World’s literary culture contains monumental works written by authors from different regions and living in different times. Japanese literature is also an essential element of world literature, in the context of which Murasaki Shikibu and his work “The Tale of Genji” cannot be overlooked. The story is about the heir to the Japanese emperor, Genji, who, even before his birth, faced human feelings of envy, anger, and hatred directed at his mother. The protagonist’s mother was the concubine of the Japanese sovereign, and he, despite the existing hierarchy of women at court, treated her most favorably. The emperor’s favor exceeded reasonable limits, which irritated the courtiers, and especially other concubines. Genji’s mother died when he was three years old, and even after that, the attitude towards him from the side of society did not become less harmful (Shikibu). The piece reflects the essence of Japanese aware aesthetics in literature and shows its fundamental difference from Western aesthetic perceptions, as seen in two foundational events.
The first event that demonstrates an essential element of the aware aesthetics is the plot itself. Namely, the affectionate feelings of the Japanese sovereign, Genji’s father, for his mother, who was a low-ranking concubine, were shown without regard to the reaction of high society. They grew from beautiful and romantic to destructive and sad. Genji’s mother was a young girl who could not somehow distance herself from the emperor because of his strong attachment to her, which gave rise to a phenomenon paradoxical for Western literature. The essence of this is the melancholy and despair of the girl for the affection of her beloved, with the poetically ideal love of the couple and condemning society. This approach stands out firmly from the Western literary tradition’s greater emphasis on narrative and indirect expression of feelings. Western literature prefers to demonstrate the character’s feelings and character in their words and actions that express emotions promptly. Murasaki Shikibu, in turn, tries to expand and deepen the sensuality of the melancholy of the beautiful that he describes, which is the aesthetics of the aware.
Precisely, the aesthetics are reflected in the words of Genji’s mother on her deathbed while talking with the sovereign. She says before dying: “I leave you, to go the road we all must go. The road I would choose, if only I could, is the other” (Shikibu 25). This demonstrates the wonderful melancholy and sensuality of death inherent in the idea of aware that is conveyed to the fullest by the work. This attitude towards death, its aesthetic perception, differs from that in the European literary and aesthetic tradition, although there are interesting exceptions. Virginia Woolf’s essay “A Room of One’s Own” discusses the feminine and masculine nature of literature, and Woolf mentions that all European literature belongs to the masculine tradition. However, she considers Shakespeare to be an exception, whose work is based not so much on bloody battles, travel, and other adventurism, but on the feelings, thoughts of his characters, and their interaction (Woolf). Proceeding from this, Japanese literature and the very direction of aware aesthetics can be considered feminine since it is based on the feelings and psychology of the actors, their relationships.
The death of loved ones is always a potent blow for those close to them, but what is even more interesting, for their ill-wishers too. Murasaki Shikibu reveals this with the different structure and emotional coloring of the poems spoken by the characters. Ms. Myo Bu conveyed a message from the emperor to the mother of a deceased. Hearing the older woman’s memory of her daughter, her hopes, and fears, Myo Bu becomes imbued with the grief of the girl’s mother. Leaving her house, she can hardly hold back tears. At the same time, the sovereign himself suffers like a man who has lost his beloved, ceased to eat, and fell into apathy (Shikibu). All of this reflects the Japanese culture of the aware aesthetics—a sensitivity to ephemera. The very fate of a beautiful boy from his birth, whose life is overshadowed by the death of his mother, is sad and beautiful within the culture of aware.
As mentioned earlier, the characters react to these events melancholy and subtly, as should be with the aristocratic aesthetes, the image inherent in Japanese culture. Mrs. Myo Bu, in the above episode, conveys her feelings with the words: “The autumn night is too short to contain my tears // Though songs of bell cricket weary, fall into silence” (Shikibu 28). This melancholy was transmitted to the messenger from the deceased’s mother through words, movements, and desolation, which reigned in the house and garden of the mother of the deceased girl. This feminine cultural idea of aware beauty is associated with the Shinto belief that everything has its deity. It is called kami, and it is identified with its unique charm in everything. Aware is what causes delight, the excitement of both the author and the reader. In it, the mentioned event is a combination of feelings, places, characters, and aesthetics. They ultimately form the artistic narrative of the work.
To summarize, “The Tale of Genji” by Murasaki Shikibu reflects the Japanese literary tradition not only of his time but also the fundamental, timeless philosophy of the aesthetic. This cultural-feminine approach, centered on sensuality and melancholy, is different from Western masculine narratives that are adventurous and event-centered. In Japanese literary tradition, “The Tale of Genji” is a vivid example that observes not the event itself in general, not the narrative but deepens into each character and place. The essay described two elements from the book: the emperor’s affectedness and love towards his concubine and the grief of this concubines’ rival. Both events depict the tragic beauty in the narrative, which is inherent in Japanese literature and presents an aspect of aware. Thus, one can understand that the work of Murasaki Shikibu is an aesthetically pleasing experience, demonstrating the dichotomy of sensual and personal narrative to the adventurous and aggressive. The concepts within Japanese literature are apparently distinctive from the phenomena of Western literature, which makes this regional area of literature even more exciting to explore.
Works Cited
Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One’s Own. Colossal Publications, 2021.
Shikibu, Murasaki. The Tale of Genji. 1st ed., Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1978.