3 THE ORDER OF THE EARLY CHAPTERS IN THE GENJI MONOGATARI Aileen Gatten Sous ard na of Sa 2: (8 5 Few woeks of mutate pros fon can vival the Gey manegaart ‘948 tes lerature ofthe highest ality and complet, and has enjoyed “nnterrptd popu in Jpn singe Hs appearance in the ery seventh ‘entcy, Few Jupuneve clas have bece to ctl read or 0 hooughly sete and interected over he cents; ev ay is eines among oder eaers in Japa ad the West. Ad yet we know surprisingly Hite hoot he ext of hi stounnaretve nse and mot portant year. Lat sen by reviewing what we J indeed know: the Gn monogatar as writen nthe fist ade ofthe leah cent by a elon ben Ing tos mitor branch ofthe Hate Fuara RR aa, She served 36 ladyin-stng to Epes Shai G8H-10T0) and was Known at court byte seriquet Murasaki Shkibu st" “The Marana Shi nie, a combination of dary and memoir which lebeteved we the wort of Murasaki Sokbu, notes ala work she cls ‘he Gen no monogutart was ead fore Emperor Ii 986-1011), who raed th ator for hr extensive knowledge of Japanese history The ms lho mcd uous encounter Steen the poet Fara 0 Kt, he time Commander of the Left Gate Gund, andthe author othe Geno theevening ofthe st ofthe eleventh month, 1008. Fifty dys after the ith of Mihinap's fst grandson, Ponce Abhi 2, formal cobain Is td atthe Tsuhimitado mansion." where the empress and ee court se in rsidence. This grad and slema ccasin is allowed by “emg of Fight crankennes. in which the patron ofthe mperil court es, ak counts toast, and torment the many ladin-neling wateing the panty from behind cuaias and Mads. This cee! rowan forms 8 rT the bakround fr Kini ashe approaches Murs hii’ cutin and Proceeds to exer is eerste ‘The Commande of te Guards pred through my curtis do bes your pardon,” he a, "at sy Marsa about?” cll ered in, What earth wood hat aye doing | wonder, when ot oe of Yu look capable of conto wth Gen “Taken foster, the two mk eat ew hat the Gen monogaar| sisted test in act byte end of 108, ad Ut work ald the Gen ‘mo moog, whic inlet Gen a he udlt Mura as caret ‘wis enjoying considerable popularity at sour. ‘Bt that al then nto sou! the Ge pes; and, when one osiders what Murai Shiba coud have writen there al ofthe fomposton proses. perhaps, or her reader rrp erin hart for chaptes one can onl feet the athor retinas arly transmission and ordering of Gen chapters “Thece exists yet another relevant passage from the mk & long acount, wen inthe anipuous sea sort of Hear shorthand favored 9 {eather booecpying projet ite by Sho in the iba of be teenth month of 108, sory afer the "Kine-Murtsak episode This Dsage des not mention te Got mnogo by name, ut te agit ‘ofthe poet andthe ental pstion scp by Marsa Shiba the proces of coping and asembing a Tong ext art perme even that the object ofthe copying was indo Gon “The tie wat aera ad for hor may to rete fo court vith he noborn pice We nee ite mom ou om oering Sn celation afer ster” mow we eared it tes ‘ppg ana tok re pl eron Aw dy dave, and 2 inn atening ber aj essed wen paper in sr sada rage the mace ‘2c bool ofthe monster? when popstar Sent the oft othr utr withnotes gue ow a erckpton' Ti woul be liber eougy but once the oping ‘rs competed, worked doy an ih senting and ding he eles “What can you be thinking of” his tordship ele to the emp. “imag, a new tet fie you tring bes into such cls nhc” Yar phe poet be »ontlbuted welng pape of high quality, brates, ik, and even bison nkstoos, Her jes inssted on my taking the ikstone; whereupon his lorship proved tater vueros regres tht he a parte with Icatal You've spat your Ge i her aj serve biden ny Inback rooms” he scldo ne, “Anda hat were’ enough, now you've come up with scheme ike this” Even, be gave me some ‘tel pattered paper and writing brushes.” Thad set hme for my monagaar booklet and had hidden them herein my roomy ut wie asin tendanon er ae, his Tordship stole into my room, vearhed i throughly, ad Dresated his dings, the entre tnanuseip, to her ladyship the Prioeipl Handmaid:* The rat which Th revo, mote o as acceptably, has quite dsappeard: andthe trary quality ofthis "antscripnow im her yt’ hands ound to ge me a eputaon as ident write IF this passage cones ise as seems Hl, with an carly copying ofthe Gent manogoart. then we have garnered ihe following edition Information. Fit the wen paper in various cole, the contbution of fine wetig materials by Michinaga himself, andthe iadlsion of copyits ‘io wee not members of Shh cout al oni that oy 008 the Gent Imonopatar! ah sonsiere worthy of prseration Inde hxe maser, ‘he production of which escupidtheaenton ofa ree many poops ote | patio of eral days. Secon, the epson which the grat Michinag, Miniter ofthe Let Is deiven io canack Murs Shiba’ rom ie oder to obtain the holo: ‘graph ef the Ge Tuer emphasizes the esto i which thisextaondinary ‘nomoatr was belt, mre prin aio ade tae Maras ‘Shiki’ ow me leant two variant rset of th Ge! mao uar were is culation hr fat deat ad the "more rls sxe” ‘eve? copy. One might ad totes he expla mntoned i the nik ‘spe, whch pony contained variants not pest inthe to ote MSS, Fire tben, it posse source of thwe vain too wily dierent ‘be atrbutable fo iscopying, that sure i Gey ets predating the Kaveachi IP and Aobyoshi HRA reension of te thiteent century, ‘arlants wih peri, to a cert extet, within the recension Furthermore, the process of reproducing leg a manzpatar! a the Gnas an impertat gusstion: each capes ws represented by one book, how were these cies idee, and how mere ty Kept inode? How could a rude tl, for example, which booklet was "Riri" (The Paulownia Cour, and dat be was to bain by reading i Anyone who has sen old Gol MSS, ofthe excleat reproductions of several of Shir number, riht he tempted 10 answer the at prt of the « a ‘ution by stating thatthe capter-ookls were Meni bythe te, ‘Ae al our eldest MSS hve tes writen onthe covers and ome even have mutbers. Bat one mst peossed th cation in dealing nr covers “Tare ie no knowing when they may have bee replaced an one my Wel fn ftce-cnury cover, wh ie and caper ub, cong Seth ‘stir hap, whowe original cover as nother emenibered at corey ‘produce, "Tere i in fc no evioace that Muraski Shiki i respon for thet ofthe Gan monogatar. oF was even eof them. any othe ‘lest surviving tens ea variant ehupe es which apes that either “he author changed ber mind shoot es etme alto tte business of chapter tiles to ltr copys. The at that mos ofthe capt te, ‘arian ince, ae iter dood fom the text of the chapter (ie "Kirsuo") or aot as description of ehapler events (in Mom ns 2 HLM, “An Autumn Escorson”)" nde aubtans ote theo tat the ‘hap es, although venerable, have no dense tes fo Maras Ski. I we cannot state with cera tht les were writen onthe overs of | the Gen books propre for Epes Shh, wit, was writen here? "Numerals sys on eminent authority, who bares it een on rere {othe Gen found nthe Sarai ah 2, writen about 109. kn ‘tthe author a devo of fision known only te daughter of Sogawara ‘ho Tans PORE, rol tat, young gil inte sprog of NET se ‘rayed that Se might read "tb ete Gon mo monoptos from the ery frst chaptr.® The buds ally gant her wish through te ois of & enero aut, who gies be. the fysome chaps ofthe Gen inte om Box... Bene ‘Thad only come upon bits and pss thas I rend embing wth joy though could keno see of he soy. Bu now this Ge hd ben so patito rad was mine from he very fet chapter, ‘AT pulled ach one out ad bet one hes, 8, Sop ise my arta and et quite alone, tt Teel ox be kappa were the empress hese” Unfortunately th author ofthe Soashin nik weston oly the “rey fist chap” (el no mal). Thera no references tothe seventh hapa” {or example, or "the frty-fitchaper"ferenes which Would make the aus for umber eigen mh tong. ‘The mater of“iy-some chapters” (0 amar no maki +8) poss nother problem: oid tbe that her mpreson due not to ean pene han fo the Bred and muted igure tt the fst ht, esis by the cover ofthe final chapter Booklet, she had only a rough en fom the space they esupad of ow many booklets she now owned? “‘We therfore have litle evidence that th booketscoped by Shishi ladies and uses bore ther caper ies or numa on thi overs. [Nevertvey, ts o fnagie that sch rz sumer of book sllpresumity covered with ental colored paper, would ot be marked ‘in some anne to ase thir prope rangement. ‘Numbering woud sem the eset solution. Yet the writing of Cine hacer, numerals ncaa, was not eonsdred an esata o ev coe ‘mondableaccomplshnent fr Holan women.” Moreover, the Mos ance {aly of Get NS coves, which might thought to preserve the crigial manner of lasing, ve only he chapter ile ao nner “Thieves wth the chaps. Lt us foe ment ete author ‘ies, then, and assume that SHAS copys nsrbed te covers of their Tooke wih te reognzale fo. We wl il ed oursles fond sith he question: how dia onder of Suasas Shiki’ ine know whch {booklet Began the story, whi one eae nedt and so oa? 'A reasonable answer might be, bya table of contents tht i «Hist of pe ies or, ting tha, of pening tes foreach chapter sich at ‘ited nthe Heian erie, however tn have dppeared along wih acl ‘ery Gog MS of that ine nor tare any sconday evidence to Prove ‘ei existence, This doer not mean tht chapter Hs never exited the ‘oldest extant example, the Gen n moro ELDER (en Inventor), Survie av pat of alte welthcetury mivclany, Ge ath A {nl te deus nme deta below Useful though tthe Motura loss ot demonstrat that ts part oa ration gun With the fist copies oF ‘he Go, We mit therfore rere rec the den of it a mens ‘lasnurig upon, and colder the protien on + more be eve Those Hein fenders fortunate enough to poss a compet st of ‘bookles—and one canna be sue how many me ups somplete et, oly ‘atthe number na close to tha of toy peo kept tina woe tox witha Mad Uw fa id he author of he Sarasin i. The ‘ook were stacked ine the Borin an order determined by caer ‘ede eas of how the sory shuld go If inthe cour of reading. the ‘rl onder the booklets waited pty oud stay tha way al ore crf reader pu hen back in the proper pce BT would lik to sre hatin the eleventh and wih centri, the proper pce" of chapter may wel have varied, depending onthe reader ‘th the number and Idety ofthe chapter in bs owen. Those who ‘tte thir Booklets according 1o infomation found inthe txt would ‘Scsmonily be obliged to decide which of to seeming vrtanaous| ‘Supers to pu lst. Or te other Hand, tose whe ordeted tha Books ‘family ation, Kopng them inthe ordrin which hey ad always ees sph, might have had a more arbitrary arangement of ape Te Know about th costent or stature of the Gey mancgaar ‘in the fist too hundred yeas of ts exstenc; but may be astumed tha a the chapter order remained Bld, a mtr o be desde by the individ ‘ender andthe at of his fay maser oly shore tne Reader. ofthe scond andthe gneaton after Musa Shikibu us ane 2 edt ie th chaps i tha pot ben dope alsa oi them Int a sold framework, “The east documents we bave tha st the Gun in dente order, sranged by chaper es and eral, are two thelr cetury works, the Gn monopetar sla (Commentary) of Pujvara Ho Keyl AE (1158-20), writen about 116, andthe Gen no motor of 119, mentioned shove. Their simity In tems of chapter onder and tes nde thatthe outer structure o he Goyl, reece i chaper oder, ‘ad undergone a procs of standrdzation inthe le eleventh and ea ‘eth entries. A fw etepanis remala the positon of ou peat Chapters 43, "Kabai" Aj ("The Rove Phun") ag 4, “Takekawn” (CBmoo River) ae reversed isthe Matar” Koreyuki onthe other and nudes one ebupe,“Sakurabito” A CChery-Blossrm Gi), ondemnt bythe Molaro as spies, and pass aot, "Nora > tec "Yure ao uhh he raton Ha chap, hi indenting that his Gena y-sichapters. Neverthe, hide to ge dette det tothe “ysome booklets mark the being of seriou ng lt the structure of the narrate “The quest for single onder of arrangement for the Gon! booklets felted only one side of etely Gent wholatip, that Is he doe to [son time framework, or ebonology, in which the shaper tal comforuly- Tis ingulry as complemented by the qution ofthe order ‘tcompostion, the dese to kxow i what order the Ge was writen, ‘ella the order in which sould Be ea “The notion that the Ge mnogo as not wt in the ordi whieh ‘ee ow have it would appear fo be very od. is fst masifstaton, i therm ofa legend strane oa ourtont-enty coment the Kakaisht Rg of Yotsutsat Yoshinat POH (326-1400, According to thi recived tration, Murasaki Shiki, comminoned by Tenpess Shishi to wate 4 new mononatar goes to te tape of Inhyamucera ie in what sow Shien Prtctare inode o mediate ‘on her tas On the feeth of the eighth month, 3b he Watcher the ‘etection ofthe areata onthe wrtes of Lake va, se granted 8 ‘son ofan extacdiary monogetar. She hay writs down the deta fon the back of sum, sce wing paper i apparently not st hat ‘The Kalaish easing ofthe legend thu “She beg wih te to ules Sum JU snd ‘Akash. That why there psage a Sta ‘hal goes something Hike thi: “Ge rmeiered that tonight was the age ofthe tare moon” This peed, one ofthe rare drama neues to be found in meer (en clarsip has bon hllenged on virtually every pol and theres a