The Tale of Genji: chapters 15-17, Suetsumuhana, Genji, changes in reign

1/ Reading The Tale of Genji, I always feel an aesthetic joy—or as Nabokov has put it, a tingle in the spine. The style is beautiful, even if I read it in translation. 
But once in a while, there is a particularly magnificent chapter, like chapter 15, “A Waste of Weeds”. Look at this passage: 

“In the eleventh month the weather turned to snow and sleet that sometimes melted elsewhere, but the Hitachi residence, buried in weeds that blocked the morning and afternoon sun, remained as deep in snow as White Mountain younger in Etchu, until not even servants were seen abroad, and the mistress of the place languished in vacant apathy. She had no one even to comfort her with a light remark or to divert her with tears or laughter, and at night, in the grubby confines of her curtained bed, she tasted all the misery of sleeping alone.” 

Suetsumuhana, the red-nosed woman, has been waiting for Genji for years in her ruined house. Her servants, one by one, start to leave her. Nobody pays her a visit. Is it not such a striking image? She pines away in a house buried in weeds that block the sun. 
Then one day Genji passes by, on the way to someone else. 

“The last night rain was falling after several wet days, and the moon came out at the perfect moment. His journey to her long ago returned to mind, and he was dwelling in memory on all of that deliciously moonlight night when he passed a shapeless ruin of a dwelling set amid a veritable forest of trees. 
Rich clusters of wisteria blossoms billowed in the moonlight from a giant pine, their poignant, wind-borne fragrance filling all the air around him. It did so well for the scent of orange blossoms that he leaned out and saw a weeping willow’s copious fronds trailing unhindered across a collapsed earthen wall.” 

(trans. Royall Tyler) 
Murasaki Shikibu’s writing is sensuous. 
Chapter 15 makes us feel deeply for Suetsumuhana, and for the fate of women in Heian Japan. Left behind by her late father, forgotten by Genji, and abandoned by her own servants, she is helpless and suffers alone in a ruined house. For many chapters, she slips out of narrative, then reappears. By my calculation, she’s been waiting for about 10 years. 
The interesting part is that Murasaki Shikibu doesn’t write her as a simpleton or a caricature of a lonely helpless woman—Suetsumuhana is a complex character, with the pride of someone of high rank (her father is the Hitachi Prince) and a stubborn refusal to sell things in the house, which nobody understands. She is poor and pitiful, but unreasonably proud in her behaviour toward her aunt (the Dazaifu Deputy’s wife, previously only a Governor). The character is multi-faceted. 
Chapter 15 also lets us see that Genji has sensitivity and compassion—he is imperfect, and a lot of his behaviour is abominable, but he tries to help all the women in his life. Indeed, for years he has forgotten Suetsumuhana, especially with troubles of his own, but does he have to help her now? Not really. He gains nothing from it. But he does it anyway.  

2/ As we follow Genji’s life, he matures and changes over time, but his outlook on life also becomes darker. Especially after the banishment, he realises that life is treacherous—people yield to pressures and betray themselves, to protect their social standing. 
Genji may not reproach anyone, from his half-brother the Emperor, to the brother of Utsusemi (cicada), but he remembers it. 
It is noteworthy that the only person who comes to visit him in exile is his best friend To no Chujo (Aoi’s brother).  

3/ The hardest thing about The Tale of Genji is, as expected, the change of titles and positions. However, it is not as difficult as it seems, as the title changes usually happen together, rarely individually—they change because of a promotion day, or because of a change in reign. 
The key thing is to keep a diagram of changing titles (apart from family trees). 
- For example, when the story begins, we have an Emperor, Genji’s father. One of his wives is the Kokiden Consort, daughter of the Minister of the Right. Their child is the Heir Apparent, known as Suzaku. After Genji’s mother’s death, the Emperor marries the Fujitsubo Consort. 
- After a while, the Emperor appoints Fujitsubo as Empress. 
- Then the Emperor abdicates and there is a first change in reign. He becomes His Eminence. The Heir Apparent, Genji’s half-brother, becomes the New Emperor. Consequently the Kokiden Consort becomes Empress Mother. Fujitsubo’s child, known as Reizei, becomes the new Heir Apparent. 
To confuse matters, the Empress Mother moves from Kokiden residence to Umetsubo residence, whereas the Minister of the Right’s sixth daughter (her sister) becomes Mistress of the Wardrobe then Mistress of Staff, then becomes one of the Emperor’s wives and moves to Kokiden residence. 
- For fear of her own safety, Fujitsubo becomes a nun, and her title changes to Her Cloistered Eminence. 
- A few chapters ago, there is a second change in reign: the Emperor (Genji’s half-brother) abdicates because of health problems. He goes from His Majesty to His Eminence. Fujitsubo’s child, known as Reizei, becomes the new Emperor, at the age of about 11. Fujitsubo as a nun cannot go up in rank, so she continues being Her Cloistered Eminence. The Retired Emperor has a child with the Shokyoden Consort, the Shokyoden Prince, who becomes the new Heir Apparent. 
- As I wrote in the previous blog post, different factions at court introduce girls to the new Emperor. So the new Emperor (Fujitsubo’s son), still as child, already has two girls at the moment. The first one, a year older than him, is daughter of To no Chujo (Aoi’s brother, Genji’s brother-in-law)—she becomes the new Kokiden Consort. 
The second one is the Ise Consort. She is daughter of the Rokujo Haven (Genji’s jealous woman—now dead) and formerly High Priestess of Ise. She is older than the new Emperor. 
To those who haven’t read The Tale of Genji, these things sound very complex and confusing, but as long as you make your own notes and have a firm grasp of the characters’ relationships with each other, it’s fine. Each time it’s a chain of events—when there is a new Emperor, the roles of people around him change.