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| Wednesday, 4 February 2004 |
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The tale of Murasaki Shikibu of Japan : The mother of modern novel by Rohan Jayetilleke The term 'novel' is a derivative of the French term 'nouvelle' meaning new and from it were born the other terms 'nova' (new, novice (new), 'novitiate' (primary school' and news,) which too denotes, which is new gaining currency. Similarly, Indian Pali and Sanskrit term 'deva' travelling to Greek and Roman civilization, assumed 'deus' to denote 'god' or power and from 'deus' was derived 'Divinity' and 'Divine'. The term 'Divine' with the last letter 'e' substituted with the letter 'a', was adopted as a female name 'Divina' and only a very few were named under this name 'Divina'. One who held this name, in this writer's growing up years as far back as mid 1940s, in Galle, of Sinhala parents, born, weaned and grown in distant Burma (Myanmar), and settling in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) after the famous battle of Bridge on the river Kwai' (Burma), was chip of divinity, for she had an immeasurable inheritance and genetics of humour, sagacity, resilience and affection to others, which she shared with the writer to blossom into writing. Since the dawn of civilization, folklore, fables like the Olympic torch of Marathon, were passed on from lip to another. With the passage of time, allegories, myths, folk songs and folk lore emerged as literature to guide the people on correct ethics of co-existence, etiquette and also provide entertainment. In this tour of literature through the minds of the human race sprang the novel, a from of story telling.
The novel over the years gave another abridged edition called short stories, which were based on one plot portraying either comedies or tragedies of life. Almost exactly 1002 years ago (1001-19 AD) a young and vivacious woman in a small town in Japan had her mind fired by imagination and began to write the story of an imagined prince who had a full and enviable fund of brains, looks, charm, artistic talent and the love and affection of well-born and nurtured ladies. He was named 'Genji' by the young writer, meaning 'the shining one'. Genji was the appel of the eye of the emperor, who in order to avert him from the malice of the court reduced by the father emperor to the rank of a commoner. Thus the 'Tale of Genji' of the young writer Murasaki Shikibu. Today 'The Tale of Genji' is acknowledged by the world literati as the first modern novel. Powerful In the first chapter of the tale, the prince emerges himself as the most powerful commoner in the kingdom. When he is last in the public gaze, at the age of 52, is planning to seclude himself in a mountain temple, as a recluse, probably a Mahayana monk of the Zen Buddhist Order of Japan. Buddhism reached Japan in AD 552 from Korea and China. The Buddhist term 'Jhana' meditative absorption in China assumed the term 'Chen' and in Japan Chen became Zen (Buddhism), the largest organization in Japan today. This prince son Kaoru, later learnt the emperor was not his natural father. This long book has a gallery of celebrities, sophisticated members of the aristocratic society, ambitious and persevering, as the case is with Japanese of the present day too. The central drama is based on internal conflict. It has often been compared to Proust's. 'Remembrance of things past' as both writers are nostalgic and imaginary. The work has its own romanticism of Genji's seduction of court women and his political ambitions neighbouring on opportunism. Genji fathers one emperor and one empress. The book is set in the late Heian era (893-1185 AD). Murasaki belonged to the ruling commoner clan of Fujiwar, who thought it fit to send their daughters to the court at Kyoto, to give birth to a crown prince fathered by the royalty. The real name of Murasaki is lost in the wilderness of Japanese cherry blossoms and the snow capped peaks and volcanic mountains. It may be a pen name. The father was a royal bureaucrat and was the governor of a province. Probably she married in 998 and mothered a daughter, and widowed around 1001, when she took up to writing the tale. She maintained a diary of her eventful life. In Kyoto (a centre of Buddhism even now,) she was an attendant to Empress Akiko. The Empress was one who first read her story. She wrote the novel in her own hand and the court scribes copied it. Murasaki was conversant with Chinese and taught the Empress Chinese ideograms. Murasaki while on court duty wrote the novel in Japanese 'kana'. This is the reason for its popularity as Chinese was the exclusive preserve of the aristocracy apart from Japanese. Culture Japan is a country that adores their culture and not swayed by conspicuous consumption, compassion, fatigue, watching and reading high drama, violence around the world both in the audio, video and the written media. The Japanese psyche being such many spin-offs of the original have rolled out of the presses in Japan and a CD-Rom about it had 15,000 copies reaching Japanese homes. Internet, web sites created by academics have loaded the tale into them. In the 1980s, a pop-group calling themselves Hikaru-Ginji - Shining Genji - came on the music scene. An animated film came out in 1987. In 1998 in Uji near Kyoto, a Tale of Genji Museum opened its doors to the public. In the first eight months there were 120,000 visitors. The tale took wings to America too and in 2000 the last part of Saeko Ichinohe's dance of three parts 'The Tale of Genji' was premiered at New York's Lincoln Centre. The limpid prose of Murasaki Shikibu inspired western writers and translations of it in Chinese, German, French, Italian and English have been added to the libraries the world over. A Sinhala and a Tamil translation of this pathfinder of novels awaits eagerly. An attempt could be made from an English translation. Access a web site of a British library, you may be able to locate the book or just contact the Japanese Embassy Colombo. My guess is as good as, yours and likely to succeed as there is nothing pleasing and pleasant than success. It is a divine gift and like the Divina of my opening paragraph most affections and resilient, non-resenting, friendly and ever helpful with a sagacious outlook on life always. **** Back **** |
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