Lady Murasaki, one of the most famous women of Heian-period Japan, and the first novelist in Japan, wrote many wonderful romantic scenes through the Tales of Genji, yet her real life marriage was anything but.
The latest episode historical drama on NHK about the life and times of Lady Murasaki (poem 57, め) covers her marriage to her second-cousin Fujiwara no Nobutaka (藤原宣孝, ? – 1001), who was around 20 years her senior. Yes, this was not that unusual for the time, but still gross.
Sadly, the marriage quickly turned sour. Nobutaka slept around a lot, and had other hidden wives and children. Lady Murasaki did not take this lying down and the two of them fought frequently. Nobutaka for his part, enjoyed bragging about his trophy wife.
In the poems preserved in Lady Murasaki’s own private collection is this poem addressed to her husband:
| Japanese | Romanization | Rough Translation1 |
|---|---|---|
| 言ひ絶えば | Ii taeba | If you saw you’re going to |
| さこそは絶えめ | Sa koso wa taeme | stop writing me, then fine! |
| なにかその | Nanika sono | You can’t even |
| みはらの池を | Miwara no ike wo | stand by the bank |
| つつみしもせむ | Tsutsumi shimo sen | of Miwara pond properly. |
The backstory of this poem is that Nobutaka had taken one of Lady’s Murasaki’s private letters addressed to him, and shown off that letter to friends (apparently bragging about how smart his young bride was). She was justifiably angry and told him to knock it off. Nobutaka was angry with her and threatened to stop writing. Her reply above, was a clever way of saying “fine, don’t bother writing me”. The allusion to Miwara pond was a pair of puns:
- Miwana pond (mihara) is also a pun for anger.
- The word tsutsumi is also pun for a bank (as in riverbank), and self-restraint.
Contrary to Lady Murasaki’s reply, Nobutaka was so impressed by the reply that he ended up bragging about it to his friends anyway. 🤦🏼♂️
Another letter is as follows:
| Japanese | Romanization | Rough Translation2 |
|---|---|---|
| 忘るるは | Wasururu wa | Forgetting others is |
| うき世のつねと | Uki yo no tsune to | a part of this ephemeral world, |
| 思ふにも | Omou ni mo | Even so, |
| 身をやるかたの | Mi wo yarukata no | being forgotten myself, |
| なきぞわびぬる | Naki zo wabinuru | I cannot help but cry. |
The married nobility of the Heian Period frequently lived in separate estates, and the husband would visit his wife as needed, but not the other way around. It seems by this point, Lady Murasaki was forgotten by her philandering husband, and lamented her unhappy marriage. One can’t help but recall the Gossamer Years generations earlier.
It is sad that such a talented woman was relegated to an unhappy marriage with a faithless, not to mention narcissistic husband, especially in a society where women had little recourse. I also wonder how much this motivated her to write her novel, The Tales of Genji, as a coping mechanism.
P.S. Sources used in this post include:
- https://gendai.media/articles/-/132658?page=5
- http://www.misawa-ac.jp/drama/daihon/genji/kaidoku2.html – this site includes a large collection of Lady Murasaki’s poetry. I doubt most of these are translated into English.
- https://ogurasansou.jp.net/columns/arakaruta/2018/01/24/1438/
P.P.S. For folks who are visiting Kyoto, there are many excellent locations associated with the life of Lady Murasaki and the Tales of Genji. The featured photo above is the “Genji Garden”, part of the Buddhist temple of Rozan-ji, courtesy of PlusMinus, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. This blog includes an excellent photo-tour of Rozan-ji.
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