find “yokels”

who

and the impoverished not the provinces

society,

ignorance of

live in blissful

has held a position at the emperor’s palace for

fact,

Her eccentricity is that she fails to act her age and goes about seducing young men. Gatten explains: “Twenty or thirty years earlier, she would have been a model court lady: she is attractive, a superlative biwa

years.

player, a fashionable dresser, is

also

ally

and

is

prompt

composing poetic

promiscuous; but that would hardly have been noticed

Heian court.

tolerant

.

.

.

But what

twenty-five-year-old will not do for a Genji

at

calls

‘very old indeed’”

—

is

is

at

She

the sexu-

acceptable behavior for a

woman whom

in her late fifties

refined accomplishments, Naishi

replies.

9 .

the narrator of the

So, in spite of her other

comically “outrageous” because she

woman to behave. Suetsumuhana, however, is a young woman and thus should receive overtures from suitors gracefully. An orphan now, raised by a very strict, behave

will not

like the

court expects an old

old-fashioned father, her childish shyness

She even

position.

behavior .”

10

Her

and calligraphy

fails

to answer

clothing

taste in

is

poems and is

are “no-nonsense,” “clumsy,”

but

when

retains, in spite

letters,

pathetic

The Rokujo Lady

father’s

of her shortcomings,

a

a difficult

Genji

As

is

his

air

about her,

own house

she

fully

both the coquettish

at a

young age

to the

expected to be named empress once her hushis early death,

and she has

time reconciling her pride with her new, reduced position.

attracted to her

critic

romantic

12

band assumed the throne. Fate intervened with had

decaying house, Suet-

offers a strong tragic contrast to

Rokujo

11 .

.

Naishi and the pathetic Suetsumuhana. Married Prince,

tasteless

and very old-fashioned

Genji removes her from the romantic ruins to

becomes merely

Crown

very “rude,

outlandishly outdated and her paper

Gatten notes that while she resides in her

sumuhana

not suited to her independent

Andrew

by her accomplishments, but refuses to marry

her.

Pekarik observed, because they both rank so highly,

a

CAROL

162

HARDING

E.

marriage would not only have been possible but even desirable. Even

emperor

Genji’s

him

father berates

were an ordinary person

”

13

for treating

Rokujo “as

and the word the emperor uses

demonstrates devotion and

and exquisite

older]

uing to

visit

her

sentment and

proud

when he no

frustration.

,” 14 .

Rokujo

the ghostly attacks

when

is

is

affirmed

Rokujo’s pride

is

perhaps her

to retire

from the

own

more

active

(Naishi

women who

To look Bargen

in

at

does so

her book

A

a

from

their

do not, becomes, then,

There

exchanges with Genji, one of

a

Spirit Possession in

it

The

Tale of Genji

in fact, not originating in as

Rokujo

an expression of their unhappi-

political

developed by

.” 18

varies,” she argues,

Spirit possession

women “to

[mono no

counter male

“offers these desperate

women

normally submissive personae and

a

a

strate-

momen-

chance to

"

Rokujo, because she possesses Aoi, Murasaki, and the Third Princess

power.”

1

symbolic rather than actual possessor, the one

embodies the

traits

the other

women

desire to claim for

2"

is

an aggressiveness associated with

hegemony of Heian men and sustain.

one of the

certainly

is

in

Whichever way one wishes to see the mono no ke episodes, relationship with Rokujo still emerges as a dangerous symbol.

themselves. Genji’s

Bowring

was provided one outlet

of their discontent

and

modicum of “spiritual

literally

is,

women

strength and independence that

who

feels guilty

17

social

is

of empowerment,” for

regain a

He

scholar Richard

Rokujo

.

Woman’s Weapon:

in this case a strategy

tary reprieve”

though

this battle,

.

specific nature

underlying source

gies

Rokujo her-

the message of spirit possession in a different way, Doris G.

“Although the

is

16

initiates letter

but instead in the “possessed”

ke]

wife that

another); not only does her spirit seek

offers the idea that the possession

ness.

The

woman

Heian

is

vengeance, but Rokujo often the few

first

but she alone makes the painful decision

capital after this episode.

women

when Rokujo’s

Genji’s

worst punishment.

be active rather than passive

to

aggravate her re-

understandably appalled, but

1 '’

suggests that in her jealousy the

which

on

Genji ultimately loses

as

treatment of Rokujo,

his

visits

she later realizes what has happened. Symbolically,

her superiority

about

by contin-

for her superiority

This punishment backfires

.

spirit rebels, resulting in

also aghast

in a

longer loves her. The

contribute to her death. Genji is

him

Her age [she is six years way that is impossible with

are either younger, inferior [in rank], unattractive, or

trained by himself. Genji punishes

“its

Pekarik argues that “Genji

sensitivity.

intimidate

taste

who

other loves

self

be

himself somewhat inferior in her presence.

feels

his

to

her resentment, especially since his reputation with other

in

women

to describe

Rokujo seems

Genji’s involvement carries negative connotations. justified

casually as if she

it

that

is

threatening to the

the courtly system they have created and

“TRUE LOVERS”

163

For Naishi, Suetsumuhana, and Rokujo, the court’s rules of behavior,

of refinement, contribute to

their ethic

grotesquerie. Naishi

acting like

preparing herself for her next Gcnji offers us examples of a

who

than Naishi,

fully into a relationship

her rank, but she tle

her to an

life,

those

The

who

is

not trying to extend her youth; the

young woman, should be and fulfill with good taste all

able to glide grace-

a

the expectations of

woefully ill-prepared. Rokujo’s rank and talents enti-

official,

recognized position in Genji’s

courtly ethic provides

fall

coquettes. Naishi should be

number of successful women, some younger

tence on maintaining a clandestine reprisal.

young

cut their hair and retire to contemplate the Buddhist

Suetsumuhana,

scriptures.

sense of either comic or tragic

held up to ridicule since the court does not ap-

is

women

prove of elderly

a

affair results in a

lite,

and Genji’s

insis-

an equally clandestine

very specific set of expectations and

short are punished; the court “rules” are inflexible, often

cruelly or dangerously so. Lady Murasaki does not criticize the courts

highly evolved standards of refinement overtly, in fact she celebrates them repeatedly in her pictures of court life, but she certainly presents the vic-

Haruo Shirane sug-

tims with the sympathy of a detached observer. Critic

with Rokujo’s ghostly reappearance

gests that

later in

the novel, “the

no longer be contained or assuaged, and that Genji’s world and the polygamous ideals supporting it have de21 This theme ot deterioration carries through teriorated beyond repair .” in the text’s governing symbols. The predominant season ot the work is hostility [her spirit] represents can

autumn,

traditionally associated with degeneration; Genji’s

own

symbolic

winter moon.

The

principal

association

with an even

is

tragedy of the text

is

later

season

—

a

Genji’s loss of his wife Murasaki,

who

nected with spring, and the overall triumph of autumn to parallel the author’s misgivings about court values.

Richard Bowring,

in his study

of Lady Murasaki’s

is

closely

in the text

con-

seems

diary, suggests that

the author was at least ambivalent toward the Heian court, though to take this too far

“would not want tive dislike

of

the Genji,

which

[it].”

and which took excellence.” tor y

—an

where

22

He

and argue

Murasaki had an ac-

continues that “the act of producing such

implicitly criticized the

as its

that

hero

In Genji

a

world

as

we

it

work

a

as

was by comparison

taboo-breaker, was the subversive gesture par

we have

a reflection

of history, but not actual his-

showing beauty and elegance 23 Lady were more the norm

idealized picture of court behavior,

in reality

drunken and rude

men

.

Murasaki’s diary describes several scenes with disagreeably drunken court 24 And with respect to the issue of courtly refinement, Bowring arnobles .

gues that

this

“highly

artificial society,”

introverted consciousness that fed

minute

details

on

which itself.’

of dress and deportment led to

isolated

its

women “bred

an

Obsessive emphasis on the a standard that

only fictional

CAROL

164

characters

—

existence”

even they

if

2(1

—could

E.

HARDING

consistently meet. The “sorrow of human

Motoori Norinaga saw

that eighteenth-century critic

comes not only from an awareness of the

Genji

but also

human

think from

I

in the

of existence,

fleeting nature

failure to celebrate the ordinary, the reality

rather than the dream.

The

love affair in Le

livre

The Duke

as a

relationships.

gone looking

for

du due develops similarly to Genji’s important

young man

His problem, however, was

it.

hance encore /

Me

tenoit

/ Arrester, qui

que

j’esleusse”

grip, so that

has wished to be in love, indeed

ou temps de

years. Similar to Genji’s

draws

(which of course

(11.

conversational

means

to love, his

skill.

.

.

Mais En-

I

might

immaturity blinds him, for

his

Lady

whom

someone he had known

is

because of her gracious manner, her beauty

New

the greater due to his

As the

affair

Eyes of Love), and her

develops, his love increases not only by

of further visits but also through their exchanges of letters

poems, again

Heian

The Duke

like

for

incremental attraction to Murasaki, the Duke’s

his attention is all

.

que nulle part ne sceusse 61-64) [Childhood still held me in its

could not alight in any one place, no matter

I

once he does succumb finally

youth; “

lore, / Si

have chosen] (Christine, 48). Interestingly,

Lady

his

and

affairs.

arranges to have his family host a festival of jousting and

other entertainments to which the Lady can safely be invited

as

one

among others. In a situation oddly reminiscent of the Heian kaimami, the Duke even makes bathing a refined occasion, during which he finagles a than usual view of his Lady:

fuller

chauffer ces estuves, / /

La couvenoit que

ne

me

dehaittoit”

En

“Un jour

blanc paveillons

les

faisoie

ordonner

/ Baings, et

cuves / Asseoir en belle place.

Quant ma Dame ou baing estoit, / Qui 1296-1302) [One day ordered baths and had

j’alasse /

(11.

I

pas

the

water heated and the tubs placed in an attractive spot inside white pavilions. had to go there just when my Lady was in the bath, which didn’t I

me

sadden

a bit] (Christine, 70).

The Lady

stays

on

parture nears, the danger of long-term exposure says,“Ainsi alors m’acointay /

De

pemble, / Car depuis

la

ain^ois.

.

.

.

fus, /

my

Desir, mais acointe ay / paisible

/ Jolie joye

introduction to

since that time the peaceable, I

becomes

to

happy joy disappeared

that she will accept him, but

completely assuage is

a

failli

/

her de-

The Duke lui

dur

et

Qu’avoie

that

I

[I

Recame to

painful, for

had had be-

spent a long time in that state without daring to ask for mercy,

Lady and learns

him,

as

Eu en

him was hard and

out of fear of rejection] (Christine, 71). Soon the his

clear.

Four doubtance de refus” (11.1387-1400)

Desire then, but

fore. ...

month;

Et longuement en ce point, / Sans ce que j’osasse point /

querir mercisje

know

lors

for a

paragon.

He

his

painful

Desire. The

Duke

of course she never agrees

Duke,

never demands more from

reveals his love to

as

his lady

Christine portrays

than she can give

“TRUE LOVERS” honorably;

home

165

staying

to be close to her, giving rise to gossip. In part to belay the rumors,

but also “Pour los

acquerre”

et vaillance

3381)

(1.

(to

acquire praise and

coming

valor”] (Christine, 129), he travels abroad in the

knight must maintain his reputation on the

tian

own by

the most, he risks her reputation and his

at

of battle

field

The Chris-

years.

as well as in

the court.

working

definitions of

some

aspects

may

differ.

two

societies,

though the

Constancy and

fidelity are

Several ideals of love, then, are shared in these

key to the maintenance of a relationship. Noble rank and gracious behavior

on the

part of both

man and woman

are necessary.

An

accumulation of

refined accomplishments, ranging from physical prowess to color sensitivity,

enhance

a person’s attractiveness.

And, not

concern

least,

and reputation of the beloved and oneself contributes

Men

affair.

women who

and

mundane crowd

as

long

as

both

love, in

to a

for the

honor

well-conducted

above the

societies, are raised

the proprieties are maintained. At the same time

they celebrate amorous behavior, however, both Lady Murasaki and

as

Christine raise questions about their characters’ conduct.

Because Genji

is

he transgresses are

all

the

more

noticeable.

to Fujitsubo

is

one of the key

Though we approve of his

factors in Genji’s attraction to her.

who

the niece of Fujitsubo, Genji’s father’s concubine

duces (Murasaki, 100). ity

The

Murasaki

Genji secretly se-

becomes redolent with

story

at-

of his devotion her resemblance

to Murasaki, even at the height

tachment

is

generally presented in such a favorable light, the times

Genji’s

ambigu-

toward, and personal ambivalence about, his love for his father’s

who

concubine,

who

niece,

looked

like his

own

mother, and

strikingly resembles both. This

is

his love for Fujitsubo’s

made

clear after Fujitsubo’s

death: “[Murasaki’s] hair and profile called up most wonderfully the image

of Fujitsubo, and 359).

this

Is

combined

ideal?

his father’s empress,

of bounds. risks

was once again whole and undivided” (Murasaki,

“whole and undivided” love

his imaginary,

becomes

his love

Still,

Because Fujitsubo

a

(after

Genji seduces her)

any further relationship with her

Genji’s attraction to her

exposure to see her, and she

coming

for Murasaki, for Fujitsubo, or for

is

at a

totally

out

so strong that he several times

finally, as a

Buddhist nun to keep him

is

widow,

takes the step of be-

distance and sustain her public

honor. Genji both despairs because of his love for her and admires her dedication to her dignity and position. Genji’s love for his father’s wife is clearly tion.

one of the

Genji

is

relationships that calls the refined love ethic into ques-

unmistakably, seriously in love, but

able about this attachment. Politically, for the emperor’s, take.

The

and

religious

this child later

it

results in Genji’s

and

feel

uncomfort-

son being taken

becomes emperor based on

element reinforces

Genji’s questionable behavior

we must

ideals.

this

ambiguity

Not only does

as

it

this

mis-

emphasizes

Fujitsubo escape

CAROL

166

HARDING

E.

when he

into religion, but the son abdicates as soon as he can

inadvertently

discovers the truth about his parentage to spend the remainder of his in penitential religious devotions.

Genji alone does not

The

members of

three

fears exposure,

ther pointed

when

and

is

this relationship

the only

compared with the

is

one where

himself becomes fur-

his inability to control

nephew Kashiwagi and

his

this “family,”

retire into religion.

relationship Genji pursues with Fujitsubo

he truly

tween

Of the

later

pursuing

this affair.

one be-

the Third Princess, Genji’s childlike

principal wife in his later years. Kashiwagi literally dies of the feels after

life

shame he

Although not Genji’s son, Kashiwagi admires

and respects him, and the younger man’s

inability to sustain the public

conventions once Genji knows of the

sends Kashiwagi into a decline.

Significantly, this illness like

affair

more connected

is

to Genji than to the lady,

with Christine’s Duke. Genji, understandably upset

recognizes that,

first,

his affection for

sentment, and second, that his

The author

own

gives us a glimpse at

perhaps indirectly criticizing

him

Kashiwagi

with Fujitsubo. In addition, Genji’s

own

affair,

Genji’s child believed to be the emperor’s, threat

27 .

for the

We

is

not above criticism.

what Genji was spared for his

can extend the idea that love

the betrayal, also

stronger than his re-

is

past behavior

at

as a

young man,

remorse over

lesser

un-

especially since

it

his affair

results

in

a politically destabilizing

is

itself

is

politically threatening,

danger surfaces in the emperor’s original love for Genji’s mother,

a

woman without political standing in the court who threatens to supplant the women from more powerful families 28 Many of the problems Genji encounters stem from the jealousy of his father’s highborn consort Kokiden, and her family, who fear the emperor’s .

favoritism with Genji will lead to Kokiden’s son being overlooked as successor.

Even

after

Genji

is

“demoted”

to

commoner

mity follows him. This theme carries through when,

becomes empress; Heian men often used power. The

later,

Kokiden’s en-

Genji’s daughter

their female relatives to amass

of the empress Lady Murasaki served

real-life father

in her diaries as delirious

status,

with joy

when

his

is

revealed

daughter gives birth to an

heir,

helping to cement the father’s power. This man, Fujiwara no Michinaga,

married to emperors four of his daughters,

who

in turn gave birth to three

29

more emperors This type of power arrangement is clearly threatened if some woman, however beautiful, without connections manages to displace .

the carefully laid plans of a family, so the isolation of Genji’s the unfriendliness of the other palace

work.

We

see yet another

example of the

used to manipulate women’s

Outside

his relationship

criticism, often

women

roles,

mother due

to

more than female vanity at social norms established by men is

encouraging isolation and dependence.

with Fujitsubo, Genji

is

from the long-suffering Murasaki

an occasional target of

who

tolerates but does

“TRUE LOVERS” not

like his

167

nocturnal wanderings. Her feelings

become

distances herself after Genji’s marriage to the Third Princess. fuses to allow

Murasaki to

sutra reading that neral.

3"

is

almost

a defiant substitute for

Bargen attributes Murasaki

tion of the unresolved recent spirit possession.

31

she

he re-

marathon

a

arranging her

independence here

s

When

she sponsors

retire into religion,

when

clear

own

fu-

to an internaliza-

The way

the public

at

large excuses Genji’s behavior also implies an unusual tolerance, uniquely

applied to him. at

when

an age

One woman it

muses, “He was so young and handsome, and

women

was natural that he should have

natural too that he should be

somewhat

sponsible for your education, that you refuse to a

him

.

.

.

And as condemns himself when he

“Who

childish behavior:

Lady Murasaki by no means advocates

at

selfish” (Murasaki, 122).

Murasaki’s principal tutor, Genji inadvertently

comments on some of her

angry

can have been re-

grow up?” (Murasaki,

356).

revolution in Heian court ideals,

but she does offer us insights into the consequences of tolerating certain behavior. If Genji’s immature behavior

comes

We

him

difficult for

to

excused on some occasions,

is

draw the boundary

line

around

be-

actions.

can question whether he ever truly “grows up,” since he remains some-

what egocentric and self-indulgent to the end. Like Lady Murasaki, Christine sets us up to expect only to turn

portrait,

the

own

his

it

Duke’s love

cliched

—

the eyes,

it

to her

affair,

Lc

own

purposes. In the course of unfolding

du

liure

a typical courtly

due

develops

the

expected

—even

The Duke is ambushed via letters and poems to his beloved,

strands of refined courtly behavior.

succumbs

to lovesickness, writes

and so on. The lady

is

reserved, mindful of her reputation, but flattered to

be chosen. At the tournament, she cuts off her sleeve for him even while protesting that

he should choose another, more

woman

suitable,

879-91). Nevertheless, Christine subtly sabotages the courtly code ious points in the process, significantly even

she

is

not writing

this narrative

anonymous duke. Whether

this

of her

own

the very

at

start.

at

its

accord, but at the request of an

“patron” was

real

or not, the effect

writing takes her away from more pleasant pursuits

tine repeats this rhetorical reluctance to

few years that, far

later

when

engage

(11.

in writing

is

cluded from both literature and

in literature, courtly love

un-

own,

1-20). Chris-

amorous

she puts together her Cents Ballades/

from being acceptable only

var-

She claims

mistakable: Christine presents the story from a point of view not her

and

(11.

2

texts a

She implies

should be ex-

Her view echoes Dante’s conwho, in Inferno V, succumbed to love’s

real life.

demnation of Paolo and Francesca,

temptations after reading medieval romances.

Her next mined to be

subtle sabotage occurs as the a lover,

and before he had

Duke

explains

how

even before he understood precisely what

settled

on

a lady.

He

explains,

he deterit

meant

“Pour ce que ouoye

tenir

CAROL

168

/ si

HARDING

E.

Les amans plus qu’aultre jens / Et gracieux entre gens, / Et mieulx duis, desiroie /

que

A

/ Pas le sens

n’y sceusse voye”

(11.

d’une

be one. Toward that end lady to serve.

cause

But

more

soul!

—

certainly disposed to find 48). The impression that

Mais trouver

assez loisir;

gracious and better-taught,

a

sweetheart for

1

wanted

someone,

He

planted here.

is

a

long time be-

a

was

I

how] (Christine, (and what it can do

couldn't determine

I

he might be in love with love a lady,

to

might find

I

lacked the sense to choose one; though

I

with

for him), rather than

/ Fus, car n’avoie, par

was often drawn to places where

I

Dame

had heard lovers praised more than

I

remained thus without

I

—upon my

Tout eusse je

44-55) [Because

choisir peiisse /

dame

ainsi sanz

choisir, /

other people and considered

ou

tiroye / Es lieux

Mais lone temps

servir deiisse, /

m’ame,

Pour ce

l’estre.

simply following

is

him by means of love poetry and romances. sincere, but his youthful reliance on the system of

fashion, possibly suggested to

He means

well and

courtly love

is

problematized.

is

blackmailed into returning

Duke's go-between cousin. perdre

corps

le

laississies /

A

et

his

my

someone who

is

seems to be

the lady seems to be almost

later,

little

“II a tant /

De (11.

Lady, that, whatever

completely yours lose telling her,

is

say,

I

such com-

work

let

soul] (Christine, 86).

death will be your

his

at

is

don’t believe you’d

body and

“Love the guy or

As discussed above, the healer metaphor

disies, /

2139-44) [There

you

his

ma Dame, / Que Ne croy que vous

en vous,

pitie

Quelque chose que

/

by the words of the

love, as suggested

cellui qui est tout vostre”

passion in you,

He

fame,

A

fault.”

here, but the implied

bribery in the cousin’s attitude has the effect of decreasing the Lady’s free-

dom

of choice.

Christine’s primary criticism appears in the long letter to the

the

Dame

de

la

personal views

Long recognized

Tour.

33

as a

probable vehicle for Christine’s

other works,

also expressed in

Lady from

this letter lays

out several

objections to the chivalric practice of courtly love. Detrimental effects in-

clude

a

tendency to

trust

one or two

servants

more than

others, thus arous-

ing envy in those others and arrogance in those trusted; secrecy that evokes a sense

of exclusivity in the

lovers’

companions and

gives rise to ugly ru-

mors; and a concern with the beloved that overpowers concern for other

people and even for one’s soul. The

more from such

a

Et a dire,“Je feray

love relationship

un

Dame notes particularly than women do.

homme vaillant”: certesje

dis

que

de soy destruire pour accroistre un autre, poson que venir!

.

.

.

si

fait

ami

a la

ne s’oseroit porter en nul cas pour

Mais

ilz

men

gain

e’est trop grant folie

vaillant

en deust de-

un vray amy et serviteur,” Dieux! et dame? Car se elle avoit aucun affaire,

Et quant a dire:“J’aray acquis

de quoy pourroit servir il

that

elle

pour paour de

sa

deshonneur.

sont aucuns qui dient qu’ilz servent leurs dames quant

ilz

.

.

.

font beau-

— “TRUE LOVERS” coup de choses,

en armes ou en autres

soit

mesmes quant 1’onneur

eulx

dame!”

[And

(Letter V,

et le

Mais je dy quo

fais.

preu leur en demeure

et

servent

ilz

non mie

make

man

a

valorous,” indeed,

say that

I

very great folly to destroy oneself in order to enhance another, even

a

may

suppose that he have acquired

become

thereby

valorous!

.

.

.And

as for

how

true friend and servant,” Heavens! and

a

a la

151-64)

11.

the saying, “I will

as for

169

friend be helpful to the lady? For

if she

is

it

if

we

saying “I will

could such

a

had some troubling matter, he would

not dare step in to help her under any circumstance for fear of her dishonor.

.

.

.

Now,

ever they do any

there are

some who

say that they serve their ladies

number of things, be

say that they serve themselves, since the

them and not

The Dame,

with the

at all

with arms or

it

and

Christine,

Duke

the

in spite

calls

rumors get worse. Until

1

off the

affair, his

comes

24)

Duke’s actions are

this letter, the

when

threat to die in

the Lady heeds her ad-

Outremer

across as yet another type

rela-

(LetterVII,

of bribe,

this

1.

22;

time from

directly rather than via his cousin, to force the affair to continue

of the Lady’s better judgment. Like

his way, the

Duke,

The Dame de

like Genji,

a

two-year-old trying to get

seems childishly self-centered.

Tour completely undercuts the courtly love

la

her rational remonstrance to the Lady, building this

remain with

profit

Lady to withdraw herself from the

not seriously questioned. Afterward, though, visor

I

lady!] (Christine, 116)

in short, advises the

tionship, before

other ways. But

in

honor and the

when-

kind of love

is

more

socially lucrative for the

as

ideal

with

does on the idea that

it

man

than for the

woman.

Since the love, to keep the Lady’s reputation intact, must remain secret, she asks

how

fact,

the

won by

any honor

Dame

de

la

Tour

the lover can be transferred to his Lady. In

offers an alternative set

based more solidly on religious and social

realities.

of refined

The Dame

ethics,

one

goes on

at

length about the threat love offers to any woman’s reputation, not least of

which God]

perils

that

is

‘Ten courrouce Dieu”

(Christine, 118),

to “gardez voz

The

(Letter V,

and she admonishes the lady

renommees!”

(1.

in

1.

206) [one angers

her closing ballade

3172) [preserve your renown!] (Christine,

becomes even more pointed in the Cent Ballades, where the Lady herself expresses a very open regret that she ever became involved 34 In other texts Christine also presents an argument in favor in a love affair. of virtuous behavior that encourages marital harmony (as in her objections to the Roman de la Rose and in the educational program she lays out in Le 121).

lesson

Livre du Tresor de

la

Cite des Dames).

Christine’s lovers finally are separated as a result of social pressure.

Duke’s reputation has suffered because he has not engaged

in

The

warfare

only tournaments. As historian Maurice Keen notes, such was the case

CAROL

170

E.

HARDING honour can be achieved

across the board with regard to chivalry: “Great .” 35

the tourney, greater in battle. tle

And concerning

.

.

between men with only “martial

men

“encourage ambitious young

war

and

in foreign lands

chet thereto .”

time

“Si croy

Y

36

The Duke’s

who would

and [who would] attach

martial reputation

noticed.

is

He

is

questioned

social ca-

same

the

at

explains,

que plus que ne deusse que fumee.

hantay, tant

Par male lengue alumee. Si

upbringing” instead of ac-

of good family to seek experience ot

distant voyages,

the lovers’ behavior

as

the difference in bat-

experience, he notes that this led to rulers

martial

tual

aristocratic

in

.

.

.

n’oz plus pouoir d’ataindre

A veoir, sicom souloye, Ma Dame, dont me douloye Durement.

De mes

blasme

Si fus

amis

clame

et

Recreant don tant estoie

Ou

ou ne hantoie

pays

Fors joustes, tournois, et festes

Qui

moy

pres de

Mais de

loins aler neant.

Si n’estoit pas

A

gentil

feussent prestes,

bien seant

homme,

a voir dire;

Si seroie tout le pire

De mon Plus

lignage s’estoie

la et

ne hantoie

se

Les armes en mainte terre

Pour

los et vaillance acquerre.”

[Thus

I

believe

I

visited her

3359-81)

(11.

more

often than

went up from what we were doing, kindled by

my my

longer see

blamed by

the country,

far.

They

I

as

I

1

used

to,

and called

friends

where

venturing said

Lady

should have, so that smoke

I

evil

tongues. ...

a

coward

That was not very seemly

would be the worst of my

many

a

could no

which weighed heavily upon me. remaining too

for

much

frequented only jousts, tourneys, and revels

did not take up arms in

I

for a

lineage

gentleman, to

if

I

tell

.

.

.

I

was

inside ,

never

the truth.

remained there longer and

land to acquire praise and valor.] (Christine,

128-29)}

After he leaves lovers

(first

obtaining secretly the permission of his Lady), the

meet only intermittently

for the next ten years. The story ends

with

the Duke’s statement that “Mais deshonneur lui veoye / Avoir pour moy,

dont heoye

/

Ma

vie qui tant duroit, /

Car chacun en murmuroit.

/

Pour

“TRUE LOVERS” ce,

.

.

me

.

171

Non

retarder / D’elle veoir mieulx amay, /

may

/ Las,

moy

a tel

dolent mainte journee, /

blasme avoir”

(11.

Que

3538—48)

to despise

my

ing her, although

long

life.

saw her receive dishonor because

[1

For that reason, ...

since she had been brought to such

which created the “rules” of

131). Society,

vides the lovers through

its

a day,

account] (Christine,

love in the

Duke through

now

place,

first

Duke. The

cannot

ideals

reality.

For both Christine and Lady Murasaki, then, even refined love

Though Genji

tionships are finally called to account by society. fied

with Murasaki over the long run, she

sharing him. Additionally, one wonders

her

if

he were unable to pursue other

if

he would

in

While

wanting

with Murasaki, one key element

feels satis-

necessity of

feel as satisfied

with

hard to sympathize

it is

all

rela-

his affairs to

in that fulfillment

be is

as ful-

the of-

of their relationship. Similarly, Christine’s lovers snatch

nature

ficial

unhappy with the

is

affairs.

with Genji’s self-acknowledged greed filling as that

di-

his martial reputation, the

lady through being romantically linked to the

them from

many

creation of the scandal connected with pursu-

ing that love. Scandal touches the

protect

I

preferred to delay see-

I

my

blame on

which

situation, for

proclaimed myself unfortunate and sad

I

cla-

ce qu’elle feust tournee / Pour

of me, since everyone was whispering about the

came

me

obstant que

irregular time together, never fully satisfied with their enforced distance.

Though rumor

their love endures, the

him

has caused

of the rumors

to cease visiting her.

The

never receive social sanction, so Christine’s bleak. The sorrows (both men’s

The

official love affairs in

Just as Genji’s behavior

quiring him,

among

to leave his father’s cial

is

because

unfulfilled love can

illicit,

final

message on fin amor

is

and women’s) associated with secret or un-

commentary on

and the earthbound

ideal

punished

other things, to

women

suffers

Lady’s suffering as a result

Tale of Genji equally offer a

chasm between the proclaimed

he

says at the end,

vague and unspecific. This

left

is

Duke

when he

show

real.

ignores the social code re-

Rokujo and

greater respect for

alone, so the Duke’s affair

code requiring the Lady’s position

as

the

restricted

is

by the so-

another’s wife be respected.

Rumor, scandal, and gossip appear in both works as the tools of social sancin both societies, a certain detion. The situations reveal a decided parallel

—

gree of dalliance

is

idealized, set within a matrix

of

its

study of European chivalry, “It

is

same time, however, the As Keen observes of all

human

in his

a

dalliance carries the seeds

ideals that they create as

refinement valued so

of refined behaviors. At the

much

at

many problems

as

both courts covers, with

minefield of human relations and social restrictions. To

own

destruction.

an enduring facet

they resolve.” a

3

The

very thin blanket,

me

it

seems no co-

incidence that the standard courtly texts in both societies never mention the brutality of

life

just

beyond the

walls; this parallels the rose-colored

HARDING

172

CAROL

glasses courtly life itself is

seen through. Christine and Lady Murasaki deftly

peel

away the rosy

tint

E.

of courtly vision, encouraging an ironic awareness

of “the sorrow of human existence”

to seep through.

Notes 1.

Ivan Morris, The World of the Shining Prince (Baltimore, 1969),

2.

Penguin,

227.

p.

Murasaki Shikibu, The York: Knopf, 1977),

3.

MD:

Tale of Genji, trans.

Edward G.

Seidensticker

(New

20. Further references given in the text.

p.

Maurice Keen, Chivalry (New Haven, CT:Yale University

Press, 1984), es-

pecially chapters 8,9, 11. 4.

Christine de Pizan, Le

(Binghamton, NY: of the

Duke

(New York:

livre

MRTS,

du due des

1995),

11.

vrais arnants,

Thelma

Fenster

S.

1451-58. Christine de Pizan, The Book

Thelma

of True Lovers, trans.

ed.

Fenster and Nadia Margolis

S.

Persea, 1991), p. 74. Further references given in the text.

5.

Thelma

S.

6.

Norma

Field,

Fenster, Introduction to Christine de Pizan,

The Splendor of Longing

in the

Le

livre,

p.

16.

Tale of Genji (Princeton, NJ:

Princeton University Press, 1987),

p. 16.

7.

As

line 264:

8.

Aileen Gatten, “Weird Ladies: Narrative Strategy in the Genji Monogatari,”

in Christine

de Pizan, Le

livre,

“La tleche de DouLx Regard.”

The Journal of the Association of Teachers ofJapanese 20.1 (April 1986): 29-48. 9.

Ibid., 37.

10.

Ibid., 41.

11.

Ibid., 42.

12.

Ibid., 46.

13.

Andrew Pekarik, “Rivals in Love,” in Ukifune: Dme in The Tale of Genji, Andrew Pekarik (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982),

ed.

pp.

217-230. 14.

Pekarik, “Rivals in Love,”

15.

Field,

The Splendor

sees the spirit 16.

oj

p.

221.

Longing,

of Rokujo,

it is

p.

symbolically his

Richard Bowring, Murasaki Shikibu: The bridge University Press, 1988),

17. 18.

62, posits the idea that, since only Genji

own

guilt

Tale of Genji

made

(Cambridge:

Cam-

p. 14.

The Splendor of Longing, pp. 54-55. Doris G. Bargen, A Woman's Weapon: Spirit Field,

(Honolulu: University of Hawai’i

Possession in the Tale of Genji

Press, 1997), p. 247.

A

Woman’s Weapon, pp. xix and 249. 20. Bargen suggests that the Third Princess’s “possessing” 19.

manifest.

Bargen,

Kashiwagi rather than Rokujo, but punishing Genji than the Princess

this

as a

spirit

seems more the

woman

possessed

21.

Haruo Shirane, The Bridge of Dreams: A Poetics of ‘The ford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1987), p. 116.

22.

Richard Bowring, Murasaki Shikibu: Her Diary and ton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982),

p.

34.

role

(p.

might be of

a spirit

176).

Tale of Genji’ (Stan-

Poetic

Memoirs (Prince-

.

“TRUE LOVERS” 23.

Donald Keene,

173

Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature

Late Sixteenth Century

(New York: Henry

Holt, 1993),

24.

Bowring, Murasaki Shikibu: Her

Diary, pp.

25.

Bowring, Murasaki Shikibu: Her

Diary, p. 36.

26.

Motoori Norinaga, quoted

in

Irani Earliest p.

Times

to the

487.

89-91

Keene, Seeds

in the

Heart, p. 490.

The Splendor of Longing, p. 26. 28. Shirane, The Bridge of Dreams, pp. 44—45. 27.

Field,

29.

Morris, World of the Shining

Prince, p. 63.

The Splendor of Longing, pp. 183—92. 31. Bargen, A Woman’s Weapon, p. 145. 30.

Field,

32.

Deborah Hubbard Nelson, “Christine de Pizan and Courtly Love,” teenth-Century Studies 17(1990): 281-89.

33.

Fenster, “Introduction,” pp. 20-21.

34.

Nelson, “Christine de Pizan and Courtly Love,” 286.

35.

Keen,

36.

Ibid., pp.

37.

Ibid., p.

Chivalry, p. 170.

226—27.

233.

Fif-

n

CHAPTER

9

RECLAIMING THE SELF THROUGH SILENCE:

THE RIVERSIDE COUNSELOR'S STORIES

AND THE

oth medieval France and Heian Japan invite comparison not only because of the rich courtly culture that flourished during these histori-

periods but also

cal

OF MARIE DE FRANCE

Roma

Marco D.

B

LAIS

women

—and more

of the court played

each of these traditions

1 .

public, the female literati sult

particularly

in the

Whether

—because of

the formative role

emergence of vernacular as authors, patrons,

enhanced the

letters

or simply reading

of their vernacular

of their exclusion from the male domain of “public”

posed

and Chinese. In

in Latin

effect, the

successfully transformed their exclusion

women

is

and

of expression,

the case in Japan

2 ,

ei-

or

me-

3 .

a

female vernacular tradition in which

numerous

instances of silence continued to appear

Despite the development of

women

com-

systematic rewriting of male literary production as seen in

Europe

dieval

literature

literary circles,

mode

ther through an appropriation of the vernacular, as a

as a re-

writers of these periods

from public

thus their imposed silence, into a rich alternative

through

literature in

asserted a voice,

which explains the intense interest this aspect has held in academic discussions of women’s literature. Until recently, scholars have generally focused on the many even within the burgeoning female tradition

examples of imposed of the female voice universality

begun

to

as

of silence

viewing

oppressive in

critics

now

as

4 .

—

quite appropriately

—

the exclusion

Taking stock of the frequency and the

female communication, literary scholars have

expand the scope of

other uses of silence

same

silence,

itself,

their studies to include a consideration of

manifested in the female discursive system."’ These

recognize certain

moments of silence

as

communicating

—

1

MARCO

176

ROMAN

D.

an “alternative code of truth,” and thereby serving “as a strategy of tance and choice.”

English

women

6

Indeed, Patricia Laurence in her insightful study of the

novelists Austen, Bronte,

—once

dation for this reading of silence ing acquiescence. silence,

7

of

In her reappraisal

and Woolf, has

regarded

as

laid a solid

negative for

its

foun-

seem-

negative view of

this traditionally

Laurence points to the historical context that restricted women’s

participation in public literature a

resis-

—

the novel

and the explosion of

life

—

as

a relatively

new

genre of

contributing factors to women’s use of silence

as

language truly their own.* Although nearly 900 years separates these

nineteenth-century female writers from their medieval French and Heian Japanese counterparts, the similarities between their social restrictions and

commonly held interest in recording an inner life through a newly formed medium of written communication demonstrate the need for cortheir

responding inquiries, where instances of silence in courtly literature are re-

examined

for their

communicative

Marie de France’s such inquiry.

Lais (ca. 1170) in particular prove fertile

Numerous

studies attest to the

on female communication French

value.

in

both

literary scholars, Philippe

repeatedly observed that the

of the Lais occurs through

first

its

this

for

author places

verbal and nonverbal forms.

its

The

Menard, Anne Paupert, and others have instance of direct speech in the majority

women. 6 Further probing

of language, along with studies such couraged

importance

ground

those mentioned above, have en-

as

French author’s

literary critics to redefine this

many

nication in terms of silence. In fact,

into Marie’s use

scholars,

mode of commu-

beginning with the

medievalist Michelle Freeman, have remarked that Marie fashions her tales

using a “poetics of silence” that provides her with “a feminine conception

of poetic articulation and only furnishes

women

creativity,” thus

with

serves in poetic endeavors

demonstrating that silence not

means of communication but with one the highest form of articulation. 10

a

—

that

At the same time, despite the ample opportunity provided by Fleian erature

—whose canon was produced

in large part

by

ladies

lit-

of the court

there appears a serious paucity of studies that offer a concentrated analysis

of the discursive value of silence. Despite ature have continued to emphasize the ture of this largely female literature.

concept of writing

is

this fact, scholars

liter-

communicative and personal na-

One

such example of

this

feminine

the late Heian tale collection entitled The Riverside

Counselor’s Stories (ca.1055, henceforth Tsutsumt ).

positional techniques as dialogue

and

and editor of the Tsutsurni collection, “is

of Heian

verse,

1

By studying such com-

Robert Backus,

finds that the narration

invigorated by dialogue,” and that the

mood, an

essential

a translator

of the

tales

element

in

these short pieces of fiction, arises “through the revelation of a character’s feelings, especially

through the concentrated form of verse.” 12

By con-

RECLAIMING THE SELF THROUGH SILENCE

177

this

notion of foregrounded communication with the understood

fact that the

Tsutsumi collection, like other Heian fiction, expresses the pri-

necting

vate female experience,

becomes apparent

it

female authors of these Japanese

on the female communicative

ileged position sessed, then,

of these

the degree to

is

which

from each of the aforementioned lai,

ideal for this case study

act.

her

confer

Lais,

What remains

example

this issue in a single

collection’s tale,

“Haizumi,” prove

because each rewrites the traditionally misogynous silence as

an essential element to the female discursive system. Significantly, ing that posits silence as a fundamental cation

is

two

these

text that

—

a

societies.

will

It

aspects of

all

be useful to begin by surveying the social conculture.

of the respective authors’ choice of the monas-

well as other visual metaphors of spatial silence that indicate

a well-established

Observing

read-

communiboth tales make

encouraged an exchange between courtly and monastic

tic setting, as

a

to verbal

shared cultural institution that permeated

In so doing, the implication

and

clearly present lexicon

that said lexicon

metaphors but

sual

complement

suggested by the explicit and implicit references

to monastic life

priv-

to be as-

theme of the “man with two wives” by foregrounding

narrative

a

collections.

and the Tsutsumi

Eliduc,

in

silence operates in the discursive system

This essay proposes to address

tales.

Maries

Marie

tales, like

anonymous, mostly

that the

reclaiming the

self,

also

is

of silence,

be examined.

will

dictated not only by the carefully chosen vi-

by the functioning of monastic space

locus tor

as a

the visual images will be considered in reference to the

Buddhist and Christian conception of the

self.

In the end,

it

will

be shown

modeled by the wives of the tales is paradoxically adopted by the husbands, since the system of communication patterned by the female protagonists provides the only effective means of that the female discursive system

preserving the integrity of both the male and female

The communicative monasticism

—

role

of silence

is

self.

nowhere more prominent than

a cultural institution that flourished in

in

both Heian Japan and

medieval Europe alongside their courtly cultures. In particular, scholars of

European history often

credit the spread

tronage of various pious rulers in life

of the author of

times described

as a

would have most institutions his

and

13 .

Eliduc,

of the Cluniac reform to the pa-

Although

little is

known about

the station

sometimes thought to be an abbess, some-

noblewoman

at

the

Anglo-Norman

certainly witnessed the special tie

their patrons at court.

court

14 ,

between such

Marie

religious

As Clifford Lawrence points out

book-length study of medieval monasticism,

this

bond was

in

especially

strong for the English monastic institution, beginning with the age of

Cluny

man

in the tenth century.

monastic Rule:

“A

He

writes of the English and latter

special feature

emphasis upon the role of the king

as

Anglo-Nor-

of the [English] customary

patron and protector ... in

is

this

the

way

MARCO

178

the abbots acknowledged the

ROMAN

D.

bond of mutual

the English monasteries and the monarchy.”'

service that existed

Likewise, the Buddhist monastic orders depended for their

growth and development.

marily

a

phenomenon

Heian period and

that

occurred

on imperial backing of early Japanese cul-

the Nara and Heian periods as pri-

at

the

especially in

markedly spreads to

In fact, historians

Buddhism of

ture often characterize

between

3

court.

not until the end of the

It is

Kamakura period

circles outside the imperial

Buddhism

that

entourage.

1

'’

In addition,

which the court and the monastery were interconnected in early Japanese history (that is, Nara and Heian periods) becomes most evident when considering the rivalry that formed between these two bases of power, and that finally resulted in the sudden move of the capital from the city of Nara to Kyoto in an attempt to escape the excessive power the extent to

wielded by the monasteries. In of this

rivalry,

the

new

court

at

a

preventative measure against a recurrence

Kyoto

established

its first

monasteries out-

While this was most certainly a political maneuver for self-preservation on the part of the emperor, the abbots also willingly consented, thus marking a turn in the development of Japanese religious

side the imperial city.

history Dale Saunders, author of Buddhism in Japan, distinguishes this

Heian monasticism from

its

earlier

new

counterpart precisely because of

this

self-imposed removal from the worldly temptations of the court and

new

emphasis on

a

more contemplative

While the court played stitution,

it

a

major part

1

its

'

life.

in the success

can also be observed that the

life

of the religious in-

of the court

in turn

owed

a

great debt to monasticism, particularly because of the importance placed

on

silent

meditation

as a

means of self-preservation, and

“salvation.”

One

contributing factor to the deep respect for and desire to imitate monastic life

was the belief in both Heian Japan and medieval Europe

in an ap-

proaching age of chaos. While the notion of such an age stemmed from different cosmological conceptions,

end of time and by Buddhism

ological mind-set as an as

understood by Christianity in

the third period of the decline of

gious

life

Dharma

in

its

its

cyclical

tele-

frame

[mappo], in either case, reli-

provided the nobility of these two traditions with

a

“salvation” in a world that was thought to be in decline. The link

means of between

court and monastery, then, formed an inseparable and complementary relationship, in

which one provided

a

governmental model that guaranteed

bodily protection while the other offered a spiritual rule that insured the safeguarding of the “self” through

its

contemplative

life.

Thus, both European and Japanese monastic reforms of the times placed silent meditation

ropean tradition,

this

at

the core of their religious practices. In the

renewed emphasis on

to the earlier hermetic

and cenobitic

life

silence

that

is

Eu-

attributed to a return

combined with

the existing

RECLAIMING THE SELF THROUGH SILENCE forms of monasticism to produce the Cluniac, and

forms

1

s

As Lawrence points out, silence

.

communities was viewed Japan

19

Similarly,

.

beliefs

tenet that thought, word, and act were

ality.

2"

newly formed monastic

in these

Shingon Buddhism,

as

new

a

the beginning of the Heian period and that

at

shaped the aesthetics and religious tral

Carthusian, re-

an extension of vocal prayer and functioned

as

the hallmark of the Cluniac reform sect that reached

later the

179

of the court, espoused

as its

cen-

an expression of the same re-

all

Consequently, Heian monastic culture and

its

Western counterpart

placed speech and silence on the same “communicative continuum .” 21 In rewriting the

misogynous theme of the “man with two wives,” the

respective authors of Eliduc and

monastic

life, as

“Haizumi” choose

modeled

in

the most effective response to the husbands’ acts of bigamy.

This religious form of self-imposed silence illustrated in Eliduc

own

silence, as

when

is

very graphically and

literally

Guildeluec, Eliduc’s wife, enters a convent of her

accord, thereby allowing her husband to marry Guilliadun and pre-

venting her husband’s and her

potentially mortal sin. Guildeluec’s

more striking in contrast communication, in which he continually

chosen silence verbal

is all

the

unable to keep. Serving

is

more, they signal

to her husband’s constant utters promises that

very important function, his promises

a

draw the readers attention

What

own

to the tale’s

main theme

gendered difference

a

in the

he

initially

—communication. communicative

by virtue of their opposition to the female protagonist’s nonverbal

communication of the husband

sponse. However, the verbal ineffectual.

Each time Eliduc

utters a promise,

promise. Thus, male speech in the

tale takes

must follow word, and thereby forms

is

is

act re-

portrayed

as

he must act to maintain that

on

a causal relationship as act

continual chain of adventures. Yet,

a

connection between word and act produces no resolution. In the ver-

this

bal discursive system,

word

ultimately betrays

self.

Through

the example of

the self-imposed silence of Guildeluec and eventually of Guilliadun and Eliduc,

who

in the

end

also enter the

convent and monastery, Marie

an alternative means of preserving the In

offers

self.

“Haizumi,” the anonymous Japanese author constructs the discourse

in a similar fashion. Again, the husband’s repeated promises to officially

recognize his relationship with his mistress highlight the communicative act.

The

husband tress

wife in

this tale also

after his

into their

announcement of

home. This

in the outskirts

responds with silence in the presence of her

of the

is

the

imminent

installation

of

his

mis-

followed by her stoic retreat to the mountains

capital.

The

Japanese wife’s use of silence

as

an act

of communication sparks the husband’s interior monologue in which he questions his judgement. Strikingly similar to Eliduc, value of silence, the husband in the Japanese tale

who

comes

also learned the

to understand the

value of this complementary aspect of communication. Furthermore,

MARCO

180

Guildeluec’s entrance into a convent gesture that

ROMAN

D.

is

echoed by the Japanese

who

curiously reminiscent of a person

is

is

wife. In a

about to enter

a

convent, the abandoned wife has her personal letters and her belongings

burned. The simple place where she hides away in the outskirts of Kyoto surprisingly ascetic in

is

of the

appearance and located in Ohara, which

its

the religious seeking refuge from the capital.

districts that attracted

mention of the mountain

In this manner, the

explicitly then tacitly

—

setting’s

lence,

22

district itself suggests

—

if

not

shadow of monastic life. between these two tales is their the

a locale that lay in

Thus, one of the most revealing

common

one

is

parallels

use of the image of the monastery, explicit or implied, and that

denotation of a locus of silence. therefore,

introducing the image crisis is

creation of a lexicon of

si-

guided by the metaphor of the physical monastery

is

suggested by the authors

which the

The

who

invite

at a critical

and even encourage such

moment of the

a

reading by

narrative, the point at

introduced.

Further examination of instances of silence in the texts reveals other

images

also

guided by

same

this

silence denoting monastic metaphor.

physical enclosed space of the monasteries in Eliduc and the

The

open space of

“Haizumi” metaphorically suggest a silent spatial sepfor the purpose of contemplation. These metaphors of the spatialof silence are dictated by the philosophical basis of Christianity and

the monastic city in aration ization

Buddhism. While the space in Marie’s silent space

As Marie’s In

its

self.

is

often concretized in a real physical

reflects Christianity’s idea

of the Japanese

ception of the

would

and

lai

space

silent

tale

is

limitless

and

of a substantive

soul, the

con-

signals that religion’s

23

explicit

mention of the monastery

the end of her tale

at

throughout

suggest, silence appears as a well-defined space clear spatialization, silence takes

scholar of French

medieval

on

literature,

a visual aspect.

Eliduc.

Sarah Spense,

a

convincingly demonstrated

has

Marie’s preference for the visual over the oral in her examination of the author’s systematic rewriting of Augustine’s

image of envy

underscores that “what one finds in Marie spective in

primacy.” the

24

which presence

replaces absence

In Eliduc, the visual

evidence of

is

and

her

Lais.

a shifting

She per-

visible replaces audible in

image of silence

is

clearly

conjured up by

mere uttering of the word “monastery” but Marie provides many other

images that describe silence tion of the hermitage

Guilliadun

is

Uns

seinz hermites

around

it

[his

—

a

in spatial terms.

“Une I

One example

simple hut inhabited by

laid in state. In fact, the

visible silent space:

/

in

hermitage

maneit / E une chapele

dwelling], / thirty leagues long, /

and there was

a chapel]

(11.

889— 92).

The

the descrip-

lone hermit

itself

is

—where

surrounded by

a

Trente liwes ot de lungur. /

forest aveit entur, /

25

a

is

I

aveit” [There

where

a

was

a forest

holy hermit

place of silence

is

lived,

conceptu-

RECLAIMING THE SELF THROUGH SILENCE alized in terms of distance as seen in the precise

181

measure of leagues given

above, or in simple details that reinforce the hermitage’s isolation, such

“Le

dreit

chemin unt

eled straight along the road / until they entered the

One becomes

aware of

space

this

as a

purrai

mun

eshaucier /

le liu

U

cunseil pris /

A

la

with an abbey or

d’abbeie u de mustier”

sure: ‘‘Le jur

church]

a

que jeo vus

(11.

first

909-10).

when

meditation in

found

resolves to

[First

how

I

I

trav-

Cum

must seek the

can glorify

a place

925-28). Later, he vows to take the ton-

enfuirai, /

become

(11.

sage gent del pais, /

advice / of the wise people of the land, / to learn /

in silent

It is

quiet location of the hermitage that the knight

an abbey: “ Ainz en avrai

wood]

locus of prayer and silence

Eliduc quietly seeks a solution to his problem. this

|They

tant erre / Qu’il esteient el bois entre”

as:

Ordre de moigne recevrai” [The day

I

monk] (11. 947-48). Through his desire to construct an abbey where he will entomb his beloved and his wish to become a monk in order to pray on her tomb daily, he demonstrates a conceptu-

bury you

alization

/

I

shall

a

of silence and communication

mation of the image of

this

in spatial terms. Marie’s transfor-

simple hermitage into a monastic space

is

highlighted by the addition of details that accentuate the silence of this location.

Not only do

Eliduc’s

not speak unless spoken

vow of silence with

are required to take a

to,

but also they

regard to Guilliadun. Therefore,

those within the walls of the hermitage maintain a posture of silence:

all

men and

the

vow

Eliduc

a silent state

—

monk and

to remain silent; the

of death and

their respective states

is

men

a concretization

within such quiet spaces that

sleep,

become

of silence within all

Guilliadun, in

physical manifestations of a

corporeal metaphor.

It

be

conflicts introduced in the tale will

resolved and that the self will be regained. In

“Haizumi,” the image of silence

is

also

conceived

in spatial

terms

through an implied reference to the Buddhist concept of mujo, or imper-

manence. Helen Craig McCullough, a prominent scholar of early Japanese literature, identifies mujo as one of Heian Buddhism’s distinguishing characteristics,

and holds

that

it is

26

one of the unique concepts

Concurring with McCullough, William

literature

of early Japan.

a scholar

of the Buddhist tradition

ods.

27

in

in early

Japanese

letters, singles

Lafleur,

out the

one of the frequent manifestations of the spatial the literature of the late Heian and Kamakura peri-

image of the hermitage dimension of mujo

that informs the

as

This philosophical concept of impermanence thus expresses

spatially

itself

through the constant physical displacement of wandering her-

mits/aesthetes and the object that

came

to be associated with

them

—

the

hermitage.

This notion of mujo becomes evident in “Haizumi” in the repeated erence to the “transitional”

silent

refuge. Attempting to spare his wife

ref-

space in which the Japanese wife seeks

embarrassment caused by the

installation

,

MARCO

182

ROMAN

D.

of his young mistress in their home, the husband suggests that

remove

ply

Her

location.

room

herself to a side

refusal to follow

—

in their current residence

it

may be

name

a specific place

—“Imako’s house

unsuitable, however, the

in

Ohara”

undefined space found

there for the time being

(195). The husband’s final

offers to escort her personally to

I

illusiveness plicity,

is

her place of

hope of dis-

dashed once more

self-exile.

Refusing

“You wait here. ... It is such a shabby could not have you see it” (197). Such repeated references to the of the “temporary” abode, along with the insistence on its sim-

his request, she

place that

does

to the transient quality of her mis-

covering the descriptive details of his wife’s quiet retreat

when he

finally

(195). Finding this choice

“You might go

something better comes along”

until

a typical Japanese linguistic

with her maid, the wife

maid contributes

future residence by stating,

tress’s

an iso-

elects to reside in

also appropriately qualifies the silent,

in other instances in the text. Later, alone

her

initiates

with the phrase “somewhere or

lated dwelling that she vaguely locates

other” (195). While such a description

wife sim-

a well-defined

her husband’s recommendation

chosen act of self-silencing. In quiet defiance, she

turn of phrase,

his

responds by

insisting,

supports an implied reading of this “hermitage” as a symbol of mujo.

Recognizing the

distinctive character

as a

substantive and enclosed

less

one

in

“Haizumi,”

to include visual

it

one

of spatial silence

in Eliduc,

becomes

and

as a

The

the contemplation of the

question of self

a

is

tales

bound-

possible to extend the lexicon of silence

metaphors that point to these same

as loci for

two

nonsubstantive,

spatial constructs. Vi-

sual representations not only indicate a spatialization

function

in these

of

silence,

but also

self.

necessary consideration in any exploration of

monastic silence, because the motivation for both the Buddhist and Chrismonastic traditions

tian

for a

union of the

is

union. In the Christian vein, the

body and the mind become one. locus

—

sider

and rewrite the

physically manifested in a

In Marie’s caritas

is

lai

self in

In both instances, silence provides a

monastery

—

in

which one may recon-

order to allow said union to take place.

announced before any mention of monastic

Eliduc forces his tut

whole

sun

men

as

ideal

life

(11.

of silence:

“A

ceus

fist

[He had them pledge and swear

plevir e jurer / to

keep

his

757—58). Eliduc’s plan involves the removal of Guil-

homeland

in Brittany

by way of the English Channel. Like

troubled soul, Eliduc’s ship runs into a storm. In

cries

occurs.The cen-

comportment. The episode begins when

to take an oath

afaire celer”

affair secret]

liadun to his his

nonduality where the

the final Divine union as expressed in the wife’s act of

owing quiet posture

De

as a

of the “storm episode” emphasizes the role of silence by foreshad-

trality

/

2v

strives

an actual substance, 28

self with the Divine, the self being

while Buddhism expresses the desire for union

monk

out that the storm’s occurrence

is

fear,

one of

his

men

the manifestation of God’s disap-

— RECLAIMING THE SELF THROUGH SILENCE proval of Eliduc’s potentially adulterous relationship and

young woman be thrown overboard, Fitz, a scholar

of medieval French

183

demands

that the

into the tumultuous waters. Brewster

convincingly interpreted

literature, has

the “storm episode” as a rewriting of the biblical story ofJonah, and stresses

moment. 30 What

the sacrificial nature of this narrative

and yet bears

dressed,

significantly

on

a

reading of

this hi,

emphasis on the opposition of speech versus silence in

Both the

has not been ad-

the unusual

this scene.

and Eliduc privilege the speech

biblical story

is

As Donald

act.

Wesling andTadeusz Slawek point out in their study of the Book of Jonah,

Old Testament

the

through

story highlights the importance

abundant use of verbs that report discourse,

its

manner, the narrator of the

clearly underscores the gesture

lai

as “

spoken word with such descriptions .

.

.

loudly / cried

cation,

it

well as textual

as

is

.

.

.]

(1.

is

.

hautement

.

lais

—but

also

act.

by including the

silent

also

self by

As noted, Marie rewrites the

s

a

biblical story

silence not only preserves her

not dignifying the accusation against her fiance with

may

of Eliduc

that she disapproves

grasp the significance of this

monk]

of his sacred duty

(1.

actions.

s

but

While

moigne

recevrai”

[I

shall

948) which only serve to compromise the fulfillment

as a

posed silence that he

a reply,

form of communication, he

continually resorts to promises such as “Ordre de

become

communi-

emphasis on

immediately comprehends Guilliadun’s unspoken

by sending the message

the knight

.

communicative gesture of Guil-

response to the news. In the end, Guilliadun

own

.” .

overboard rather than Jonah, the disobedient

sailor

liadun’s fainting. Eliduc

sailor’s

/ S’est escriez

“storm episode” not only by inverting the events of the throwing the innocent

of the

posturing of Guilliadun in the

silent

communicative

a

.

830-31). Given the

not surprising that the

“storm episode”

servant

il-

31 In the same of the connection between speech and gesture.

lustrations

[

of the speech act

husband. In the end,

realizes the

it is

through

his wife’s self-im-

most complete form of the

self in caritas.

Therefore, Marie’s inversion of the Jonah story implicitly foreshadows

subsequent references to religious

“Ordre de moigne recevrai”

body of

his apparently

nounces

that,

“E

si

dead

ferai

[I

life.

shall

Eliduc unexpectedly announces that

become

a

monk]

mistress, Guilliadun.

mun

chief veler” [And

(1.

948) before the

Guildeluec hastily proI

shall take

the

veil]

(1.

1102) upon the revival of Guilliadun. Whereas Jonah remained steadfastly opposed to accepting his position as obedient servant, Marie’s inverted rewriting of the biblical story has

entering monastic

all

three characters ultimately respond by

life.

Unlike the French

text,

which

uses concrete images of forests, dead

bodies, faint maidens, and water to describe silence in physical terms, the

Japanese story continues to form a

more

elusive visual

its

lexicon of silence in

metaphor of spatial

silence, the

its

moon.

exploitation of In

“Haizumi,”

MARCO

184

moon

the

ROMAN

D.

evokes the husband’s emotion of melancholy sadness

parture of his wife. This emotion

is

suggested by the symbol’s representa-

view of the brevity of human

tion of the Buddhist

constancy of Nature. The author of this tional reading

stressing

moon

only because of its cyclical nature, which early

of the

series

of incarnations that

association with the

contemplative value,

its

on a transiency, not Buddhism interpreted as retakes

person undergoes, 32 but also due

a

image of the cottage,

connection that appears

to

its

in

two of the waka poems interpolated into the prose

moon

the

a

moon is pictured moon is also seen

text. In

When

and the cottage mirror one another.

as

abandoned, the

as a fleeting

cottage

is

inhabited, the

to inhabit and,

In three instances, the

on the nature of the

tion

cause in

both poems,

the cottage

scribed

on words, illuminate the

this tradi-

lexicon of silence.

tale’s

Like the image of the hermitage, the

the

affairs in relation to

however, augments

tale,

of the moon’s image by

thus allowing the image to enrich the

flective

the de-

at

shadow;

is

de-

when

through

the

a play

cottage.

moon’s presence self.

The

sets

third scene

is

the scene for quiet reflecparticularly significant be-

the reader witnesses the conflation of the locus of silence and

it

the self.This occurs during the wife’s journey to the mountainous outskirts

of the

from

capital.

his sleep

The husband, having and saw the

the mountains” (199).

moon

fallen asleep

had

at

length

The movement of

the

on the veranda,

come

moon

“started

close to the

rim of

thus directly mirrors

the displacement of the wife. Ultimately, the text itself imitates the spatial aspect of silence in

its

use

of the interpolated poetry. Although the interlacing of prose and poetry a

common

Ise,

the

feature of

two

isolated

Heian monogatari,

as

waka in “Haizumi”

evidenced by the Genji and the

that

during the husband’s reconsideration of the final visualization

—

of silent space

is

a textual

surround the prose interval

of

status

his

wife provide a

enclosure that serves

as a

locus

for contemplation.

While the French

text portrays an

image of

self that

is

encapsulated,

and enveloped behind the walls of the monastery where true union occurs, the Japanese text depicts a self that is momentarily

crystallized, spiritual

rewritten and reclaimed, but that

may

easily transmigrate to

because of the philosophical understanding that transitory. Though these tales at first

all

another form

things are inevitably

appear to be constructed keeping with

the usual gendered discursive system, in actuality, they point to the ineffectiveness

of the

social

conventions of male speech and

alternative, highly effective

mode of communication

ized as female. The validity and

empowering

effect

offer, in turn,

an

typically character-

of this alternative code

evidenced by the male protagonists’ eventual adoption of the female practices of discourse modeled by the women characters. In the end, is

,

RECLAIMING THE SELF THROUGH SILENCE

185

Eliduc enters the monastery where his silent communication takes the

form of written correspondence

two former wives who now

sent to his

occupy the same convent. At the same time, the Japanese husband, originally restored the official status of his flection

provoked by her

through

his

own

first

wife only after serious re-

silent response, finally rejects the

of

silent disapproval

her.

who

second wife

Thus, the authors of Eliduc and

“Haizumi” encourage the reader to ask: what makes communication effective and empowering? Does silence necessarily indicate weakness? Are verbal promises

—

common

a

courtly practice

—

a true sign

of strength?

Marie de France and the anonymous author of “Haizumi” pose these questions in such a way as to force the reader to reconsider the social convention of gendered differences in communication.

Notes 1.

For

a

thorough introduction to the female contribution to early Japanese

H. Richard Okada,

letters see

Figures of Resistance

(Durham, NC: Duke

University Press, 1991). For European medieval letters and

Carolyne Larrington, Women and Writing

(New York: 2.

this distinction in

Okada

men were

not

asserts: all

may have

“As

3.

Sourcebook

between male and female

letters

of the varied modes of Heian writing

discursive functioning. In other words, male

reserved for themselves the officially sanctioned realm ol

womens

and everyday matters, they

in private, nonofficial,

were inserted continually into

scriptive terms.”

Japanese

a result

own

Chinese discourse but

plicitly as

A

powerful but must often have found themselves deeply

divided within their writers

Medieval Europe:

consult

Routledge, 1995).

Concerning writing,

in

women

writing,

Okada,

a

realm that had

where they were

become acknowledged ex-

far

from being dominant

in

Figures p. 161.

The most well-known examples

in

medieval French literature are Marie

de France and Christine de Pizan. Studies that examine these female authors’ rewriting of the male literary canon abound. One example of the varied approaches to the question of rewriting for each of these authors

Eva Rosenn, “The Sexual and Textual Quest of Marie de France: (Lewiston,

A

Politics

of Marie’s Poetics”

Twelfth-century Poet, ed.

NY: Edwin Mellen

Press, 1992), pp.

is

in In

Chantal A. Marechal

225-41. Maureen Quilli-

gan, “Allegory and the Textual Body: Female Authority in Christine de

Pizan a

s

“Li vre de

more general

la cite

des dames,” Romanic Review 79 (1988): 222—48. For

discussion of female authorship in the Middle Ages consult

Jane Chance’s introduction in Gender and Text (Gainsville: University Press 4.

See Tilhe Olsen,

the Later

Middle Ages

of Florida, 1996).

(New York: Delacorte Press, 1978) and Sandra M. Gubar, Madwoman in the Attic (New Haven, CT.Yale

Silences

Gilbert and Susan

in

University Press, 1979).

MARCO

186

5.

ROMAN

D.

Besides the very informative introduction that surveys the developments 1970s, the collection of essays edited by

in feminist criticism since the

Elaine

Hedges and Shelley Fisher Fishkin provides

solid

examples of schol-

arship that reevaluate the role of silence in the female discursive system.

Elaine in

6.

Hegdes and Shelley Fisher

Feminist Criticism

Patricia Laurence,

Fishkin, Listening

(New York: Oxford

“Women’s

to Silences:

New

Essays

Press, 1994).

Silence as a Ritual of Truth:

A

Study of Lit-

erary Expressions in Austen, Bronte, and Woolf,” in Listening

to Silences,

pp.

156-57. 7.

This study

is

in the essay

very

much

mentioned

Patricia Laurence,

indebted to the framework

The Reading of Silence:

8.

CT: Stanford University Laurence, “Women’s Silence,” p. 156.

9.

Philippe Menard, Les

Anne

France, 1979).

Mane

Amour

Press, 1991).

femmes

et la parole

et merveille: les “lais”

dans

les ‘Lais’de

de Marie de France (Paris:

1995), 169-87.

Feminine

PMLA

Translatio

99 (1984): 848.

Scholars hold varying opinions concerning the gender of the authors of the Tsutsumi collection.

The

Japanese literary scholar, Tokuhei Yamagishi,

recognizes only one of the ten

Tokuhei Yamagishi,

tales as verifiably

All scholars agree that

remaining

stories,

literature, believes

seven can with then, as

I

two of the

Annotated) (Tokyo: Yuseido tales

developed by women.

light

I

CA:

.

in

Robert Backus,

.

agree with the above assertion

of such recent studies

in

ed.,

eight

tale

in

eight stories, fiction

The Riverside Counselor’s p.

xx. He, therefore,

examined

in this essay

made by Backus, in early

Lynne Miyake, ‘“The Tosa Diary’:

Japanese Women’s Writing, eds. Paul

CA:

Of the

Heian vernacular

gender and authorship

of Gender and Criticism”

(Stanford,

late

Stanford University Press, 1985),

erature as exemplified by stices

women. These

assurance be ascribed to

assume to belong to the tradition of

woman.

woman. See Press, 1962).

were authored by men.

concludes that the author of the “Haizumi” a

a

Robert Backus, an American scholar of early Japanese that “one is definitely by the hand of a woman, and

fair

Stories (Stanford,

written by

Tsutsumi Chunagon Monogatari Zenchukei (The

ed.,

Riverside Counselor’s Stories, Fully

12.

the English Tradi-

Michelle Freeman, “Marie de France’s Poetics of Silence: The Implications for a

11.

Woolf in

de Marie de France (Paris: Presses Universitaires de

Paupert, “Les

de France,” in

Honore Champion, 10.

lais

Virginia

out by Laurence

book on Woolf. See

in note 6 above, as well as her

(Stanford,

tion

set

is

especially in

Japanese

lit-

In the Inter-

The Woman’s Hand: Gender and Theory

Gordon Schalow and Janet A. Walker

Stanford University Press, 1996), pp. 41-73.

All citations in this study refer to the

Backus edition of the Tsutsumi

Chunagon Monogatari. Subsequent references within the body of this study refer to page numbers in that edition. Robert Backus, 77ic Riverside Counselor’s Stories

(Stanford,

CA:

Stanford University Press, 1985).

The Japanese

edition of The Riverside Counselor’s Stories consulted in the preparation of this

study

is

Yamagishi.

RECLAIMING THE SELF THROUGH SILENCE 13.

See Cli fiord H. Lawrence, Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious

(New York: Longman,

Western Europe in the Middle Ages 14.

187

Consult Jean Rychner,

Champion,

1984), pp.

Marie de France

ed., Les lais dc

1

Life in

16-18.

Honore

(Paris:

1983), pp. vii-xii.

15.

Lawrence, Medieval Monasticism,

16.

For instance, Kazuo Osumi, an historian of the Kamakura period writes:

“The

p.

107.

Kamakura Buddhism was a pivotal event in Japanese history, because through it Buddhism was adapted to Japanese ways and thus made accessible to the common people.” “Buddhism in the Kamakura Period” in Medieval Japan, vol. 3, The Cambridge History ofJapan, ed. Kozo Yamamura (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. 546. establishment of

Alice and Daigan Matsunaga,

firm

this fact

when

new movements

mon

people for the

Japan assumed

of their support, and for the

basis

17.

18.

to the

Japanese character by embracing the majority of

a true

CA: Buddhist Books

Dale Saunders, Buddhism p.

first

sects,

comtime Buddhism

Kamakura period) turned

[those of the

the populace.” The Mass Movement,

(Los Angeles,

Buddhism, con-

historians of Japanese

they write: “In contrast to the Nara and Heian

these

in

two

in Japan

vol. 2,

Foundation ofJapanese Buddhism

International, 1976),

(Westport,

p. 7.

CN: Greenwood

Press, 1977),

157.

Catherine Vincent, Introduction a de Poche, 1995),

I’histoire

de

/’

Occident medieval (Paris: Livre

100-01.

p.

19.

Lawrence, Medieval Monasticism,

20.

Saunders, Buddhism

21.

Adam

p.

78.

in Japan, p. 177.

Jaworski, a linguist, elaborates the concept of

continuum” to speech

in his

book-length study of silence.

and silence

in religious worship.

“communicative

also applies this

Adam Jaworski,

term

The Power of Si-

CA: Sage

Publica-

borrowed from Laurence. See Laurence, The Reading

oj Siletice,

and Pragmatic

lence: Social

He

a

Perspectives

(Newbury

Park,

tions, Inc., 1993), p. 46.

22.

This term p.

is

111-13.

23. Junjiro Takakusu points out that the Buddhist concept of anatman denies

the self as a self as a is

permanent substance or

entity.

combination of matter and mind

perfected by cultivation. This

The

creation.’”

Essentials

Charles A. Moore,

eds.,

of Buddhist

(Westport,

also Foundation ofJapanese

what

is

However, Buddhism in

is

continuous change. His

meant by

‘self

‘self-culture’ or ‘self-

Wing-Tsit Chan and

Philosophy,

CT: Greenwood

Buddhism: The

retains the

Press, 1974), p. 21.

Aristocratic

Age, vol.

1,

for an

See

un-

derstanding of anatman in the teachings of theTendai and Shingon sects of

Heian Buddhism

(see above, n. 16).

For

a

complete discussion on the con-

ceptual differences of the self in Christianity and

A.

De

Silva,

Barnes 24.

&

Buddhism

The Problem of the Self in Buddhism and

consult

Christianity

Lynn

(New York:

Noble, 1979).

Sarah Spence, “Double Vision: Love and Envy in the

Marie de France (see above,

n. 3), p.

274.

‘Lais,’” in In

Quest of

MARCO

188

25.

Subsequent references Joan Ferrante, Press, 1982).

trans.,

D.

ROMAN

in the text refer to lines in

The

(Durham, NC: Labyrinth

Lais of Marie de France

The French

Robert Hanning and

edition consulted for this essay

is

Rychner, Les

Lais.

26.

In

examining

and differences between the Buddhism of the Six

similarities

Dynasties and early T’ang

Buddhism and

remarks that “one does find in

it

that

of Heian Japan, McCullough

[Heian Buddhism] an unusual preoccu-

pation with the concept of impermanence in nature and in fairs.

.

.’’Helen Craig

.

Tenth-Century Japan

McCullough,

is

this

p.

25.

notion: “In classic works such as the Tale of

precisely the case, especially

“human among the

when

the round of the seasons and

affairs”

changing love relationships

leisured

ate

af-

trans., Tales of Ise: Lyrical Episodes from

(Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1968),

William Lafleur adds to Genji, this

human

“nature”

is

taken to

elite.

is

understood

mean

as

the ever-

Together they

reiter-

and reinforce the theme of evanescence.” William R. LaFleur, The

Karma

of Words: Buddhism and the Literary Arts in Medieval Japan (Berkeley:

University of California Press, 1983),

Karma,

p.

61.

27.

Lafleur,

28.

DeSilva, The Problem of the Self (see above n. 23), pp.

29.

Takakusu,

30.

Brewster Fitz,“The Storm Episode and the Weasel Episode: suistry in

p.

61.

Essentials (see

above

Marie de France’s

IS—16.

n. 23), p. 21.

‘Eliduc’,”

Sacrificial

Ca-

Modern Language Notes 89 (1974):

543. 31.

Donald Wesling and Tadeusz Slawek,

(New York: 32.

SUNY

Press, 1995), p. 110.

LaFleur, Karma, pp. 69—70.

Literary Voice:

The Calling of Jonah

CHAPTER

10

THE LADY

IN

SUBJECTS Mara

T

THE GARDEN:

AND OBJECTS

IN

AN

IDEAL WORLD

Miller

he

and

literary

trope of the Lady in the Garden has long been

artistic

both Europe and Japan. Although there are noteworthy

a favorite in

images between the two cultures, they bear witness

similarities in the

nonetheless to worlds of difference

—

of women,

in the experience

in the

history of women’s expressions of their experience via writing and painting,

and

in

men’s (and women’s) responses to these expressions.

the importance of the female voice and

A

study of

attendant highly salient female

its

gaze in Japan offers instructive contrasts with the traditional male gaze in the

West and

The mere

its

processes of objectification of

fact that Japan

women.

and medieval Europe

differ

is

hardly surprising

and of itself, given the geographical distance between them and their relative independence of each other historically. The patterns of these differin

ences

become

interesting,

however,

if

we

consider

them

in the light

recent feminist, Lacanian, and other postmodern theory, according to the exclusion of

canons

is

both

a

women’s voices from the

“Symbolic Order.”

literary/philosophical/ religious

means of

a specifically patriarchal

If this theoretical claim

is

true,

and phallocentric

then the invention/imag-

ination of alternative ways to imagine a nonphallocentric society

of

vital

becomes

importance, and understanding women’s thousand-year

contribution to the Japanese canon assumes

The prominence of Heian women’s canon

which

necessary cause and the inevitable result of the construc-

tion of the society by

a project

of

affects the structure

immense

significance.

voices in the Japanese literary

of the Japanese “Symbolic Order” and the ways

and Object are constructed, conceptualized, and realized. In theory, “the Gaze,” too, ought to be structured differently; it ought not have that Subject

MARA MILLER

190

be essentially or primarily

to

and positioned, and the ways jectified or

manage

women

male gaze. The ways

a

which and degrees

in

and

to resist objectification

should also turn out to be different,

tus as Subject,

component of the

which they

to

insist

are pictured

upon

their

one

if that

are

ob-

own

sta-

essential

universalizing “Symbolic Order,” the voice, should turn

out not to be essentially and inevitably male. In fact, this

is

precisely

what we

female voice in Japan goes

find.

Along with

female gaze instantiating the female Subject

a

position and playing a major role in determining

should be viewed.

twined so cal

The female

intricately that

or logical

—

to

it

prominence of the

the

how men and women

gaze and female voice in Japan are inter-

becomes hard

one over the

to assign priority

—chronologi-

other.

The Lady Beneath

the Tree:

Eve and Izanami Surprisingly, the trope of too.

For

all

Eve standing beneath the

tree appears in Japan,

the physical distance from Europe, and for

all

of Japan’s

isola-

tionism during later periods, Japan was for centuries one end of the Silk

Road

and, especially from the sixth to the tenth centuries, was in contact,

and diluted

indirect

as

it

was (by the Middle

East,

China, and Korea), with

the cultures of Europe. The European image of the Lady in the

be traced in

Road

—

a series

to the caves

of visual manifestations of the Silk

Road

oasis

as

recognizably Eve: a voluptuous and enticing

in a garden, is

beneath

a tree

—

a

east

along the Silk

of Dunhuang, to Tang China,

and ultimately to the Buddhist temple Horyuji is

moved

it

Garden can

in Nara, Japan

woman

1 .

The

icon

standing gracefully

pose very atypical for Japanese

art.

The

tree

reminiscent of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Gar-

den of Eden;

as

Marilyn Stokstad points out,

dens (and pictures of gardens) Paradise tree,

2 .

(In

Europe,

Adam

the devil as a snake

on

is

its

a central tree

in

medieval European gar-

always referred to the trees of

sometimes shown on the other

side

of the

branches.) Dressed in a Tang-style garment,

the Horyuji damsel has been Sinicized: she shows the female

vored in China from the Tang dynasty on, with

a

plump

body type

fa-

figure, thick neck,

red rosebud-shaped mouth, distinctive nose, and luxurious hair piled in a

generous knot For

at least

3 .

some members of her

original audience

4 ,

the Horyuji lady’s

pose would surely have been suggestive of the Kojiki myth of Izanami and Izanagi.This female gaze appears in the earliest written compilations of ancient Japanese myths, the Kojiki

and the Nihonshoki.

written version of the Kojiki, by

Oh

ration

of a lady

at

(Significantly, the first

noYasumaro, was based upon the nar-

the court of Emperor Temmu

named Hieda no

Are.)’’ In

THE LADY

THE GARDEN

IN

191

means of the coupling

the story of the creation of the Japanese people by

of the goddess Izanami and god Izanagi, the primal pair stand on either side

of a column that reaches from earth to heaven,

tree

of life, and meet and come together

end produces humankind. Before bly wrong: the

spring

is

myth

identified in the

woman

took the

studmuffin !” 6 pillar;

when

of axis mundi or

union that

in sexual union,

in the

does, however, something goes terri-

it

a rather disgusting

outcome,

for the off-

and must be thrown away. What has gone wrong

leech,

a

mating has

first

a sort

as

the

initiative,

woman’s

exclaiming

The couple must

the

fault:

first

time they mate, the

saw Izanagi, “What

she

as

is

a

return to their original places behind the

they emerge and encounter each other a second time, Izanami

young man to speak first, and this time the offspring is The Kojiki myth clearly shows evidence of some anxiety re-

allows the diffident legitimate.

garding female desire and the female gaze

—presumably

reflective (by the

time of written versions) of the impact of Chinese patriarchy upon matriarchal myths

seen

as terribly

ebrated

—by

West. In

7 .

But

women’s

in general,

men 8 and by men

problematic for

themselves

a culture

,

earlier

desire in Japan, while at times

has been not only tolerated but cel-

—

where public nudity

to a degree

unimaginable in the

has long had a place (in ritual lus-

9

and where the female and male procreative principles have always been celebrated in ritual through the medium of carved and painted genitalia, women’s observation of men and of images of even their sexual parts could not have seemed abnormal, and innocence in the and the bath

tration

),

Western sense could not have been expected nor desired. Yet Japan has no mythic equivalent to the Eve who tempts man to

and

in general

no sense of sex

as in itself sinful.

sin,

(The Buddhist proscrip-

tions against sex are simply a special case of the general sanction against at-

tachment of any kind, and they were considerably weakened in Japan, 10 which developed the only Asian tradition of married priests. ) Parallels

may be drawn, of course, between transgression in the olates a

moral code,

poral order of

the Kojiki

Garden of Eden, a

code

human

life

that

for

is

for in

myth and

both

it is

the story of Eve’s

the

woman who

vi-

supposed to ensure the moral and tem-

all

time.

But the Kojiki account

differs

Book of Genesis is to have eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and so we in the West have inherited the notion that knowledge is dangerous for women."

significantly

from the

biblical: Eve’s sin in the

Izanami’s “sin” does not require a similar transgression by the sufficient in itself to set off the dire repercussions;

ment,

a

voicing.

dire, since

undone.

The

command and who

is

not an act but

repercussions themselves, moreover, are

they do not affect the

Finally, there

it is

is,

rest

of

human

history,

of course, no all-powerful

disobeyed.

man, but

is

a state-

much

less

and can even be

God who

has set

up the

MARA MILLER

192

Lacking these

biblical

elements

—

the

commands,

tation to evil, the deception, the negative

the repercussions of pain and

it

God

human

to intervene in

temp-

consequences for humankind,

and death, the banishment to

a

world of

from the immanent presence of God, the need

privation, the separation a

toil

the persuasive

for

history in order to set things right again (for

cannot be stressed enough that Izanami and Izanagi simply go back and

do

and get

over,

it

right the second time)

it

never quite captured by

from time

the Japanese imagination

image of “Eve.” The image reappears

this

to time, but never

and never with the suggestion of

story,

is

(rarely)

with the mythicoreligious significance of

Eve or the Izanami

ther the

—

ei-

sin,

temptation, or danger. The image of the Lady in the Garden that the Japanese developed is of quite a different sort. Eve is replaced, as it were, by the

woman of letters, unlike in the West where Eve a woman corrupted by knowledge. The Female Gaze With women occupying

in

from

century

passive Objects

of

a

Illustrated Handscroll

women

Japan and Europe

the Subject position as authors and

charge of the Objects depicted, the tar

provides the archetype of

women shown

male gaze. Even

artists,

and

in

images are

in Japanese

the mid-twelfth-

as early as

of The Tale of Genji [Genji Monogatari

Emaki],

shown peeping at men. (See, for instance, the woman peering in at the emperor and Kaoru playing go in “The Ivy” 12 [Yadorigi]. ) They also observe them as a sort of spectacle, as the men for instance,

are often

dance or play “football”

from the

taru

let”) take

every opportunity to gaze

women

with female Objects ity to

and

only

that,

of

women

must be completely

routine in The

have

in

13 .

Japan just

is

as

men

the Western

not to argue that there

is

have done

mans

abil-

no male gaze

within the Japanese “Symbolic Order,” the

production of images, but also is

Ho-

given the prominence of the female gaze and the var-

salient role

significance

women

— though without

exclude other gazes. This

in Japan;

ied

West

at

Gaze”

seized “the

in the

(notably, Prince

and Genji himself in “The Jeweled Chap-

“Fireflies” chapter

As writers,

men

in the garden, just as the

Tale

a

different

14 .

It is

a

question of the

matter of looking per se.The female gaze

—

of Genji

not just

so routine that

many modern

observers

of it (again just bringing to their examination of Genji assumptions from either traditional art history or feminist theory that are aplost sight

propriate to Western subjects).

The

elaborate descriptions of Genji’s ideal

appearance are produced by the gaze of

Murasaki

at pains to

is

point out that

his

men

(though without attempting to seduce him, ters ).

13

On

a

deeper

level in

female admirers find

him

at least in

—although

equally admirable the extant chap-

psychology and/or psychoanalysis, of course,

THE LADY

IN

THE GARDEN

193

this returns us to the issue

of knowledge, forbidden or sublimated, and

thence to the issue of desire

itself.

The

late-twelfth-century Tale of Genji Picture

story told by a

woman,

when

it

put

somewhat

it

from

evaluates,

that she

is

Women

a

woman’s point of view, men

—

—even

own

at

men

“sex objects” (to

passion and to the ex-

to the point of evaluation

shown gazing

as

reiterating Izanami’s bold assumption

enjoyment of her

entitled to the

are

illustrates a

bears witness to an already existing female gaze

anachronistically)

pression of desire

which

Scroll,

of potential mates.

and, in one of the most famous scenes,

the “Ekurabe” or “Picture Competition,” looking at pictures, while are

shown dancing,

men

in equestrian contests, or playing “football” in a sort

of

spectacle for female and male spectators.

Such paintings not only illustrate the female voice and depict a female gaze, but may have been painted by women as well. Recently, noted art historian Terukazu Akiyama has debunked the assumptions of modern art history that Heian court paintings are primarily by men, pointing out that: In the

Heian period, both the appreciation of painting and the

paint were considered requisite at court. In

or lady-in-waiting

important to

as

prose

for the cultivated aristocratic

the tenth century

literature in the vernacular,

waka verse and the monogatari-e

tales.

viewing by

women became

connoisseurs and patrons with the rise of

complement

related to

skills

ability to

namely the

(tale picture)

new

woman

especially

pictorial genres

(poem picture) meant to accompany uta-e

Both were

small-scale genres intended for private, informal

a principally

female audience. Women must have executed these

“Hotaru” chapter of The Tale of Genji, for examthemple, there is a description of the ladies in Genji s household enjoying selves by reading illustrated tales and making personal copies ot favorite 16 In fact repeated discussions of painting in The Tale illustrated manuscripts pictures as well. ... In the

.

of Genji reveal Murasaki Shikibu

one of her poems

Akiyama goes on

century,

at

womens

headnote to

painted a picture to accompany

17

to

cite

additional

evidence

of Heian

women

which was one of the accomplishments ex-

court, concluding that by the

painting had

courtly painting and

art; a

.

for their painting,

pected of them

abiding interest in the

states that she herself

verses sent to a friend

renowned

s

“emerged

moved beyond

half of the twelfth

first

the personal arena ot

into the public arena

”

18

of imperial and

temple commissions. This contrasts sharply with the situation in Western

art

where,

Georges Duby points out: were Until very recently images, like texts and without doubt even more so, with rare exceptions produced by men. Women did not portray themselves,

as

MARA MILLER

194

they were portrayed.

Of course,

handful of women did

a

of painters, sculptors and decorators the creation of images

as far as

marginal

a

role. ...

women, such

It

exists,

it

women

works carried out

Yet

implied

—

stricted to

But make no

is

no lemale gaze

medieval Europe. Yet in-

in

Infant Jesus”

—

The

paradigmatic

“Look of the mother who be-

the loving

is

the look of the

—

Mary cannot be understood be anything but subordinate. Her position as Subject is

to

astutely observes,

one of obedience

divine child

is

or

re-

to divine will; her crucial subservience to her

indicated by a gesture the Infant makes, the “chin chuck.” 21

The Figure ofThe Lady Throughout human dens are not only a

by

the beginnings of subjective consciousness in her (male) child. 2 "

it

Leo Steinberg

as

painted.

highly qualified, even problematic.

it is

Mother on her

stows by

entirely

.

depiction of a medieval European female gaze Blessed

have been confined to

19

not to say that there

sofar as

concerned,

possible to cite

is

periods. But generally speaking,

which German nuns composed and

mistake, they are rarities

is

all

the strange illuminations to the text of the visions ofHilde-

as

gard of Bingen

This

is

in

into the circle

slip

form of virtual

history and in

reality

—

a special

spatial

form

that

Garden

which they

cultures in

all

of ordinary

a subset

in the

and temporal is

are built, gar-

reality,

but also

granted the specific task of

representing the society’s ideals (be they metaphysical, religious, political, ethical, or other). In

the garden, and

is

medieval Europe, the Lady

presented

as part

within

it,

she

describing

it

is

at

the

By

and

(figures 10.3

between the lady and the

10.4). In

it,

as

contrast, in

an Object for

Heian Japan,

Europe, the continual reassertion

metonymic relationship garden, by means of which man’s dominion over establishes a

the garden can be recognized as extending over

ing

it,

on a verandah overlooking the garden; when she is same time an observer of it, or even a poet/writer

of her placement within the garden

her rights

typically seated within

of it and along with

the gaze of the viewer (figures 10.1 and 10.2). the Lady often appears

is

women

as well. In

Japan,

viewer of the garden are signaled by her position overlookand her tastes and temperament may determine the garden’s design. as a

In both Japan

women

and Europe, over the course of nearly

are consistently

shown

almost exclusively by

not only the

Roman

de

la

Book

oi

ideals,

the designs of the gardens that

texts that inspired the

men

—based on by contrast,

garden designs were created

the products of men’s imagination,

Genesis" and the

Rose. In Japan,

millennium,

in a special intimate relation to these ideal

worlds in pictures. In Europe, these

modeled them, and the

a

New

Testament, but also the

this ideal has

been created with the

THE LADY

IN

THE GARDEN

195

of female writers. In choosing to put women writers in the garden, the Japanese artists and audiences (who were often female, especially in the Heian period) reveal much about what they thought con-

active assistance

most of the world, portrayed and described as women’s subjectivity and their status as Subjects

stituted an ideal world. In

Objects of the male gaze,

(with desire, voice, gaze, agency) have been denied, both in the

of

realities

quotidian existence and in the myths, symbols, and icons of collective and individual imagination.

The medieval European image of the Lady

in the

Garden

icon. Intended to be read symbolically and allegorically, she

Mother of Our Lady with the Unicorn in

derstood to represent the Virgin, there are countless versions, the

Mary

the

one such

is

often un-

is

Lord. Although the tapestries

at

23

Beautiful, lofty, superbly Cluny and at the Prado is in many ways typical composed, and elegantly dressed, she sits in the center of a flowery mead. of the ideal of (In other compositions it is a hedge of roses.) Expressive needs, femininity, this is an ideal composed by men to meet their own Cluny serather than with an eye to her own experience. Although in the weaving a wreath, and ries she performs actions such as holding a mirror, .

playing a musical instrument, these are symbolic five senses ,

own

life.

24

She

not actions arising from her is

own

acts, representative of

desire or taken

the

from her

not, indeed, an actual historical personage but a symbolic

figure.

Inspired by the

body and

Garden of Eden, the Medieval garden

to represent eternal spring

—

is

meant

to

em-

the fullness of God’s plenitude, as

of the postlapsarian world into which Man was though also as an thrust after expulsion from Eden. Especially as an ideal, time and place, actuality to the extent that it can be realized in an earthly It is based, after all, on absolute values, it should be timeless, unchanging. Adam and in a time that precedes the Fall and the expulsion of

opposed

to the desolation

originating

Eve and

us, their

descendants, into a wilderness that

is

difficult, chaotic,

tor us, it is dangerous, and unpleasant. Insofar as it represents God’s plan for narcissus and should be the same for everybody; individual preference meads’’ can hardly over daffodils or lawns over weed-bestrewn “flowery make sense in this context. Nor can selection or arrangement of plants

based on memories of gardens from childhood or

travels,

or on associations

all such precewith happy times or favorite companions, first of all because because the assodents would have been essentially the same, and second,

our Heavenly Father takes precedence. The Lady with the Unicorn is surrounded by a fence. In some medieval in her garden, surgardens, however, the lady is virtually imprisoned

ciation with

rounded by high and impenetrable lined with rosebushes. In both

fortified brick walls

“The

whose

interiors aie

Castle of Roses,” from the

Roman

de

—

]

MARA MILLER

196

Rose (France,

la

25 and “Emilia in her Garden,” from 1485) (figure 10.2),

ca.

the Livre du Cuer d’Amours 26 (France, ca. 1465),

behind the lady

are

who

crowded with men

Roses” they crowd around her

windows

peer

masonry

“The

Castle of

at her; in

where she

the point

as well, to

in the

scarcely has

human beings 27 and instantiate the cosmic or divine order (however it may be conceived in that culture), then in such medieval European images we see “woman” breathing room. If gardens represent the highest ideals for

once idealized and

at

Her

silenced.

highest aspiration

obedience; her

is

contained and her actions constrained by the garden walls that circumscribe her world. 28 threats are

Women

in this trope are almost exclusively

emplifying male needs. The Blessed Virgin

symbolic or allegorical, ex-

Mary

10.1) or in a rose garden that symbolizes Paradise,

Eden,

3"

Roman

Emilia in de

la

Her Garden,

31

Rose (figure 10.2),

the three obsessional images

he thought ot

women:

the

Lady

Eve

in the Castle

Garden of

calls:

the image of the female partner in

power of women comes

in the

spirit

whenever

games of love,

The as

to light), then finally as a defensive reaction,

nonetheless

still

shows

lady

a

In Japan, the pictorial tradition

Heian period, when

to the

most notably

who

of

illustrations

77/e Tale of Genji,

including the “Bell Cricket”

nun, reads

a

[

and

women

sutras, listening to the

and

role in a

men

in or over-

of The Tale of

number of scenes,

which Nyosan, who

in

36

chapter

and

in scene 3

where Prince Niou

a

sounds of water and the

has becries

of

and “Bamboo River” [Takekawa], scene

flowering cherry

from the “Ivy”

plays the

back

by women,

which YGgiris son glimpses Tamakazura’s daughters playing of a courtyard with

sexual

in gardens dates

their attendants are prettily arranged along the verandahs

sides

ter,

later,

33

literature written

prominent

34

and,

Illustrated Handscroll

Suzumushi],

the bell crickets from her garden, 2, in

women

showed both

Genji, for instance, gardens play a

—

also symbolic.

is

showing

looking gardens. In the twelfth-century

come

and

32

highly popular image of courtly love, romantic

it is,

that

here that the immense, formi-

it is

that ot the mate, indispensable although rigorously kept in a subordinate

submissive position.

(figure

of Roses from the

which have haunted the male

of mother protector and consoler (and dable

29

what Duby

illustrate

Grape Arbor

in a

tree.

[a.k.a.

35

go; they

on

three

In the “Rites” [Minori]

“Mistletoe,” Yadorigi chap-

biwa for Nakanokimi, 37 the plants

in the

garden are given the task of representing the couple s feelings; the garden, as a consequence, may occupy up to a third or even nearly half of the composition.! he importance of women’s writing it

continues to be transcribed and

(as

soon

as

is

evidenced by the

fact that

was practicable, printed) and

197

mraiiugji in Cetula faunasJberrtMii oiiuitt

m« Imamni qmolip

Utnant tuam amttrwmatati

aauCamto.fimrcmtm

Figure 10.1.

Virgin and Child in

a

Grape Arbor, The Book

The Pierpont of Cleves, anon. (Utrecht, ca. 1435), no. 97. York. Reproduced by permission. 917, f. 161.

New

oj

Hours of Catherine

Morgan

Library.

Ms. M.

i

198

if -V lit

niKiiAtiutt

fottt

o ofttMT WUtPH»x Bf fatrCfr » H'UVIlr I

yx(f$

Vum nn ii^oiirtmaur to* Milfirt x ^l WU a vxvmf‘*;*f i**«UnU\^ §3 cVi

i

C

U

tm/iurnuj

^ {uiff&lm'VKfo m/^uv luftVM vt iun

f?£|

MU \y*vi»r I

J5f Vu'jf f *iuwk iViftnlfrvf

Figure 10.2.

4425,

f.

39.

The

Castle of Roses,

Roman

Reproduced by permission.

de

la

Rose.

The

I

British Library. Harley

THE LADY illustrated

throughout the centuries,

of The

scrolls

IN

THE GARDEN as in

the 1554 “White Drawing” Hand-

Spencer collection of the

Tile of Genji in the

New York

Pub-

Library.

lic

both the medieval and the Heian gardens

Finally,

comprise

situated

a

world with

social

such

built

in a stylized

and

it

“society,” differ

and even within each

set.

38 )

construed) and the

enormously

from above,

at

in the is

two

sets

depicted

an angle. The shin den- zukuri style of architec-

with verandahs, sliding doors, and removable

more

culture, be-

Architecture in both

mediated interpenetration of inside/outside,

tles

may be

is

way; for the Japanese, the “blown-off” roofs allow one to look

into interiors

the

which the lady

environment. (Of course, the meanings of terms

as “nature,” “culture,”

societies,

ture,

its

in

term of mediation between nature and

tween the natural world (however variously

of

199

rigid sorts of dichotomies implied

—although

walls, allows for a highly

natural/artificial, forestalling

by masonry of European cas-

the architecture of medieval gardens often includes medi-

ating structures such as gazebos, arbors, and even tents. Water features reveal a similar

pattern of difference: the Japanese gardens sport (man-made) free-

flowing streams with natural-seeming edges, the European ones have fountains

with geometric basins and/or straight-edged

In both cultures, furthermore, the garden arts

—

poetry written and read,

weavings over,

and dance,

a setting for architecture

it

—and described

is

a place

a

realm pictured in

canals.

is

which music

in

many

associated with

in paintings,

is

played and

embroideries, and

poetry and fiction. In both contexts, more-

of great tranquillity and peace

—

albeit also, at times, of

physical exertion and strenuous activity (think of the

European gardeners

digging in countless medieval illuminated manuscripts, of the Heian

dances and football games). Both the medieval European and Heian gar-

dens achieve

this

undesirable or

repose in part from being enclosed, often in courtyards:

wayward elements

are kept out.

Images of Women Writers Heian authors were as

the

also depicted in illustrated

Gotoh Museums

sections

volumes of their

of the Kamakura

diaries,

Illustrated

such

Diary of

—

and Murasaki Shikihu, which shows the author greeting two male visitors meeting the gaze of one of them; a large garden landscape with full moon occupies

Heian

fully

women

half the picture.

Several distinct traditions of depicting

writers in their gardens were developed subsequently. In

Japan, the trope of the

—seems

of writing

woman

writer in her garden

to have developed several

—and

often in the act

hundred years

later,

most

Edo period (although there may have been earlier prenow lost). The earliest portraits of poets, from the Kamakura

probably during the cursors that are

39

MARA MILLER

200

period, are without pictorial background, although there

accompaniment, usually beautifully written brief introductory remarks, 40

But the paradigmatic

ity.

artists

which case

—

is

plentiful verbal

and individual-

signal her or his identity

surely Murasaki Shikibu. Tosa School

is

had begun to depict Murasaki overlooking her garden

and writing

period and possibly before. In a rather

late

41

by the Edo

painting, Murasaki

long hair flowing behind

blank handscroll before her.

Anne”

in her study

(the so-called “Ishiyamadera” composition) at least

crisply angled junihitoe,

Her

poem, and

the poet’s name, a

shown

is

in

brush in hand, and a

her,

elegant desk (with curved, almost

“Queen

legs) sits at the

very edge of the mats just inside the verandah; the

sliding doors are fully

opened, exposing her to the night. Steps lead from

the verandah to the away. Beneath,

surface of a cliff whose edge

is

seen just a few steps

distance shrouded in misty vagueness,

its

waves of which,

flat

the very

at

bottom of the

water, in the

is

painting, can be seen the reflec-

moon.

tion of the

reflection of the

It is this

genre, unlike the

moon

that confirms the attribution (for in this

Kamakura poet

portraits, there

one

identifying poem); Murasaki was the

beauty of the reflected moon,

a

is

no name

who drew

given, nor

attention to the

beauty she considered superior to that of

moon. The recognition of beauty is a way of thinking for the Japanese or at least became so after Murasaki; this insight of hers, with its the real

—

Buddhist awareness of the inevitability of attains the status

he could not

tell

of ChuangTzu’s remark,

upon waking whether

or the butterfly was

now dreaming

it

human

dreaming of a

after

the

was

a

construction of

mountain In

man. In the sheer proportion this

the ravines and dwell, painting and

painting re-

composing

artist

Okumura Masanobu

than

the

long

straight

print, unlike the

garden but

“natural” landscape; there are

ings but the grasses that

world

grow

in

contem-

fashionable contemporary

women. 42

of Heian

In

Tosa paintings, Murasaki overlooks not her

wild; this

the freest in world history, far

a

tresses

Masanobu’s a

by dressing her

it

porary kimono and giving her a hairdo with rather

10.3), the

brings this image within the range of

middle-class merchants and actors, updating

among

poetry, in

huts.

an early-eighteenth-century woodblock print (figure

Ukiyo-e

a

the butterfly

the Confuciamst and Taoist scholars of Chinese landscape paintings,

who wander

twist

butterfly, that

man had dreamt

of “empty” space, highly unusual for works of this school, calls

reality,

who

is

no fences a

in sight,

woman whose

was never fenced

nor any plant-

imagination was in,

who

traveled

beyond her own immediate experience.

Unusually for an East Asian work, the composition breaks into two

On

the

left,

verandah, brush in hand, inkstone

full

of black ink, empty paper before

halves along the vertical axis.

Murasaki

sits at

her desk on the her.

THE LADY

IN

THE GARDEN

201

She leans with her chin on her elbows, however, not writing, but gazing into the distance (again like a Taoist priest, neo-Confucianist scholar, or

Buddhist monk). The space into which she gazes

not the “empty” space

is

mystery of the cosmos, however; the right side of the

that indicates the

painting shows a gentle river, with a small fisherman’s boat against the bank

beneath her verandah

(in

improbably tiny

tion of a fantasy), and above is

edness of her

life

her achievement,

and her work,

reality

“Suma” chapter of of inventing. The interconnect-

far shore, the

and imagination, her persona and

suggested by the interlocking diagonals of the ground

is

that supports her (with the

which

on the

presumably in the process

Genji that she

banks,

it,

scale that suggests the disloca-

verandah on which she

sits)

and the

river’s

two

bridged visually above the center by the branch of flow-

are

plum in the bamboo vase on her desk. The accoutrements are those of a (Confucian)

ering

on

simple

a

behind her off,

and

scholar: a large inkstone

wooden desk, a bamboo vase with a branch of flowering plum, a wooden bookshelf whose grain Masanobu carefully shows

with ink landscape paintings on the doors of the upper compartments a

painting of flowing water

poems

shelf and papers with folds

of her kimono are

on the lower ones. There

in elegant writing

erotically suggestive,

pattern, the twist of her hair,

on

are

books on the

the walls.

The

sinuous

and the black swatches of its

and the cover of the books

just

behind her

shoulder (and very close to her) draw our attention to her person and keep it

there, particularly given the delicate lines

of this

woman

and her imaginings. Yet the

allure

her physical beauty and her

taste in fashion.

her identity desk.

Her

—

the study with

fills

its

of her immediate environment cannot be identified with

Her presence

—and

bookshelves and the verandah with

depends upon her achievements (and her

allure

in this case its

taste as a scholar)

much as her sexy wrists, hair, and knees. And what is in her mind takes up as much of the composition as her physical self. This is a remarkable as

portrait indeed.

Like nearly

all

accomplishments

Japanese portraits of women (and

—which

not seen

least, are

—

are

shown

of what

we

as

West)

There

is

no

been

in the

unintellectual as they have so often

between the recognition of the woman’s intelliaccomplishments, on the one hand, and her sexual de-

other; indeed, these accomplishments are precisely

what

(Ono no Komachi, renowned and cherished

equally

paradigm here,

m spite

for her sexual passion

and her poetry,

of the odd twist her legend gets is

(or at

an integral part of the person, and an important part

as

attractive.

The woman

component

strong intellectual

conflict

on the

make her

a

artistic

viewers can be expected to care about.

gence and cultural sirability

as

have

many of men),

establishes the

in the stricter

Buddhist Kamakura period.)

not forced to have to choose between intellectual/artistic

202

Okumura Reproduced

by 252.

Temple,

L-20,

Arts. Ishiyama

of at

Academy Shikibu

Honolulu

Murasaki

or

Collection,

Surna)

(Ukiyo-e

Mitchener

Suma

A.

James Stylish

(1720’s).

A 10.3. permission.

Masanobu

Figure

by

203

Bijin-e

Mitchener

series

A. the James

from permission.

(1683).

Genji,

by

of Tale

Moronobu

Reproduced

The

from Hihikawa

501.

Miya,

by L-20,

no

Women

Arts.

Nyosan

of

Beautiful

and Academy

of Kashiwagi

Honolulu Collection

10.4.

or

Collection,

Zukushi

Figure

— MARA MILLER

204

cultivation and her

women

own

desire. In

Object of the (viewers’) gaze (and the origi-

are presented as the

nal viewers, let us

when

other words, even in such cases,

remember, were

as

often female

male), they are often

as

the product of a female voice, depicted by a female gaze (and hand), and/or

own

as (writing) subjects in their

right. Whether fictional characters or au-

thors, they are primarily individuals

There

no

is

and only secondarily symbols.

Japan between the roles of writer and of

split in

attribute this to the facts that virtually as

well

as

all

of the

other things, that they were noted

something

to

be ashamed

they wrote were the

sites

of, that

woman

and public

artist,

on which

trysts, is to

and self-expression

as

between passion and thought, or between private

wrote

in

medieval Europe, but, with the exception of Hilde-

gard and Christine, their writing rarely inspired major programs of

nor were they often depicted

exception, writer.

43

Even

portraits

as

writers.

With but

a

illus-

single

the lady depicted in the medieval garden

is

women

of Bingen whose

writers, even those like Hildegard

were painted, and

writing and painting, their selves

an

significance.

Women tration,

miss

no dichotomy be-

there was

desirability

was not

that this

the same garden verandahs

tween writing and romance, between and

and

as lovers

To

wrote about love

of their lovemaking and romantic

the deeper point. For the Japanese

intellectual

women

lover.

who own

were painted views, and

in the act

who were

even doing other things in the garden.

Why

is

of recording,

in

painted by them-

and/or other women, were never depicted writing 44

herself never a

in the garden, or

this?

The answer must be sought in the meanings gardens hold for medieval Europe. The ideal order represented by medieval gardens, at once cosmic and divine, is incompatible with female agency. The portraits of Hildegard described below

illustrate

the tensions admirably.

Hildegard (1098-1179) was both well-known and well-regarded writer,

and we have several

portraits

Madeline Caviness has argued, to

of her that allude to

my mind

as a

this status.

45

convincingly, that the portraits

from the Lucca manuscript of her Book of Divine Works, a copy done after Hildegard’s death, are nonetheless based on designs by Hildegard herself. 46 Yet paintings showing Hildegard writing she

is

the writer, yet the source of inspiration

as virtually a scribe (albeit

and

all

this

is,

after

all,

in

work, rather than the

but disavow her authorship; outside her; she

is

depicted

an important one, for the inspiration

is

divine

her context,

a

is

way of claiming importance

for the

reverse).

Five illustrations from Book of Divine Works 47 reveal the ambivalence re-

garding female authorship and authority. Hildegard reds, white, black,

pelling visions,

and gold)

in the act

“The Vision of

is

shown

(in brilliant

of recording her dazzling and com-

Love,” “Love, Humility and Peace,” 48

n

205

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