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Murasaki Shikibu” Chapter 5 Allusion to and Transformation of the Ise monogatari by “Murasaki Shikibu” Takahashi Tōru 1 The Authorial Appellation “Murasaki Shikibu” This study will focus on the significance of the allusions to and the transfor- mation of the Ise monogatari (The Ise Stories, Tales of Ise) accomplished by “Murasaki Shikibu,” beginning from the standpoint that the paratext is equal to the overtext.1 The term “Murasaki Shikibu,” when written with quotation marks, will be treated as “the author’s name as a boundary.” Instead of rep- resenting the actual person Murasaki Shikibu (possibly known by the name Fujiwara no Takako) as the originator of literary pieces, the paratext “Murasaki Shikibu” therefore serves as a function among her texts that is generated induc- tively from those works. According to the Eiga monogatari (A Tale of Flowering Fortunes), the first appellation for Murasaki Shikibu was likely “Tō Shikibu.” The nickname ‘Murasaki Shikibu’ (as distinct from the paratext “Murasaki Shikibu” that is the subject of this essay) was probably started by Fujiwara no Kintō, as can be seen in the Murasaki Shikibu nikki (The Diary of Murasaki Shikibu) in the record of Prince Atsuhira’s fiftieth-day birth celebration in 1008. Regarding himself as the character Genji of the Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji) and Murasaki Shikibu as Lady Murasaki, Kintō called for her by asking, “Would our little Murasaki be in attendance by any chance?”2 In this instance, however, the 1 Andō Tōru, “Genji monogatari no paratekusuto—josetsu,” in Murasaki Shikibu no hōhō, ed. Nanba Hiroshi (Kasama Shoin, 2002), 493–513. According to Andō, “paratext,” based on Gérard Genette’s writing, means “a system which enables the text to be confirmed and circulate as an inherent discourse.” See Genette, Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation, trans. Jane E. Lewin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997). “Overtext” is a term introduced by Sumie Jones: “when the aspects of sophistication of the reader and the aspects of the possible exis- tent meanings of the text overlap, each layer of the corresponding meanings increases in color, thus forming the final layer of the reading.” Jones, “Edo jidai no ōbātekusuto: gesaku shinron ni mukete,” Edo bungaku 20 (1999): 98–114. 2 Murasaki Shikibu, The Diary of Murasaki Shikibu, translated and introduced by Richard Bowring, Penguin Classics (London: Penguin Books, 1996), 31. © Takahashi Tōru, 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004462359_007 78 Takahashi Tōru origin of the nickname is technically the author herself, since she was the one to give the character in the Genji the name “Murasaki.” In the “First Flower” chapter of Flowering Fortunes, the nickname “Murasaki” also appears, probably representing ‘Murasaki Shikibu,’ and indicating that the nickname had gained support of the majority as her court name. The nick- name “Murasaki” can also be seen in the Sarashina nikki (Sarashina Diary), which refers to the Genji as “Murasaki’s tale,” thus calling it by the name of its author. As for her appellation in the imperial anthologies, beginning with the Goshūi waka shū (Later Collection of Gleanings of Japanese Poems, 1086), all are written as ‘Murasaki Shikibu.’3 The main focus of this study is to examine the inter-textuality of the texts of “Murasaki Shikibu”—the Genji, The Diary of Murasaki Shikibu, and The Collected Poems of Murasaki Shikibu4—based on their allusions to the Ise (hereafter the Genji, the Diary, the Poems, and the Ise, respectively). My aim is to reexamine, on the whole, the technique of alluding to the Ise as seen in the Genji, using the thinking and the expressions of “Murasaki Shikibu”—a name acting as the connecting boundary of texts—as the frame of reference. 2 The Journey to the East in the Ise and the Journey to the West in The Collected Poems of Murasaki Shikibu The Poems open with a farewell poem exchanged with a friend leaving for the Western Provinces. The headnote to the opening poem explains that the reunion after many years with a woman she had “known long ago as a child” was brief, and around the tenth day of the tenth month the friend “left hur- riedly as if racing the moon”: (1) meguri-ahite Brief encounter; mishi ya sore tomo did we meet or did it hide wakanu ma ni behind the clouds kumo-gakurenishi before I recognized yoha no tsuki kana the face of the midnight moon?5 3 Takahashi Tōru, “Murasaki Shikibu no mi to kokoro no shisō josetsu,” Kodai bungaku ronsō 17: 37–70 (Musashino Shoin, 2008), which also details the presumptions about the “girlfriends” in The Collected Poems of Murasaki Shikibu that are discussed in the next section. 4 The Murasaki Shikibu shū (Collected Poems of Murasaki Shikibu) are found in Murasaki Shikibu, Murasaki Shikibu: Her Diary and Poetic Memoirs, trans. Richard Bowring (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982; first paperback printing, with corrections, 1985). 5 Ibid., 217. Bold and capitalization altered throughout..
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