Ana Benderas
Professor Lago
ISAC 102
1 March 2013
Beauty: an Ugly
Agent of Fate
The enjoyment of beauty, a Heian
value, prevails throughout the episode of The
Tale of Genji; but beauty can have an ugly side if people fail to express
it and enjoy it with balance. Lady
Murasaki Shikibu’s episode “The Festival of the Cherry Blossoms” reflects the
Buddhist influence prevalent in the Heian culture of Japan that “everything
beautiful must die,” admonishing the search for balance between the
appreciation of beauty and its prejudicial potential to create desire.
The episode reflects a Heian
value of beauty, exposing the power and influence it can have over human beings
in either a balanced or unbalanced manner.
Not coincidently, the Emperor holds the great festival during spring,
the most beautiful season of the year, under a cherry blossom tree which
produces gorgeous, red leaves. The
impeccable reciting of poetry, the graceful music, the garden worth boasting,
and the moon and water create an enchanting scenario. Genji’s own poem performs an ode to beauty,
reading: “Were I but a common mortal who now am gazing at the beauty of this
flower,/ From its sweet petals not long should I withhold the dew of love”
(Shikibu, 2), reciting that beauty influences the decisions and actions of
people. This stage and Genji’s poem
serve as a foreshadowing of the protagonist’s dilemma and to expose Genji’s character. By placing him in the middle of such grand
beauty, fate tests and invites him to begin a search for balance. Will he acknowledge the ephemeral nature of
beauty by noticing the shortness of the spring season, realizing that the red
leaves will soon turn
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brown
and wither? Will he notice the short
length of the poems and dances and remember to appreciate beauty because it
will soon die as will he? Or will the
glamour fool him and birth in him desire, which, of course, can only lead to
suffering? Genji performs poorly in this
test, as the beauty around him lures him to pursue more of it, allowing it to
consume him.
Beauty works as the main agent of
fate that leads to Genji’s suffering, since it creates in him desire. Beauty brings the lovers together both times
in the episode. Genji, mesmerized by the
beauty of the festival searches to enjoy more of the moon’s loveliness. This
leads him to find the nameless woman who becomes his main object of desire and tells
her, “That both of us were not content to miss the beauty of this departing
night is proof clearer than the half-clouded moon that we were meant to meet”
(2), verbally acknowledging the power of beauty to lead human beings to their
fate. The second time beauty works
through the pretty fan to bring Genji to the lady. Their mutual pursuit to fulfill their desires
leads to the suffering and anxiety they feel after their first meeting
ends. As the text reads, the desire for
Genji plunges the lady “into the depths of despair” (5) and “turmoil fills her
brain” (5). This desire in Genji also
prevents him from finding contentment with his wives and leads him to continue
his desperate search for the nameless lady.
Insufficient it had seemed to them both that beautiful night, and
failing to find a balance in their appreciation of beauty, they allow desire to
overwhelm them.
The ending of the episode reflects
the Buddhist influence in the text, claiming that desires never lead to
happiness; quite the opposite, they lead to suffering because people can never
satisfy them. Gijan thinks he is
delighted, but he is not. The Heidan
influence of the text admonishes even American readers to find balance in the
enjoyment of beauty, for alas! beauty creates desire that makes us suffer. In our Western society, which understands
marriage as
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monogamous,
applying this principle can keep us away from trouble outside of marriage. A lovely poem, a beautiful face, a luring
song can tempt us to desire a person in a most afflicting way.
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References
Shikibu,
Mirasaki. The Tale of Genji. “Episode
8: The Festival of the Cherry Blossoms.” Class
handout.
Copyright Benderas (2013).
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