The Tale of Genji offers the reader an understanding of another period of Japanese history that is often overshadowed by the stories of medieval period. It gives the contemporary reader a good glimpse of what Heian society considered as the ideal man and woman and their complicated and intertwined relationships. First, I will discuss the ideal qualities of a Heian woman and their relationship with men as described in the novel. Then, I will discuss the description of Genji and the possible implications behind those descriptions.
In chapter 2 of The Tale of Genji, Tō no Chūjō, the Chief Left Equerry, the Fujiwara Aide of Ceremonies, and Genji have a discussion about the ideal woman and the various types of women they have encountered. According to Tō no Chūjō, the ideal woman is from the middle ranking because they are not overly pampered or shrouded in mystery like the women of high ranking. An important skill that a Heian woman should possess is the ability to compose good poetry in beautiful flowing handwriting. The Chief Equerry remarks that looks are of little value because, “as long as a girl has looks and youth enough, she avoids anything that might soil her name” (24). This implies that the more beautiful the woman the more she would try to conceal herself and play games with her admirer. They later tell each other of their own experiences regarding the flaws of certain women they encountered. The first woman the Chief Equerry mentions was a woman who was devoted yet extremely jealous and the second woman was graceful and smart but she was secretly seeing another man. After these two stories, he warns To no Chūjō and Genji about “easy and pliant women” because “any slip of hers can make her husband look a fool” (33). Tō n...
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Shining Genji: the name was imposing, but not so its bearer's many deplorable lapses; and considering how quiet he kept his wanton ways, lest in reaching the ears of posterity the earn him unwelcome fame, whoever broadcast his secrets to all the world was a terrible gossip (18.)
Like every Heian man, Genji is sensitive to the mono no aware of things.
However, it is hard not to see this description of Genji and his conduct as a social criticism of the typical aristocrat and his many love affairs. Many of the inexcusable things that Genji does are often overlooked. This includes forcefully entering Utsusemi’s room, kidnapping Murasaki after her father, Prince Hyōbu, told him he could not have her, and having an affair with his father’s consort.
Works Cited
Murasaki Shikibu. The Tale of Genji: Abridged. Trans. Royall Tyler. New York: Penguin Books, 2006.
Ironically, Murasaki was able to write The Tale of the Genji in a patriarchal environment, which was typically dominated by male poets and historical writers. The background of this 11th century Japanese “novel” defines the unusual circumstances of a male-dominant literary culture, which allowed Murasaki to tell this story as a female author. In her own diary, Murasaki Shikibu writes about the power of patriarchal authority in the royal court, when she learns that the emperor was reading Tale of Genji. This aspect of 11th century Japanese society defines the assumption of ignorance and submissiveness that Murasaki had to endure as a female
Sometimes people are judged by their looks, and preferences will be made towards the more beautiful people before the less beautiful people. What individuals don’t put into account is that the person’s personality is part of their beauty. In Gail Tsukiyama’s novel, The Samurai’s Garden, through the characterization of Sachi’s personality and adversities, Gail Tsukiyama conveys the message that beauty is deeper than just the outside and this message is important because one shouldn’t judge someone just by their looks.
All the characters are products of their own society, Veronese society. Status is everything, money buys anything. Woman must marry well and produce many offspring. Men believe strongly in defending their honor by any means available especially violence.
Musui’s Story is the exciting tale of a low class samurai’s life towards the end of the Tokugawa era. Although one would normally imagine a samurai to be a noble illustrious figure, Musui’s Story portrays the rather ignominious life of an unemployed samurai. Nonetheless, this primary account demonstrates the tenacity of samurai values and privileges present at the end of the Tokugawa shogunate. The social status of samurai had been elevated to such a state that even someone like Musui was easily able to gain influence in everyday affairs with his privileges. Not only that, but he had retained his values as a warrior and still kept great pride for his arts in weaponry.
Throughout history artists have used art as a means to reflect the on goings of the society surrounding them. Many times, novels serve as primary sources in the future for students to reflect on past history. Students can successfully use novels as a source of understanding past events. Different sentiments and points of views within novels serve as the information one may use to reflect on these events. Natsume Soseki’s novel Kokoro successfully encapsulates much of what has been discussed in class, parallels with the events in Japan at the time the novel takes place, and serves as a social commentary to describe these events in Japan at the time of the Mejeii Restoration and beyond. Therefore, Kokoro successfully serves as a primary source students may use to enable them to understand institutions like conflicting views Whites by the Japanese, the role of women, and the population’s analysis of the Emperor.
Based on Murasaki Shikibu’s “The Tale of Genji” the ideal man and the ideal woman of the Heian Court can easily be discerned as not truly existing, with the main character, Genji, being the nearly satirical example of what was the ideal man, and descriptions of the many women in the story as prescription of the ideal woman with the young Murasaki playing a similar role to that of Genji in the story.
When studying gender roles in history, one will find that females are often depicted in similar ways no matter the era or region of study. Even when comparing the industrialized, early, twentieth century to today’s progressive era, there are striking similarities between female roles. We can see that over the course of the twentieth century, the qualities of loyalty and honesty have decreased in marriages due to the treatment of the two main female roles as depicted literature. The first was the role of the wife. The wife was often portrayed as a housekeeper and a nanny. Dull in appearance, there was no aesthetic beauty to this typical female. The other main role was the “other woman.” The more mysterious and promiscuous character, this woman portrayed the other part of the female population. Both of these types of characters are composites that portrayed the average, disposable female while how they were treated conveyed the general handling of females in the early, twentieth century.
Sadler, A. L., & Sadler, A. L. (2009).Shogun: the life of Tokugawa Ieyasu : the dramatic story of
Shikibu, Murasaki. The Tale of Genji. Vintage Classics. New York: Vintage Books, Random House, 1985.
Being a student interested in the field of biology, one knows that studying life in the past plays an important role in the history of organisms that lived on this earth. Similarly, being Japanese, studying the past of how Japanese were plays an important role in Japanese history. Despite all the general aspects of life that have changed from the Heian period, the one idea that has definitely not changed is the romantic relationships between a man and woman. Though the general concept is the same, from reading The Tale of Genji, it is what was considered the ideal woman and ideal man that were both surprising and thus worth discussing.
But as Dalby goes on to note, the geisha culture is marked by the "primacy of sisterhood", and represents a kind of counterpart to the bonds of brotherhood in such fraternal Japanese cultures as business corporations and company unions. The modern geisha's services are beyond the means of the average Japanese man today, but the geisha continues to represent a cultural ideal: the ideal of the witty, educated woman who can talk frankly with a man about life, sex, art, politics, or anything else his wife cannot.
Japanese film serves as a lens through which one observe Japan’s shifting culture in the era of the post-war period; specifically one can trace the changing social perceptions and obligations of women. Departures is a prime film to examine the role of women within Japanese society due to the variety of women it offers up for analysis within and outside of the film. While Departures has a male director and is not overtly dealing with women, Daigo is consistently guided and influenced by the women in the film, who are featured much more prominently in both major and minor roles. This film speaks to large universal themes and questions such as death and family, however Takita uses specific Japanese customs and filial traditions to frame these
Murasaki Shikibu’s Tale of Genji, set in the Heian Period, gives a good idea of what the model Heian man and Heian woman should look like. Genji himself is like a physical embodiment of male perfection, while a large portion of the Broom Tree chapter outlines the ideal of a woman—that it is men who decide what constitutes a perfect woman, and the fact that even they cannot come to decide which traits are the best, and whether anyone can realistically possess all of those traits shows that the function of women in the eyes of men of that period was largely to cater to their husbands and households. Broken down, there are similarities and differences between the standard for Heian men and women, and the Tale of Genji provides excellent examples of characters who fit into their respective gender roles.
Two hundred years ago a fearless leader named Takamori Saigo drew his sword and hurled a final challenge to Japans Imperial army, outnumbered and outmatched the samurai were inevitably obliterated and Takomori Saigo became a hero symbolizing devotion and principle. The samurai were a group of elite warriors in Japan that died out soon after the Mejia era. A movie came out depicting the samurais final stand .When The Last Samurai hit theaters in 2001 it was fairly well received by movie critics earning a seven out of ten by Internet Movie Data Base. On the other hand Historians had mixed feelings about the film. The reason for this was that it was not very consistent with what had actually happened in history. The Last Samurai was a movie that depicted the samurai’s last stand during the spread of western civilization in Japan. Although the movie did portray some things that might be historically accurate it was mostly a romanticized movie that distorted reality as many Hollywood movies do. This movie was far from historically accurate because of its characters, settings, and plot. While the movie is titled The Last Samurai it does not mainly revolve around the character Katsumoto that depicts Takamori Saigo the leader of the samurai during the Satsuma rebellion ironically it revolves around Tom Cruises character Algren a US Army Captain which is completely fictional. Because The Last Samurai’s plot had many inconsistencies with what had happened during the Satsuma Rebellion it is not historically accurate.
In comparison, tone of medieval age Japanese literature becomes more intense, realistic, and darker in scope as focus shifts more to the lives and interests of people outside of court. In particular, the warrior class contributed a lot to Japanese literature during the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, because of the increase in civil wars and shift in political power. This is clearly evident in the works of gunki monogatari, especially “Heike Monogatari,” because the tales depict inelegant things that were not to be mentioned in Heian period literature, such as blood and gore.