The Tale of Murasaki by Liza Dalby

Author:Liza Dalby [Dalby, Liza]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4000-3278-5
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2000-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

The days passed uneventfully. Though no longer in mourning, I seldom went out. The plague continued to rage, and it would have been foolhardy to tempt those demons. One day I received a visit from my friend Lady Saishō as she was taking a brief leave of absence from imperial service. It seemed to me she led a glamorous life, and I was envious. She protested.

—It is wearying, she said.

She relished the chance to get away. I couldn’t help pressing her for stories of life at court. Since my husband died, I had been completely in the dark.

She told me about the latest scandal concerning the death of Prince Tametaka. He was having an affair with Izumi Shikibu—another of those literary ladies who had gotten themselves a reputation. The prince was notorious for pursuing his amorous adventures without regard to what anyone thought. The streets may have been seething with demons at night and befouled by the corpses of plague victims piled up at the corners, but none of this deterred him from visiting his lover. With such recklessness, his death should not have come as a surprise, but Saishō said his father, the retired emperor, refused to believe it.

—Just keep looking, they say he begged. You’re sure to find him somewhere.

About the same time, the crown prince’s consort Seishi, who had been quite ill all year, suddenly made a miraculous recovery.

—Finally, said Saishō, there was something positive. But then, just as suddenly, the crown prince’s other consort, Genshi, died horribly, blood gushing out her nose and mouth. It makes you wonder, she said darkly, if there wasn’t some sort of connection.

—What do you mean? I asked her.

—Well, people are saying it’s too much of a coincidence that Seishi, who had been at death’s door, suddenly recovered just when Genshi, who hadn’t been at all sick, was stricken. It has all the signs of a curse.

I nodded, reminded with a shiver of my husband’s comment that I should surely hate palace life with its morbid bickering and deadly rivalries. I began to see why Saishō might be relieved to get away from that atmosphere for a while.

—It is bad-mannered of me to speak ill of the dead, but I’ve heard strange rumors about Genshi, I said. I know the crown prince found her difficult. My husband mentioned that once when he was a guest at their residence, Genshi rolled up the blinds and stood there with her robes open, exposing her breasts. The crown prince was embarrassed, and the guests all stared at the floor. My husband said they didn’t know whether to stay or leave.

Saishō said the story was quite believable and accorded with things she herself had heard. Once when a group of students from the university was composing Chinese poetry at the crown prince’s mansion, Genshi began throwing bags of gold dust at them from behind her screen. The students felt they had to pretend enthusiasm and scramble for the bags, but in fact they found it quite undignified.

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