General Comments:

This chapter presents a different amorous experience for Genji. He becomes rather clumsily involved with a woman of royalty, Suetsumuhana (S: Safflower Lady / T: Her Highness, daughter of the Hitachi Prince), who lives at great disadvantage and who has what I think we would say is a mild disfigurement of the face (a slightly long nose that is reddish at its tip) but what is described by Genji and others as both a truly comic and tragic physical trait.

He has been led to her in part by his interest in finding forgotten, elegant women similar to those described in Chapter 2 during the rainy night discussion of women's traits and in part due to a friendly competition with his best friend To no Chūjō.

While the exceptional refinement of Suetsumuhana's family is still apparent in some of her possessions, her musical talent, and to some degree her manner of writing, her social skills are exceptionally poor. Once involved, though, Genji takes his responsibility to her seriously. This supports a somewhat famous statement made near the beginning of the chapter that, for the most part, he is unable to put entirely out of his mind women for whom he has felt affection (おほかた、なごりなきもの忘れをぞ、えしたまはざりける).

Be that as it may, in this chapter his (as well as the narrator's) disgust for her dilapidated surroundings is made clear, while her physical feature become the shameless object of his derisive jokes. (These are narrated in a way that, I for one, find similar to modern Japanese problems of "bullying" いじめ. This type of passage can be found also in the Pillow Book, Makura no sōshi, and, though just a few times, in The Kagerō Diary, Kagerō nikki).

Ultimately, Suetsumuhana will be one of the women installed in his Nijō mansion (his current residence which will remain important though will be eclipsed by his grand Rokujō estate that will house his primary women). First, though she will be pitifully neglected, and his moonlight visit to her weed-thick garden will be the setting for the lonely, moving scenes of Chapter 15 "Yomogiu."

The opening passage of this chapter states that he misses Yūgao and is hoping to find someone who can replace her. Suetsumuhana turns out not to be such a replacement for she lacks Yūgao's winning ways.

By the end of this chapter, many of Genji's major women have become part of the story. We have two groups -- Kiritsubo no koi / Fujitsubo / Murasaki then Yūgao / Suetsumuhana, with Utsusemi loosely associated with this group -- and several other women whom I think we can consider as standing on their own at this early point in the story: his high-status but unstable, jealous lover Rokujō, his somewhat distant wife Aoi, and his future lady Akashi. Yūgao's daughter with To no Chūjō, we learn rather quietly, has also been located by Genji, though he seems rather proud of himself that he has been able to keep this information from the father.

This chapter has a considerable amount of music and dance, supporting the comic line that is an important part of the Suetsumuhana thread.

A number of the women of Genji are named after flowers (Asago, Yūgao, Suetsumuhana, Aoi, and to a lesser extent Murasaki) or other natural objects (Utsusemi, Ukifune, Akikonomu, Kumoi no Kari, etc). These are not normal names for women in Murasaki the writer's time. (Women with more normal names include Kiritsubo no koi, Fujitsubo, Onna San no Miya, and Rokujō.) This aspect of the book has very much a storytime feel to it, not a sense of realism. Suetsumuhana (紅花, benihana) is a flower that is picked for the gorgeous dyes that can be made from the petals. It is a plant that has a bright orange-yellow bloom at the end of a thorny stem. It is, indeed, painful to harvest. It seems to me that this thorniness, as well as the high value of the dye, are part of the metaphor that Murasaki the writer wishes to evoke.

Basic Story Summary:

Genji discovers a princess who lacks parental support and who has a physical deficiency, "The Safflower Lady" (Suetsumuhana), named because of the bright end of her nose. After a difficult courting process, he establishes intimacy with the shy woman.

The relationship with To no Chūjō is described through their friendly competition for Suetsumuhana. Rivalry will be an enduring part of their relationship over the years. In this chapter, Genji wins Suetsumuhana and, in addition, he has located To no Chūjō's missing daughter by Yūgao. He does not share the secret.

The end of the chapter shows Genji and Murasaki (now, for the first time called Lady Murasaki, 紫の君) as making a charming pair.

Reading notes:

Seidensticker 112 / Tyler 113 "withheld themselves" and "yielding to him" (T) or "were proud and aloof" (S):

The Japanese in question is うちとけて which means variously "to let one's guard down," "to allow a man to have his way," "to relax," and so on. It is a behavior based on to what extent one needs to maintain formal manner as well as to what extent a woman feels she is ready to trust a man. It has a positive sense, a desired state of mind. Both of these translations are dead-on accurate but I just feel that the "withheld themselves" in the context as Tyler uses it, generates a rather uncaring Genji, or, rather, a somewhat immature Genji who wants attention. This is, I think, part of Tyler's nuanced and interesting portrait of the young Genji but I see him as less truly a teenager and more as a narrative object that allows Murasaki the writer to explore various aspects of love including, in this case, the difficulties that arise when family pride and a over-concern for propriety interfere with the playful, amorous world or, in the case of Aoi, with marital warmth. Thus, for me, Seidensticker's rank-invoking adjectives seems closer to Murasaki's world as I see it.

Seidensticker 118 / Tyler 118 Genji and Fujitsubo:

When reading Seidensticker, I missed the sentence that refers back, yet again, to the continuing psychic pain of Fujitsubo for Genji. I think Tyler keeps this hidden continuity better in mind as he translates. To my mind, anyway, Tyler is better at making the reader recall this with "remained absorbed in his secret grief" (T) instead of "it was for him a time of secret longing" (S).

Tyler 121 footnote on rank:

I am not sure the source for Tyler's claim made in the footnote on this page that Suetsumuhana's rank is such that he should take her as a wife. I find this an interesting possible bit of information, if correct, but I haven't encountered this observation before. Personally, I feel that there is royalty and there is royalty and Suetsumuhana's circumstances (and physical defect) place her in an ambiguous position when it comes to how much respect she is truly due (in terms of contemporary social norm of Murasaki the writer's primary readers, a very competitive and perhaps not entirely kind group of women who serve royalty).

Seidensticker 119, 120 / Tyler 119, 120 problems with locks:

Seidensticker notes that Genji gains access to Suetsumuhana's chamber by sliding open the door when, a page earlier, it had been firmly locked. A similar, though more convoluted expression will be encountered in the scene when Genji, exiled to Suma, presses his case with Akashi, chasing her through a number of chambers. I find this "is it locked or not?" conundrum rather interesting, though it may be just a result of my poor reading of the Japanese.

Seidensticker 121 / Tyler 121 Genji's failure to send a morning-after poem to Suetsumuhana:

Though circumstances, not inconsideration, conspire to prevent Genji from writing a morning-after poem to Suetsumuhana after he finally successfully woes her, this is a serious miss and one that would hurt her deeply. There are many good reasons to feel sorry for Suetsumuhana, including this one.

Seidensticker 121 / Tyler 122 Genji's acceptance of his commitment to Suetsumuhana:

Moments like this make it difficult to indict Genji entirely as a rake, though it isn't therefore necessary to see him as particularly kind. The Japanese in question is 私はさりとも心長く見はててむ: "Despite things being such, I suppose I shall patiently visit her to the end."

Seidensticker 122 / Tyler 122 the narrator's somewhat forgiving attitude towards Genji's behavior:

"He was so young and handsome, and at an age when it was natural that he should have women angry at him. It was natural too that he should be somewhat selfish." (S) "He is just of the age to make women suffer, and no wonder he is often thoughtless and does as he pleases." (T) This can perhaps be taken as the narrator's frame of mind, though the narrator of Genji is a slippery object; alternatively, this can be seen as strictly the servant's view of things, for it is spoken through her.

Seidensticker 130 / Tyler 131 Murasaki's maturity (or not):

Seidensticker errs in translating いともうつくしき片生ひにて as "on the eve of womanhood, was very pretty indeed". Tyler is much closer to the meaning of this phrase with "His young Murasaki looked deliciously pretty to him". 片生ひ is a lack of maturity, not at the point of maturing, and, as noted elsewhere, うつくし is a childish attractiveness, not a womanly beauty.

Seidensticker 131 / Tyler 130 Genji and Murasaki together:

In this passage, Genji and Murasaki are clearly given to be a "cute couple" -- there seems to be no narrative voice suggesting impropriety. There is, of course, no sexual relationship yet but they are clearly being viewed approvingly by the narrator as having a relationship that is ambiguously somewhere between father/daughter and man/woman.