Chapter 8 Japan 323A major subplot is the love of Genji for Fujitsubo, his father’s favorite con-
sort who later was promoted to empress. His one-night tryst with her results in
a young prince with all of Genji’s charms, who is thought by the emperor to be
his own son, so he is made crown prince and eventually becomes the Reizei
emperor, thinking all along that Genji is his half-brother rather than his father.
Throughout the book, Fujitsubo is terrified the truth will come out, which
would threaten her son’s prospects and bring her shame. Their occasional later
meetings (see box 8.3) are filled with the romantic tension known later in Japan
as iki. In another episode, Genji’s wife has a child by another man, and, when
rumor circulates, rather than being angered by her infidelity, Genji is touched
and sympathetic to her intense shame and seeks a way to ease her unhappiness.Box 8.3 Genji’s Exile to Suma
For Genji life had become an unbroken succession of reverses and afflictions. He
must consider what to do next. If he went on pretending that nothing was amiss, then
even worse things might lie ahead. He thought of the Suma coast. People of worth
had once lived there, he was told, but now it was deserted, save for the huts of fisher-
men, and even they were few. The alternative was worse, to go on living this public
life, so to speak, with people streaming in and out of his house. Yet he would hate to
leave, and affairs at court would continue to be much on his mind if he did leave. This
irresolution was making life difficult for his people.
Fujitsubo, though always worried about rumors, wrote frequently. It struck him as
bitterly ironical that she had not returned his affection “earlier, but he told himself that
a fate which they had shared from other lives must require that they know the full
range of sorrows.”
On the night before his departure he visited his father’s grave in the northern hills.
Since the moon would be coming up shortly before dawn, he went first to take leave
of Fujitsubo. Receiving him in person, she spoke of her worries for the crown prince. It
cannot have been, so complicated were matters between them, a less than deeply felt
interview. Her dignity and beauty were as always. He would have liked to hint at old
resentments; but why, at this late date, invite further unpleasantness, and risk adding
to his own agitation?
He only said, and it was reasonable enough: “I can think of a single offense for
which I must undergo this strange, sad punishment, and because of it I tremble
before the heavens. Though I would not care in the least if my own unworthy self were
to vanish away, I only hope that the crown prince’s reign is without unhappy event.”
She knew too well what he meant, and was unable to reply. He was almost too
handsome as at last he succumbed to tears. “I am going to pay my respects at His
Majesty’s grave. Do You have a message?”
She was silent for a time, seeking to control herself.
“The one whom I served is gone, the other must go.
Farewell to the world was no farewell to its sorrows.”
(continued)