WS 170 Week 3a Outline

The Woman's Weapon: Jealousy and Spirit Possession in Tale of Genji

I. SPIRIT POSSESSION and TAMA

A. What is a tama? "An entity which resides in some host, to which it imparts life and vitality..." (Carmen Blacker, The Catalpa Bow, p. 43)

B. How can the tama leave the body?

1. Living tama (ikiryô):

a. Unconscious process:

Poem by Izumi Shikibu mourning her dead love, Prince Atsumichi:

mono omoeba Thinking of him:

sawa no hotaru mo could the firefly of the marsh

wa ga mi yori be my soul

akugareizure departing from my very flesh

tama ka to zo miru wandering off in anguish?

(adapted from Brower and Miner)

1) intense emotions cause the tama to wander away from the body, often in dreams

2) even in this early period, tama is visualized as a flaming ball/jewel. See also this much later Edo period image of hitodama (person-tama).

b. Conscious process:

1) by a ascetic in a dream vision

2) by someone practicing black magic to attack someone they have a grudge against

2. Shiryô (dead spirit)

B. How does a tama become a wandering spirit (what we would think of as a ghost)?

1. Problem of emotions:

a. Resentment/anger:

b. Passionate love:

2. Main reasons for a spirit to wander (consciously or unconsciously, dead or alive) and attack someone

in Tale of Genji:

a.

b.

c.

C. What tama can do if it becomes an enraged and vengeful spirit (GORYÔ or ONRYÔ):

1. High ranking man:

a. Causes natural disasters:

b. Connected to Confucian idea: “Bad government causes disharmony in nature.”

2. Lower ranking men and women in general (purely personal resentment and anger):

a. Cause illness and death of people he/she knows through "possession illness"

D. Two kinds of possession:

1. Etiological (possession illness): a possessing spirit causes illness in their victim

a. Symptoms of possession illness: shortness of breath, chest pains, great racking hysterical sobs, a high fever, loss of appetite, general weakness and malaise

2. Hysterical (channeling via a medium): during an exorcism ritual, the priest attempts to transfer the possessing spirit out of the victim's body and into a neutral subject, so that the spirit can be interrogated and pacified/exorcised

a. the medium could be a professional female shaman or miko, but could also simply be a household member, especially a young girl or boy

b. the medium "channels" the spirit, who speaks through them, using their voice

c. there is no permanent illness for the medium (though their personality and behavior often change drastically during the possession)

E. Connection of psychology and physical illness in Heian period beliefs about possession illness:

1. psychological weakness makes you susceptible to (possession) illness:

a. depression and hopelessness

b. grief

c. guilt

2. lack of control over feelings makes you susceptible to your spirit wandering to possess others (causing illness) and to appear in dreams

a. suppressed anger

b. Can even happen after death: example of the Kiritsubo Emperor (Genji's father), appearing in a dream to Genji in Suma and to his other son the Suzaku Emperor. Causes eye illness in Suzaku.

D. What do angry or restless tama need to be pacified?

1. Posthumous honors, raising court rank, or even deification

a. eg. of Emperor raising Kiritsubo to third rank after she dies

2. Rituals (appeasement, pacification, exorcism)

a. Esoteric priest or yamabushi mountain priest attempts to move the possessing spirit from victim to medium

b. Once successfully moved, the priest interogates the spirit, forcing it to identify itself

c. After identification, calls on deities, uses special magical spells, and recites from the Lotus Sutra'

d. Best case: pacifies the spirit (gets it to accept Buddhist teachings and give up its grudge)

e. Second best case: exorcises the spirit (makes it leave the victim and promise not to come back again)

g. Worst case: neither pacifies nor exorcises

II. Buddhism and vengeful spirits (Bowring pp. 6-7)

Buddhism was introduced to Japan in the 6th century and was firmly established by the time of Tale of Genji (1000 C.E.)

A. Basic premises of Buddhism shared with Hinduism:

1. Samsara: things change, nothing stays the same, “everything, everyone, everywhere dies.”

2. Belief in Reincarnation

B. Insight of the Buddha:

1. Life is suffering.

2. Suffering is caused by our desires, which can never be satisfied.

3. Our desires keep us tied to this world; attachments become karma and cause us to reincarnate

a. Law of karma:

image

4. The good news: the historical Buddha’s Eight Step Path will lead us to release from the passions that tie us to this world and free us from the cycle of reincarnation. This release is called NIRVANA.

C. Popular Beliefs in Buddhism

1. Six paths/realms of transmigration: heaven/paradise, human, animal, mayhem, hungry ghosts, and hell

2. How do you move up?

a. relying on yourself: good deeds and right thinking -- at least making an attempt to negate desire. There is always the possibility of upward movement.

b. relying on "other power" of deities or chanting a powerful sutra provided by the Buddha, such as the Lotus Sutra

1) Bodhisattva Kannon, Bodhisattva Jizo, Amida Buddha

2) these deities have achieved enlightenment, but because of their compassion (highest Buddhist virtue) have chosen to remain in this world to help bring salvation to any who call on them.

III. Buddhism, Angry Spirits and Possession

A. In the Buddhist context what counts as “sin”?

1. Examples from Tale of Genji

a.

b.

B. What is the Buddhist understanding of ghosts?

1. Passionate attachment: anger

a. example: why people suspect Rokujô’s dead father of attacking Genji’s wife

1)

2)

2. Passionate attachment: love

1) tend to be tied to places

C. Who is most likely to get possessed?

1. Women more than men, but depends on psychological state.

2. Why are pregnant women particularly susceptible to possession?

a.

b.

c. Example from Tale of Genji: Aoi's childbirth scene

D. Why do you think vengeful spirits of women attack other women rather than the men who actually hurt them?

1.

2.

3.

eg. Genji in New Herbs chapters (34 and 35, which you did not read)

eg. of Kagero Diary author and Tokihime (Lady in the Main House)

E. Do men ever get possessed?

1. Genji p. 81: "He was also prone to spells of vacant melancholy and of tears, which inspired curiousity and gave rise to the rumor that he must be possessed by a spirit."

2. Kashiwagi (Tô no Chûjô's son, who sleeps with Genji's wife the Third Princess and gets her pregnant -- chapters 34,35, 36)

IV. Introduction to Rokujô story

A. Who does Rokujô attack in the story and why?

Yûgao, Aoi; in later chapters Murasaki, the Third Princess (AKA Sannomiya), Kashiwagi

B. Who is Rokujô?

1. The backstory: Genealogy

2. What is she like?

a.

b.

c.

d.

3. What is the problem between her and Genji?

Genji’s father admonishes Genji:

[p. 163] "The Heir Apparent [the Emperor’s deceased older brother] thought very highly of her and showed her every attention, and I find it intolerable that you should treat her as casually as you might any other woman. I consider the High Priestess my own daughter, and I should therefore appreciate it if you were to avoid offending her mother, both for her father's sake and for mine. Such wanton self-indulgence risks wide-spread censure." The displeasure on his countenance obliged Genji to agree, and he kept a humble silence.

"Never cause a woman to suffer humiliation," His Eminence continued. "Treat each with tact and avoid provoking her anger."

Narrator's comment:

[p.163-64]
That even his His Eminence should know of his misconduct and express himself on the subject showed how painfully the lady's name as well as his own had been compromised in the affair, and he guiltily redoubled his attentions toward her, but he still showed no sign of acknowledging their tie openly. She herself remained constantly constrained by shame over the discrepancy between their ages, and he countered with matching formality. The affair had reached His Eminence's ears by now and was well known to one and all, but she still suffered acutely from his relative indifference to her.

V. The attack on Yûgao (“The Twilight Beauty”)

A. Who is Yûgao?

1. Described in "Broom Tree” chapter [pp. 34-36] by Tô no Chûjô; other side of the story told in "The Twilight Beauty" [pp. 82-85]

B. Why is Genji attracted to her?

1. "Hidden flower"

[Tyler p. 22]: "Anyway, the really fascinating girl is the one of whom no one has ever heard, the strangely appealing one who lives by herself, hidden away in some ruinous, overgrown old house; because, never having expected anyone like her, you wonder what she is doing there and cannot help wanting to know her better.”

2. Rivalry with Tô no Chûjô

C. What is the context for Rokujô’s attack?

1. Opening of the chapter: "In the days when Genji was calling secretly on the Rokujô Haven, he decided to visit his old nurse on the way there, since she was seriously ill and had become a nun."

a. Relationship of Koremitsu and Genji, Ukon and Yugao

2. Takes Yûgao to deserted mansion

3. Description of Attack [Tyler pp. 70-71]

Genji thinks of Rokujô:

And what a state the Rokujô Haven must be in! She above all stirred his guilt, and he understood her anger, however painful it might be. The more fondly he dwelled on the artless innocence before him, the more he longed to rid her a little of the pride that so unsettled him.

He dreams that a beautiful woman appears by his pillow:

"You are a wonder to me, but you do not care to visit me: no, you bring a tedious creature here and lavish yourself upon her. It is hateful of you and very wrong." She began shaking the woman beside him awake. He woke up, aware of a heavy, menacing presence.

a) Yugao's symptoms:

b) Why does Rokujô attack?

D. Why is Yûgao vulnerable to attack?

Summary: How does Murasaki Shikibu use the device of a possessing spirit to express the unspoken thoughts of women hurt by polygyny?

VI. Rokujô's possession of Genji's wife Aoi (also known as Aoi no Ue)

A. What is going on with Aoi?

1.

2.

B. The Carriage Incident [Tyler 164-68]

[images]

B. How does Rokujô respond?

1. ambivalent:

[Tyler 167] She did not like being seen to weep, but she knew how much she would have regretted missing the dazzling beauty and presence that on this great occasion shone more brilliantly than ever.

2. new attitude toward Aoi

a. cf. to Kagerô Diary

3. Another glimpse of Rokujô's mental state p. 171:

The Rokujô Haven had never through all the years known such misery and turmoil. As to her cruel lover, she had given him up, but she knew how badly she would miss him if she were actually to break with him and go down to Ise, and she also feared ridicule for doing so; yet the thought of staying after all lefter her afraid of enountering once more the hideous contempt that she had already suffered. "Am I the float on the fisherman's line?" she asked herself in anguish day and night, and perhaps this was why she lived like an invalid, her mind seeming to her to have come adrift.

a. What is she worried about?

C. How does Genji respond? Does he consider it his fault? [Tyler p.168]

D. Does Rokujô know what she is doing? [pp. 171, 174]

E. Who do people suspect might be behind Aoi’s possession illness? [p. 172]

1. Are the priests able to identify the possessing spirit?

F. What is the effect of possession on Aoi?

1. symptoms: [Tyler p. 172] She herself just cried and cried, and sometimes retched, suffering such unbearable agony that her parents wondered in fear and sorrow what was to become of her.

2. What was Aoi like before? What is she like now? [pp. 175-76]

G. Review of two kinds of possession:

1. Etiological (possession illness):

2. Hysterical (channeling via a medium):

3. Why are hysterical and etiological possession combined here?

a. Serving the needs of the narrative

1)

2)

H. How does Aoi die?

I. What does possession allow the women to do?