The Akashi Lady – Chapter 12 & Chapter 13

Picture source: http://www.taleofgenji.org/akashi.html

The Novice’s daughter – She is the love interest who will give birth to the future Empress.
The Akashi lady is first mentioned in the Suma chapter.

“His daughter had no remarkable looks, but she was attractively elegant and had wit enough to rival any great lady. Knowing full well that her station left much to be desired, she took it for granted that no great lord would deign to notice her…” (269).

The Akashi lady has the qualities discussed by the Chief Equerry in The Broom Tree chapter (25). She is not particularly pretty and is not high-born, but she definitely possesses the wit and grace of the ideal lady that the Chief Equerry describes.

Furthermore, we learn that she is an accomplished koto player, that skill alone makes her more attractive (women playing the koto are considered more refined), and she earns her way into Genji’s heart with her music. Like poetry, music is a highly valued form of expression but moreover, it is purely emotional because it forges a direct connection to the audience. With poetry, there is a process of encoding by the writer, and decoding by the receiver. As a result, messages may get misunderstood, such as with the Cicada Shell Lady and Genji’s poem about her “smelly” robe. For the Akashi lady, music is her weapon, her lure- and this is what captures Genji even while he longs for Murasaki.

Throughout the text up until that point, Genji rarely truly concerns himself with what his ladies may think of his affairs with other ladies. This is not the case at Suma. During his exile at Suma, he puts off meeting with the Akashi lady because of his status of disgrace, but also because of his feelings for Murasaki:

“Genji suffered and smarted that his lady at Nijo might somehow catch wind of all this and be hurt to imagine his heart straying, even in a flight of folly; which no doubt gave the measure of his extravagant love” (270).

Genji calls his affairs a “silly amusement” (270), and that is exactly what the Akashi lady is to him until he hears her play her koto. After she plays, she becomes someone more than a companion to his loneliness in exile. He makes promises that he will come back for her, and gives her his own koto.

Another interesting section comes at the end of the Suma chapter, which connects the Akashi lady with the Dragon King, or the “supernatural”. I do not mean supernatural like ghosts and such, because it seems that the Dragon King is not so much a paranormal being, but a deity who resides in nature itself.

“He woke up and understood that the Dragon King of the sea, a great lover of beauty, must have his eye on him” (253).
Tyler notes that: “Early commentaries observe that the Dragon King, whose daughter is famous in myth, desires a beautiful son-in-law”(253).

Significance to Genji: Could this “daughter” be a reference to the Akashi lady? Immediately after the storm, the Novice arrives miraculously unharmed through the violent waves. He arrives with the hope of forging an alliance with Genji so he can present his daughter to him. The Novice tells Genji that he had a dream on the thirteenth wherein he was instructed to prepare a boat and sail to Suma. Genji had prayed to the Dragon King for protection from the storm, and perhaps in return he is hoping Genji to form a liaison with the Akashi lady. When The Novice returns to Akashi, it seems that the Dragon King itself is helping The Novice through the waves, “The same wind blew…So short a journey took hardly any time, but one could only marvel at the will of the wind” (260).

It seems that the text suggests that there are other forces at work here, as the Novice is able to travel back and forth with ease, despite the difficult waves. Also to consider, is that the Akashi Novice may be more attuned to the land through his studies and practices of Buddhism, which stresses harmony with nature. He is described as being very devoted to his practises, with the only real worry being that of his un-wedded daughter. He even tells his daughter that should he die before she weds – she should drown herself in the sea. But why would he give this order? Perhaps the drowning in the sea is not only death, but also a spiritual return to the Dragon King. According to the ancient Japanese myth, the Dragon King does have a daughter named “Otohime”, but more significantly, the human she marries is a prince (Prince Hoori). Although the Akashi lady does not give birth to a boy, her daughter does achieve the rank of Empress, which seems an accomplishment considering that she does not have a significant rank herself.

Sources:

http://www.dragonorama.com/famous/r/ryujin.html (myth)