The Genji Monogatari

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in which the character appears to the clothes that they wear to
the portion of Genji's palace that they inhabit, without a more than casual
appreciation to nature in reading this novel a great chunk of the literary
value is lost. "[Murasaki} is not content simply to describe the charms of
the different seasons, but they are skillfully harmonized with the feelings
of the characters" (Shinkokai, 1970 p.55). The first example of this is in
the Broom Tree Chapter (Chapter 2) in the conversation that Genji and To no
Chujo carry on at length about the various merits of the ideal lady
(Seidensticker, 1976 p 20) . The scene takes place during the summer rainy
season on a particularly stormy night. Traditionally, summer was a time of
abstinence because it was the crucial period for the cultivation of rice
(Field, 1987 p. 121), and because the rains were so abundant that they
prohibited travel to one's lover. This would have been recognized be an
Eleventh Century audience, and when a ...

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Genji could not take his eyes from it. On other
such nights there had been concerts at court, and perhaps they of whom he
was thinking would be gazing at the same moon and thinking of him." Here
Genji not only shows his mastery of mono no aware, but can be said to have
become the moon. This, of course, needs some explanation. The culture in
which Genji lived in depended ultimately on the moon. They decided when to
plant their rice by it, made their years go by lunar cycles instead of by
the seasons as in the west, and basically let their lives revolve around
something that in actuality revolved around them. "So it was all through
the court. Deep sorrow prevailed" (p 229). Even the ...

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