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Speaker 1: Hi everyone, Thanks for coming back to the show. If

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Speaker 1: you're coming back, yeah, if you're here for the first time,

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Speaker 1: then I don't know. Better, even better will be gentle.

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Speaker 1: I don't know. I love our return listeners. I know

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Speaker 1: it's nice. Here's the thing that's you know what. No, yeah,

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Speaker 1: we send a little bit more love to our return listeners.

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Speaker 1: That's incentive to come back a second time. New listeners, welcome,

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Speaker 1: We love you. Returning listeners. Look good? Yeah, look great?

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Speaker 1: Look good today? Is it hot in here? I'm so

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Speaker 1: glad you're here. I'm Eli, I'm Diana. I have a

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Speaker 1: text message. Let's read it on the air. Oh, I

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Speaker 1: know what it is. Old news is what it is.

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Speaker 1: It is old news. We're very glad that Bob Odenkirk

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Speaker 1: is okay. You guys. We were worried all day recording

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Speaker 1: this Mr. Show. Fans were very worried about Bob vote

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Speaker 1: and Kirk and and his other work, but mainly because

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Speaker 1: well because we have a sketch comedy background, and Mr

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Speaker 1: Show is foundational in any sketch comedy post the early nineties.

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Speaker 1: We met Tom Kenny at Dragon Con once and everybody

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Speaker 1: was there to talk about SpongeBob for us and this

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Speaker 1: other couple in line who were there specifically to talk

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Speaker 1: about Mr. Show and we had such a good time

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Speaker 1: waiting with them to seeing him. And he was so

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Speaker 1: glad because everybody wanted to talk about SpongeBob and I

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Speaker 1: think we blew his mind a little bringing up Mr.

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Speaker 1: Show Show. Yeah, anyway, we're glad Mr Bob owen Kirk

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Speaker 1: is okay. Yes, at least as of this recording, he's

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Speaker 1: in recovery. Well. Like we said, we're so excited to

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Speaker 1: be here. We're so excited you are here, and uh,

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Speaker 1: we want to share some of our excitement with you

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Speaker 1: today because we've got ourselves a mail call. Awesome, we

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Speaker 1: got an email from Robert Smith. Robert Smith from the Cure.

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Speaker 1: I'm so glad he listened. It could be it could

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Speaker 1: be him, he says. Hi, Eli and Diana, I came

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Speaker 1: across your podcast by pure chance, and I am so

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Speaker 1: glad I did. I love listening to them on my

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Speaker 1: walks in rural Scotland. I am a teacher at Scotland's

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Speaker 1: oldest school, founded in eleven eighty three, where they teach

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Speaker 1: classical studies. I have sent the episodes about Ella Gableist

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Speaker 1: to my colleague, but told her to maybe not tell

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Speaker 1: the kids about her love of large. You know what.

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Speaker 1: Keep up the amazing work from Robert Smith in Bonnie, Scotland.

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Speaker 1: P s. I'm happy for my name to be read out,

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Speaker 1: but Robert Smith sounds like a fake names. It's not

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Speaker 1: the Robert Smith. But that's okay. You're probably more fun

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Speaker 1: to hang out with. Undoubtedly. That's so cool that he

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Speaker 1: works at the oldest school in Scotland. That's amazing. Also, Robert,

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Speaker 1: I have a Scottish background myself. My grandmother was an

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Speaker 1: emigrant from Scotland, so I feel that I have every

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Speaker 1: right to come visit you scratch on your couch. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so hopefully you don't mind when to show up. We're

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Speaker 1: just gonna go knocking on school doors in Scotland and

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Speaker 1: say are you the oldest right? Are you the oldest school? Sorry?

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Speaker 1: The school was built in I love it. Get on

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Speaker 1: down to the other bunny we school. I assume him

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Speaker 1: that they say school, bunny Way School. That's awesome. Thank

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Speaker 1: you for writing in, Robert. Yeah, it's so cool to

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Speaker 1: hear from you, Robert. Thank you so much. Um, I

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Speaker 1: have to bring us back down after all that excitement

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Speaker 1: because unfortunately I hate this. We have to go back

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Speaker 1: to corrections corner. You're such a loser. This is a

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Speaker 1: self correction. This is something that I uncovered that we

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Speaker 1: did horribly wrong. This is an egregious mistake that I

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Speaker 1: M fuming about to this day. I discovered it yesterday

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Speaker 1: and all night. It's kept me up. I am livid.

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Speaker 1: And it's not so much something we got wrong as

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Speaker 1: it is something that we entirely omitted. Our recent episode,

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Speaker 1: we talked about King Sirett Say and Ruth Williams and

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Speaker 1: their story about their interracial love which kind of shocked

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Speaker 1: UH Southern Africa and England and eventually lead to a

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Speaker 1: redrawing of the map of Africa and the founding of

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Speaker 1: the country that is now Botswana. Very exciting story. Well,

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Speaker 1: Sirett Say Comma spent some time in England and he

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Speaker 1: went to school at Oxford. And never once in this episode,

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Speaker 1: in that particular moment, nor in the entire rest of

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Speaker 1: the show, did we ever once make the joke Oxford Comma,

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Speaker 1: come on, I can't beleeve that that information passed us by.

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Speaker 1: And never once did I say, oh, he was a

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Speaker 1: real Oxford Comma or something like, yeah, we should as

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Speaker 1: that when they when they were making fun of him

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Speaker 1: for being the African King, which even like they were

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Speaker 1: making they should have been making fun of him for

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Speaker 1: being an Oxford Comma. God, so upset Calcat. It's embarrassing,

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Speaker 1: quite frankly, it's I didn't even want to put this

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Speaker 1: in the in the in the corrections corner because it's

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Speaker 1: so embarrassing that we let that slip by. But I

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Speaker 1: had to own it. I had to bring it up.

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Speaker 1: I'm proud of you, Oxford Comma. It's so good. His

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Speaker 1: name is Comma and he went to Oxford like how

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Speaker 1: much you don't get a layup that often? And I

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Speaker 1: just let that ball just soar right past me and

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Speaker 1: flop on the ground. It's outrageous. So I apologize to

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Speaker 1: all of our listeners me too. I should have caught

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Speaker 1: that as well. I apologize. I mean, I'm it's going

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Speaker 1: to take some time. You should expect more from us, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you really should, but we we will try not to

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Speaker 1: let you down again. Yeah. I hope we can all

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Speaker 1: move past it because we've got an exciting episode to

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Speaker 1: get to today, so um, please, if we can, I'll

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Speaker 1: just put this behind us. Uh, let's talk about Miasaki. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: today's episode is about Murasaki Shikibu and the Tale of Genji,

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Speaker 1: and it's a sort of a departure for us. I

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Speaker 1: guess really still in the romance genre for sure. Um,

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Speaker 1: because Maasaki Shikibu wrote one of the oldest novels ever written,

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Speaker 1: called The Tale of Genji, and the story was all

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Speaker 1: about romance and the woes of human existence. And though

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Speaker 1: Maurasaki seems to not have experienced much romance in her

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Speaker 1: own life, today she's a symbol for marital success in Japan,

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Speaker 1: and so I wanted to kind of explore how that

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Speaker 1: went down. Yeah, it's very cool. Not your tradition, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, one person loves another story, but rather about

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Speaker 1: the concept of romance itself, and it's uh, and some

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Speaker 1: symbols of that in uh in ancient Japan, which we're

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Speaker 1: excited to get into. Ancio Japan's cool. A Japanese history

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Speaker 1: is so interesting. So I'm very excited to be on

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Speaker 1: this archipelago. That's awesome. Here comes the music and let's go. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Hey they're French, come listen. Well, Elien Diana got some

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Speaker 1: stories to tell. There's no matchmaking a romantic tips. It's

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Speaker 1: just about ridiculous relationships, a lover. It might be any

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Speaker 1: type of person at all, and abstract cons at a

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Speaker 1: concrete wall. But if there's a story where the Second

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Speaker 1: Clans ridiculous Romance a production of I Heart Radio. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: let's talk about Mirsaki. Shikibu Miurasaki was a Japanese novelist

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Speaker 1: and a poet. She was a lady in waiting in

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Speaker 1: the Imperial court during the High End Period, which is

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Speaker 1: considered the height of classical Japanese culture. The Hyend Period,

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Speaker 1: as Tony Dancer would say, all you who was all you?

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Speaker 1: Who's the boss? Fans out there? I know what what

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Speaker 1: a today reference that you've made? Uh. She was born

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Speaker 1: probably nine seventy three or nine seventy eight to the

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Speaker 1: powerful Fujiwara family, who basically ran all of Japan for

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Speaker 1: generations through strategic marriages of their daughters to emperors and

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Speaker 1: emperor's sons and through the use of regencies. So what

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Speaker 1: they did was basically they would be the regent. The

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Speaker 1: emperor was just kind of there to like wave at

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Speaker 1: people and be at like religious ceremonies, like he was

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Speaker 1: really a figurehead. The real power was behind the throne

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Speaker 1: with this region, and the Fujiwaras were like, well, we

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Speaker 1: always going to be the region. One of us is

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Speaker 1: always going to be that guy. Marisaki's branch of the

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Speaker 1: family had lost some status over the generations. They were

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Speaker 1: not at the level of the regent Fujiwaras, but rather

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Speaker 1: at the level of provincial governors, but they had extra

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Speaker 1: cloud in her branch because of their literary prowess. Both

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Speaker 1: her grandfather and great grandfather were well known poets. Her

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Speaker 1: real name is unknown. Her diary entries from one thousand

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Speaker 1: seven UM include the names of several of the ladies

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Speaker 1: in waiting that she lived at court with, including the

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Speaker 1: name Fujiwara No to Coco, and that might be her

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Speaker 1: actual name, some scholars believe, but everyone knows her as

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Speaker 1: Mirsaki Shikibu. So during the high End period it was

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Speaker 1: considered too blunt to say people's actual names. That your

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Speaker 1: name was your own, it's like rude, right, So women

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Speaker 1: would take their names based on their own designation in

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Speaker 1: court or by the rank or job of their father.

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Speaker 1: So Shikibu refers to the Ministry of Ceremonials, where her

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Speaker 1: father was a functionary and Murasaki refers to a shade

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Speaker 1: of purple that comes from a wistaria plant, and wistaria

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Speaker 1: is the meaning of fuji. This also makes her novel

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Speaker 1: really hard to translate, because the characters in the novel

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Speaker 1: would often be described by their clothes basically, so like

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Speaker 1: if a character changes clothes, as they often did, suddenly

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Speaker 1: they had a whole new name and you had to

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Speaker 1: go figure out if they were a new character or

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Speaker 1: an old one through context clues. It's like, oh, Mrs

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Speaker 1: Yellow just passed through the room. I wonder what she's

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Speaker 1: doing today, and then oh, lady blue shoes just came

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Speaker 1: back by. Did the same woman come through and come

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Speaker 1: back or were those two different people? Did she change?

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Speaker 1: And so yeah, I guess some translators have been like

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Speaker 1: this makes it a little bit hard to figure out

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Speaker 1: keep the thread of everything going on. I mean, imagine

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Speaker 1: trying to read Wuthering Heights, you know, and the characters

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Speaker 1: are only called by the color of their coats came in. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's like everyone has one of those. I

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Speaker 1: assume readers of the time we're way more adept debt

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Speaker 1: keeping up with this than I would be now reading.

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Speaker 1: And I said, I think they were. I think they

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Speaker 1: kind of a little bit who they were talking about.

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Speaker 1: In Japan at the time, also, only men learned Chinese,

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Speaker 1: Chinese with the language of the government, and so it

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Speaker 1: was only for men to know. Women weren't meant to

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Speaker 1: know this this language. They were only meant to speak

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Speaker 1: and write in Japanese. And at this time Japan was

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Speaker 1: becoming a little more isolated. They had used to send

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Speaker 1: a bunch of emissaries on trips to China to learn,

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Speaker 1: like study their art and their politics and their government structures,

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Speaker 1: which they would then bring back that knowledge and use

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Speaker 1: it to create structures in Japan. But now it's the

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Speaker 1: ninth and tenth centuries. They have revolutionized everything by creating Kana,

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Speaker 1: which is the alphabet for Japanese basically for the Japanese

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Speaker 1: language that they're already speaking, but now they could actually

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Speaker 1: write it down. So they were trying to assert their

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Speaker 1: own culture and their own traditions and everything instead of

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Speaker 1: just trying to modify Chinese stuff basically. But Maurasaki new Chinese.

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Speaker 1: She wrote in her diary that she learned Chinese by

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Speaker 1: listening at the door when her father taught her brother

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Speaker 1: in preparation for his government career. She wrote, I became

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Speaker 1: unusually proficient at understanding those passages that he found too

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Speaker 1: difficult to understand and memorize. Father, a most learned man,

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Speaker 1: was always regretting the fact, just my luck. He would say,

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Speaker 1: what a pity she was not born a man. I

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Speaker 1: think that's funny because it comes up so much when

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Speaker 1: women do something out of the ordinary, and her father's

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Speaker 1: always like, if only you were a man or whatever,

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Speaker 1: And I'm like, did it never occur to you should

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Speaker 1: like organize society differently? I guess not. Or I was like, oh,

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Speaker 1: I had five daughters, and all of them are so

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Speaker 1: much smarter than the average man. It's, you know, what

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Speaker 1: a strange coincidence that these five girls are a lot

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Speaker 1: smarter than I assume women to be. Oh well, it

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Speaker 1: must be five freak accidents, right, And it's especially funny

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Speaker 1: because they thought women didn't have the inten alligience to

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Speaker 1: grasp the Chinese language. And meanwhile, she's learning outside the

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Speaker 1: door from whatever she can hear, and she's doing better

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Speaker 1: than her brother, who's getting the full attention of his teacher.

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Speaker 1: So let's I mean, come on, hey, I do not

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Speaker 1: have the intelligence to learn the Chinese language. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I probably do, but I should have started a long

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Speaker 1: as time ago. The few times I've looked at him

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Speaker 1: like noope, can't die, am too dumb? And second of all,

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Speaker 1: I can't like I can't hear you through the bathroom door,

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Speaker 1: like when you're trying to tell me something I to know,

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Speaker 1: Like I couldn't. I couldn't learn Chinese from you through

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Speaker 1: that door. That's for damn sure, especially if you weren't

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Speaker 1: even talking to me. That's that is impressive. I'm impressed

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Speaker 1: by this. So usually husbands and wives kept separate households

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Speaker 1: during the hay End period, the children would live with

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Speaker 1: the mother, but Maurasaki lived with her father, and now

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Speaker 1: it's likely because her mother probably died in childbirth, and

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Speaker 1: it was also unusual for noble women to travel distances

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Speaker 1: further than a few days, but she accompanied her father

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Speaker 1: etches End Province. Also, unusually for noble women, she didn't

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Speaker 1: get married as soon as she hit puberty. She stayed

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Speaker 1: in her father's household until her mid twenties or possibly

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Speaker 1: even her early thirties. What an old lady practically dead.

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Speaker 1: You need a walker their grandma. What has your womb

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Speaker 1: all dried up at this point your thirty, Well you're

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Speaker 1: eighteen years behind marriage, and do you know what, she's

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Speaker 1: still perfectly fine. Attack So anyway, her education and her

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Speaker 1: lifestyle had already set her apart, probably made her a

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Speaker 1: better writer. Don't you think you have a little more

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Speaker 1: experience of the world. And she wasn't married at twelves

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Speaker 1: A lot more to a lot more to say. I

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Speaker 1: don't know so many of these older cultures, I mean

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Speaker 1: even some current cultures. You know, marriage at puberty is

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Speaker 1: not uncommon, and of course it's outrageous to us. Um Actually,

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Speaker 1: you can go listen to some of that in our

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Speaker 1: recent guest appearance on Ridiculous History. If you guys didn't

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Speaker 1: catch that, we guested on Ben a Nulls show and

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Speaker 1: talked about some fascinating a courting rituals from around the world.

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Speaker 1: It's a two parter and some of those have to

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Speaker 1: do with just how young people sometimes are when they

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Speaker 1: start getting entwined with a partner. Yeah, that was a

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Speaker 1: good time. Anyway. She came back to the capital Kyoto,

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Speaker 1: which at the time was called hayen Kio to marry

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Speaker 1: her father's friend, Fujiwara no Nobutaka, and he was a

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Speaker 1: much older second cousin of hers. Probably this was like

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Speaker 1: around the year Butaka is a bureaucrat like her father.

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Speaker 1: He's known as a talented answer and an extravagant dresser.

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Speaker 1: He's gregarious and well known at court. Um. He's probably

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Speaker 1: in his late forties when they married, and he had

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Speaker 1: several other households. He had wives, he had other children,

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Speaker 1: he had numerous romantic affairs going on in the court

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Speaker 1: and stuff, um, which I was like, who's got the time?

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Speaker 1: Oh my god, you gotta visit every one of these bitches,

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Speaker 1: Like how do you have other ship to do? Oh

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Speaker 1: my god, I hang on Tuesday through Thursday. It's out

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Speaker 1: for me because I got nine wives to visit, and

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Speaker 1: I gotta give him three hours each Yeah, otherwise they

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Speaker 1: get mad and then I don't know my kids names yet,

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Speaker 1: so I better I better go cram before I go

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Speaker 1: see him. But apparently courtiers at this time had very

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Speaker 1: few actual duties, so they had all kinds of time

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Speaker 1: to have affairs and do crazy stuff. So I guess

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Speaker 1: he did have the time much more than we do today.

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Speaker 1: So all right, his job is literally not to do

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Speaker 1: that much, just to marry a lot. You're just meant

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Speaker 1: to be here and look cool, I guess, and like

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Speaker 1: write poetry and be cool, be a dancer, dress flamboyantly.

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Speaker 1: All right, Yeah, that's it is this is there application

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Speaker 1: process here or somewhere. I can yet I would do

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Speaker 1: like an apprenticeship for this. I think you had to

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Speaker 1: be a fujiwara. Dude. I don't think you got to.

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Speaker 1: Is that is that a possibility you didn't Well, I

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Speaker 1: think it'd be tough for you, yes, to be a

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Speaker 1: fujiwara to send it, but it's not impossible. You should

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Speaker 1: do you and listen to me. I'm a white man

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Speaker 1: and I like to be able to do whatever I want,

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Speaker 1: and I want to be a fujiwara. Take it up

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Speaker 1: with Japan. I will not. Yeah, I actually wish you

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Speaker 1: wouldn't know other things because in the middle the Olympics

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Speaker 1: and Japan. I apologize for distracting you at this difficult time.

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Speaker 1: Please ignore me. They're like we were, don't like huh? Anyway,

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Speaker 1: So Murasaki would have stayed at her dad's house and

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Speaker 1: her husband would come to visit her there, so that

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Speaker 1: was like her living arrangement kind of and accounts kind

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Speaker 1: of vary about how happy this marriage was. Um The

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Speaker 1: professor of Japanese Studies at Cambridge Richard boh Ring, says

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Speaker 1: their marriage was happy in his book, but Japanese literature

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Speaker 1: scholar how do Oh Shinnane thinks that there were indications

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Speaker 1: in Murasaki's poetry that she resented her husband, so we

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Speaker 1: don't know she liked him or not. So she probably

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Speaker 1: has a poem that's like, no, everything's fine, and Richard

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Speaker 1: Browning's like, well, she said everything's fine. She the poems

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Speaker 1: called Let's do whatever you want to do is like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: there was problems here. She was not happy, is like

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Speaker 1: I've et in that poem before. I'll tell you what

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Speaker 1: Richards like, she said everything's fine. I don't understand. Let's

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Speaker 1: do whatever you want to do. That's very nice. What

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Speaker 1: a gesture, Mrs bow Rings like. There was probably a

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Speaker 1: poem called oh jeez. Somasaki and Nobutaka had a daughter

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Speaker 1: in the year and her name was Ken. She and

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Speaker 1: then Nobutaka died two years later during a cholera epidemic,

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Speaker 1: so she wasn't married. For very long. She's got a

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Speaker 1: daughter now once she was married, now she's going to

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Speaker 1: get servants to take care of her from for day

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Speaker 1: to day stuff. Then that gave her a lot of

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Speaker 1: leisure time. It's likely that she started writing the novel

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Speaker 1: that she's known for the Tale of Genji during her

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Speaker 1: marriage and then finished it while at court. So she

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Speaker 1: suddenly got all the time in the world. Everybody's taking

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Speaker 1: care of business for her. Sounds great. If I had,

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Speaker 1: you know, servants and ladies in waiting take care of

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Speaker 1: my day to day stuff, I'd finally write a book

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Speaker 1: to right. Let's be honest, No, I won't, but at

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Speaker 1: least I would finally not have anything else to blame.

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Speaker 1: So let's talk about the Tale of Genji and get

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Speaker 1: into that story a little bit right after this little

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Speaker 1: commercial break. Welcome back, everybody. We're about to dive into

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Speaker 1: the Tale of Genji. Tells differ about how the Tale

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Speaker 1: of Genji was inspired. In one legend, an empress asked

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Speaker 1: for a new story, and she and Burdosaki retreated to

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Speaker 1: a temple to get some peace and quiet to write.

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Speaker 1: There was a full moon and she stared at it,

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Speaker 1: lost in its beauty. And a vision of the tale

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Speaker 1: rose before her. Royal Tyler, who translated Genji in two

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Speaker 1: thousand eight wrote in Harvard Magazine quote she saw her

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Speaker 1: hero Genji languishing an unjust exile on the shore of

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Speaker 1: a moonlit sea, and the image was so compelling that

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Speaker 1: she immediately wrote down what would become chapters eleven and twelve.

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Speaker 1: Legend has it that since childhood she was close with

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Speaker 1: a gifted court here who had been unjustly banished, and

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Speaker 1: she drew on his story for inspiration as well. Even

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Speaker 1: though many Japanese scholars have dismissed this idea, It's very

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Speaker 1: common for paintings or etchings of Miurasaki to depict her

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Speaker 1: at the Ishi Yama temple looking up at the moon.

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Speaker 1: It's very classic image in Japan Miurasaki looking at the moon.

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Speaker 1: And the Tale of Genji is a really important literary achievement.

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Speaker 1: It's considered by some to be the world's first novel

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Speaker 1: period like before Sorcerer's Stone. The Sorcerer's Stone came out

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Speaker 1: years ago. I don't know if anybody knew that well.

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Speaker 1: I think it's older than that. Wow, Okay, before the

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Speaker 1: Da Vinci Code. Yeah, um, other people do qualify it

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Speaker 1: a little bit by saying it's maybe not the world's

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Speaker 1: first novel, but it's the world's first psychological novel where

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Speaker 1: the inner lives and thoughts and feelings of the characters

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Speaker 1: are more the focus of the writing than like the

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Speaker 1: events of the plot. Some other people say it's the

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Speaker 1: oldest novel that's still considered a classic today. You know,

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of qualifiers, but it is. It is

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Speaker 1: widely considered to be one of definitely one of the

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Speaker 1: oldest novels of that genre. Fiction of prose. Not not

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Speaker 1: like bay a Wolf, yeah, those you know, the epic

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Speaker 1: poems everything, but but solid prose novel. She wrote it

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Speaker 1: concertina style, which I thought was cool. That's where the

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Speaker 1: pages were pasted together and they folded in on each

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Speaker 1: other like a fan, so accordion style. Yeah, but it's

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Speaker 1: a concertina because it's slightly smaller. Yeah. But then it's like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: but if you cut it into shapes like and then unfolded,

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Speaker 1: it would be like the chain of gingerbread men. I

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Speaker 1: guess you'd be cutting up let's chairs. That's outrageous. I

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Speaker 1: would never do it. Oh. I found this even year

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Speaker 1: old scroll. Let me see if I can cut it

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Speaker 1: into snowflakes. Somebody's tried it, that's all I'm saying. And

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Speaker 1: she probably wrote it in installments and then passed on

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Speaker 1: new chapters to ladies in waiting and to other people,

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Speaker 1: so they get copied and shared, and that's kind of

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Speaker 1: how her notoriety was getting getting around. That's the best.

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Speaker 1: We should be releasing things in chapters, not dumped all

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Speaker 1: at once on a Netflix Come on Guys, week to

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Speaker 1: week episodes. It's much more engaging. I mean, people do

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Speaker 1: have time to talk about it, that's for sure. And

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Speaker 1: she had time to finish it, Let's be honest. She

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Speaker 1: had to wait till the end would be a George

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Speaker 1: of our Martin where you would just be like wait

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Speaker 1: and wait and waiting for a new story for like

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Speaker 1: twenty years. I've been on chapter thirty six for the

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Speaker 1: last two dynasties. The book ends up having fifty four

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Speaker 1: chapters and translated into English, it's around eleven hundred pages long. Um.

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Speaker 1: There uns aside characters, there's not really a central plot.

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Speaker 1: I mean, Genji's your main protagonist obviously, um, But mainly

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Speaker 1: all the characters are You're following them as they age,

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Speaker 1: so they're just kind of dealing with life as it

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Speaker 1: comes along and thinking about their their scheme, their place

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Speaker 1: in the scheme of things. And it also focuses mainly

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Speaker 1: on Genji's romantic life, so she describes a lot about

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Speaker 1: what aristocratic life was like at the time. He has

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Speaker 1: a bunch of sexy times. There's a New York Times

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Speaker 1: article titled After a Thousand Years Kyoto Still Loves Genji

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Speaker 1: and its author and they described the plot as the

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Speaker 1: married hero impregnates his stepmother, falls in love with a

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Speaker 1: child whom he raises to be his wife. Side note

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Speaker 1: that character is named Murasaki after the author, which is

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Speaker 1: an interesting choice. The daughter that he marries, yes, which

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Speaker 1: is not his own daughter. He adopted her. She was

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Speaker 1: cute and then she grew up and he's like, now

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00:25:00,880 --> 00:25:04,920
Speaker 1: we'll get married. Is like a weird grooming thing. What

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Speaker 1: do allen thing? Genji retreats into exile after he's discovered

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Speaker 1: in mid trist with the daughter of a political enemy.

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Speaker 1: Supporting characters fall victim to amnesia and die of heartbreak.

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Speaker 1: They exchange poems and damp in brocade sleeves with bitter tears. Evocative. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: this article says that quote. To modern readers, the book's

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Speaker 1: enormous emotive cast can seem overwrought, but it kind of

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Speaker 1: just sounds like a soap opera to me. I mean,

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Speaker 1: like fully like amnesia, heartbreak, step marrying your stepmother. Like

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Speaker 1: I feel like that's all those are all plotlines. Character

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Speaker 1: isn't a terrible accident and she has to change her

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Speaker 1: clothes and she comes back as a new actress. Everyone's like,

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Speaker 1: oh my gosh, it's kallow dress. Yeah, it's yellow dress.

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Speaker 1: I thought you look so much better than when you

423
00:25:53,040 --> 00:25:58,080
Speaker 1: were blue shoes. Yeah. She even distributed it in episodes.

424
00:25:58,680 --> 00:26:04,160
Speaker 1: So it's very much like um so I was kind

425
00:26:04,160 --> 00:26:06,120
Speaker 1: of picturing it like a Days of Our Lives meets

426
00:26:06,240 --> 00:26:10,680
Speaker 1: Mrs Dallaway. You're like getting these like really deep inner

427
00:26:10,760 --> 00:26:15,680
Speaker 1: thoughts of these like soap p opera characters. So Genji

428
00:26:15,800 --> 00:26:19,160
Speaker 1: maybe partially based on the most powerful figure in court

429
00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:23,040
Speaker 1: politics at the time. His name was Fujiwara no Mishiaga.

430
00:26:23,520 --> 00:26:26,000
Speaker 1: He was the regent when the power of the Fujiwara

431
00:26:26,080 --> 00:26:29,240
Speaker 1: clan would reach its zenith. How did he get this power?

432
00:26:29,600 --> 00:26:35,520
Speaker 1: All the classic Fujiarawa strategically marrying off his daughters that's

433
00:26:35,800 --> 00:26:38,800
Speaker 1: I'm going to marry off my daughter strategically like my

434
00:26:39,080 --> 00:26:41,840
Speaker 1: father before him with all my sisters, and his father

435
00:26:41,960 --> 00:26:44,840
Speaker 1: before him with all my aunts. Exactly, that's what you

436
00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:49,000
Speaker 1: gotta do. So Missionaga is cunning, right, this guy knows

437
00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:51,280
Speaker 1: what to do. And he's got a nephew named Corta

438
00:26:51,359 --> 00:26:54,680
Speaker 1: Chica court Chica was supposed to be regent because his

439
00:26:54,800 --> 00:26:59,760
Speaker 1: sister Tashi was the empress. But Missionaga was like, I

440
00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:02,640
Speaker 1: other plans, I want to be regent. So he led

441
00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:05,880
Speaker 1: his nephew to believe that the former emperor named ember

442
00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:10,960
Speaker 1: Kazan was sleeping with Korachica's mistress. So Kora Chica and

443
00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:15,440
Speaker 1: his servants jumped on Kazan and struck him with an arrow.

444
00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:20,320
Speaker 1: And this is outrageous because of course, not only was

445
00:27:20,359 --> 00:27:22,960
Speaker 1: he the former emperor, but he actually abdicated his throne

446
00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:27,000
Speaker 1: to become a monk. So you're like attacking a former

447
00:27:27,080 --> 00:27:31,280
Speaker 1: emperor slash monk, serious crime. And Missionaga, his uncle, who

448
00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:34,040
Speaker 1: put him up to this, was like, oh no, that's

449
00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:36,800
Speaker 1: that's very bad. How dare you? And he pressed charges

450
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:39,720
Speaker 1: of les magest laws, which is where you can't do

451
00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:43,959
Speaker 1: bad things against a ruler and the court found Cordachica

452
00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:47,760
Speaker 1: guilty of putting a curse on the current Emperor's mother

453
00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:51,159
Speaker 1: said she and she already didn't like Coachica and she

454
00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:54,600
Speaker 1: was helping Missionaga take over, So this was all arranged

455
00:27:54,720 --> 00:27:58,040
Speaker 1: by Missionaga, like funk up his nephew. He didn't have

456
00:27:58,160 --> 00:28:06,080
Speaker 1: no curse. Surprised there wasn't a curse. Well, so pretty

457
00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:10,600
Speaker 1: pretty uh, pretty cunning dude. They're screwing everybody else over

458
00:28:10,680 --> 00:28:13,600
Speaker 1: to get himself into power. Poor Emperor Kazan's just walking

459
00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:15,320
Speaker 1: on the street one day like do do do? I'm

460
00:28:15,359 --> 00:28:17,320
Speaker 1: not an emperor anymore, I'm a monk. At least nobody's

461
00:28:17,320 --> 00:28:21,000
Speaker 1: going to try and his sass name. Well, it was

462
00:28:21,040 --> 00:28:23,320
Speaker 1: pretty funny these a monk. But they're like, oh, he's

463
00:28:23,320 --> 00:28:26,720
Speaker 1: sleeping with your mistress. It's like aren't they not to know?

464
00:28:26,800 --> 00:28:30,480
Speaker 1: They do? But I guess yeah. Apparently he just entered

465
00:28:30,560 --> 00:28:32,560
Speaker 1: the building and it was like the same building the

466
00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:34,760
Speaker 1: mistress was in, and so it was like enough for

467
00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:37,720
Speaker 1: core Chica. So maybe he wouldn't have been a good regent.

468
00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:39,960
Speaker 1: Think he might have been like if you jumped to

469
00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:42,440
Speaker 1: conclusions that quickly, and you're so quick to be like

470
00:28:42,520 --> 00:28:47,360
Speaker 1: we gotta jump him and very gullible. Yeah, maybe you're not.

471
00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:51,600
Speaker 1: Maybe was like, oh, we can't let this guy. His

472
00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:53,320
Speaker 1: real crime is that I set him up for this

473
00:28:53,400 --> 00:28:55,920
Speaker 1: and he was dumb enough to believe. They're like, yeah,

474
00:28:55,920 --> 00:28:59,520
Speaker 1: you should definitely say control. So Missaga himself married a

475
00:28:59,560 --> 00:29:03,640
Speaker 1: couple of sisters like you do, and of of powerful

476
00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:08,400
Speaker 1: warrior clans, so that he'd get himself some muscle. He's like,

477
00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:10,640
Speaker 1: you know, I married all these sisters and they all

478
00:29:10,720 --> 00:29:14,440
Speaker 1: got tough brothers, right, and their loyalties to me now

479
00:29:14,480 --> 00:29:18,160
Speaker 1: because they're married to their sisters. Yeah. So he wasn't

480
00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:21,720
Speaker 1: just strategically marrying off his daughters. He also strategically married

481
00:29:21,760 --> 00:29:29,480
Speaker 1: off himself, and he, of all the fujiwaras, managed to

482
00:29:29,560 --> 00:29:32,160
Speaker 1: marry off the most of his daughters to emperors. He

483
00:29:32,320 --> 00:29:36,320
Speaker 1: married four of his daughters to emperors, so he had records.

484
00:29:37,480 --> 00:29:43,440
Speaker 1: Where's that? So he had unprecedented power. Mishanaga, you really

485
00:29:43,520 --> 00:29:46,680
Speaker 1: gained the system there, right, And you might be wondering

486
00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:50,320
Speaker 1: how he was managed to marry his daughters to bunch

487
00:29:50,320 --> 00:29:52,600
Speaker 1: of empers. Well, first of all, I didn't all get

488
00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:55,560
Speaker 1: married at the same time. Um, some of them married

489
00:29:55,600 --> 00:29:57,840
Speaker 1: the emperor's sons, so it was kind of like hedging

490
00:29:57,840 --> 00:29:59,320
Speaker 1: your beds, like you'd be like, I don't know which

491
00:29:59,360 --> 00:30:01,400
Speaker 1: son's going to take take over, but I'll have a

492
00:30:01,520 --> 00:30:06,320
Speaker 1: daughter in every household, so that's just in case I

493
00:30:06,520 --> 00:30:10,680
Speaker 1: get to have some power in this situation. But one

494
00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:14,400
Speaker 1: way that he managed to marry his daughter's to so

495
00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:17,320
Speaker 1: many emperors is that he just didn't care if the

496
00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:22,840
Speaker 1: emperor was already married. So the Emperor Ichijo already had

497
00:30:22,880 --> 00:30:25,479
Speaker 1: an empress. Her name is Tashi. We already met her. Remember,

498
00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:28,560
Speaker 1: it was her brother Kora Chika, who was supposed to

499
00:30:28,600 --> 00:30:32,800
Speaker 1: become regent, but Tashi had supported her brother obviously during

500
00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:36,360
Speaker 1: this whole power struggle with Mishnaga, so when he lost,

501
00:30:36,640 --> 00:30:39,400
Speaker 1: she also lost. She lost a lot of popularity and

502
00:30:39,480 --> 00:30:42,000
Speaker 1: a lot of supports at court. So she's still empress,

503
00:30:42,080 --> 00:30:44,800
Speaker 1: but people just aren't very respectful. I guess she's like

504
00:30:44,920 --> 00:30:47,800
Speaker 1: a curse is insane? Why do you people believe this?

505
00:30:48,040 --> 00:30:51,840
Speaker 1: And they're all like, oh, So Misshinaga wanted to undermine

506
00:30:51,880 --> 00:30:55,000
Speaker 1: her even more, and by doing so also strengthened his

507
00:30:55,040 --> 00:30:58,360
Speaker 1: own position. Let's not forget it's always the main thing.

508
00:30:58,800 --> 00:31:01,480
Speaker 1: So he had his daughter show she become part of

509
00:31:01,680 --> 00:31:04,640
Speaker 1: Ichi Jo's harem when she was about twelve years old,

510
00:31:05,480 --> 00:31:08,480
Speaker 1: and a year later he had her named empress, even

511
00:31:08,520 --> 00:31:11,040
Speaker 1: though she was already named empress. He was just like,

512
00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:16,440
Speaker 1: whatever I do, what I want. Um Historian and professor

513
00:31:16,520 --> 00:31:20,760
Speaker 1: emeritus of East Asian Languages at Berkeley, Donald Shively says

514
00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:24,400
Speaker 1: Missionaga shocked even his admirers by doing this. This would

515
00:31:24,400 --> 00:31:27,240
Speaker 1: be the first time in Japanese history that an emperor

516
00:31:27,400 --> 00:31:30,320
Speaker 1: had two empress consorts at the same time. I love

517
00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:33,120
Speaker 1: that they are putting the blame on that to Missi

518
00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:35,920
Speaker 1: Naga and not the emperor who married. Oh they all

519
00:31:36,040 --> 00:31:38,840
Speaker 1: knew who wasn't. I love the idea though, that Ichi

520
00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:42,560
Speaker 1: Jo didn't have any choice. Who am I marrying today?

521
00:31:43,480 --> 00:31:45,480
Speaker 1: Here's a thirteen year old girl in your harem. Have

522
00:31:45,600 --> 00:31:48,040
Speaker 1: you met her yet? Well, anyway, she's going to be

523
00:31:48,120 --> 00:31:51,480
Speaker 1: your new empress. Oh okay, don't I don't I already have.

524
00:31:52,520 --> 00:31:57,680
Speaker 1: Don't worry about her, we'll deal with that. He had taste.

525
00:31:57,720 --> 00:32:01,160
Speaker 1: She named Lustrous air Bearer because she had a son

526
00:32:02,200 --> 00:32:06,040
Speaker 1: um and show. She was named Inner Palatine, which I

527
00:32:06,080 --> 00:32:10,680
Speaker 1: guess unofficially was somehow a higher title than Tissi's damn.

528
00:32:11,760 --> 00:32:16,400
Speaker 1: So I was like for taste, She's like, so wait

529
00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:19,000
Speaker 1: a minute, Not only does this bitch have the same

530
00:32:19,080 --> 00:32:22,520
Speaker 1: title as me, it's somehow higher than mine and I

531
00:32:22,640 --> 00:32:25,760
Speaker 1: got here first. This is bullshit? Who do I talk to?

532
00:32:26,840 --> 00:32:30,240
Speaker 1: So Missionaga invited Murasaki to make up part of the

533
00:32:30,320 --> 00:32:32,880
Speaker 1: new Empress show She's court. Could have been a number

534
00:32:32,880 --> 00:32:37,040
Speaker 1: of reasons for this, apparently, see Murasaki exchanged poetry with Missionaga,

535
00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:40,440
Speaker 1: and that has led some scholars to think maybe they

536
00:32:40,480 --> 00:32:43,600
Speaker 1: had a little something something going on. It doesn't seem

537
00:32:43,680 --> 00:32:46,360
Speaker 1: like much, just a little oh, here you go, some

538
00:32:46,560 --> 00:32:51,080
Speaker 1: poems for you, sir. It seems like a pretty standard

539
00:32:51,160 --> 00:32:56,680
Speaker 1: procedure to us, But aristocratic women of that time lived

540
00:32:56,920 --> 00:33:01,600
Speaker 1: very restrictive lives. So Murasaki you wouldn't have been allowed

541
00:33:01,760 --> 00:33:05,080
Speaker 1: to speak to men unless they were very close relatives

542
00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:08,520
Speaker 1: or members of the household. She socialized with women, and

543
00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:11,240
Speaker 1: she often exchanged poetry with women, but she had very

544
00:33:11,360 --> 00:33:14,760
Speaker 1: limited contact with men other than her father and her brother,

545
00:33:15,160 --> 00:33:19,360
Speaker 1: and she never exchanged poetry with men. So this is

546
00:33:19,400 --> 00:33:22,400
Speaker 1: a total departure from the norm and very interesting that

547
00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:27,240
Speaker 1: she slipped slipped Missionaga a couple of poems. You know, like, hey,

548
00:33:27,320 --> 00:33:30,920
Speaker 1: I got a couple of stanzas for your baby. Well

549
00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:35,120
Speaker 1: you think of these is a rhyming couplet for your hands.

550
00:33:36,720 --> 00:33:38,880
Speaker 1: But I don't know if she was really into him

551
00:33:38,920 --> 00:33:41,160
Speaker 1: or if he was just into her, because she also

552
00:33:41,240 --> 00:33:43,920
Speaker 1: wrote about his pursuit of her in her diary as

553
00:33:44,040 --> 00:33:47,040
Speaker 1: late as one thousand and ten, saying that she had

554
00:33:47,080 --> 00:33:50,520
Speaker 1: to avoid advances from him, like one night he sneaked

555
00:33:50,520 --> 00:33:53,560
Speaker 1: into her room and stole a newly written chapter of

556
00:33:53,600 --> 00:33:56,800
Speaker 1: Genji unbelievably rude. But in one poem she gave him,

557
00:33:56,880 --> 00:33:59,360
Speaker 1: she wrote, you have neither read my book nor won

558
00:33:59,480 --> 00:34:03,440
Speaker 1: my love. Which take note. If you want to love

559
00:34:03,440 --> 00:34:07,000
Speaker 1: an artist, you gotta engage with whatever art they make. Okay,

560
00:34:07,240 --> 00:34:09,239
Speaker 1: you can't be like I love this author, but I'll

561
00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:11,400
Speaker 1: never read her book. You're gonna have to read the book. Man,

562
00:34:11,600 --> 00:34:14,919
Speaker 1: get that content. I would say, by like the fifth date,

563
00:34:15,040 --> 00:34:18,640
Speaker 1: you got to have a good grasp of their art. Yeah. Man,

564
00:34:19,160 --> 00:34:22,080
Speaker 1: they will take it personally. That's why you know, maybe

565
00:34:22,160 --> 00:34:25,200
Speaker 1: you don't date a thousand page novelists. That's going to

566
00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:28,239
Speaker 1: you're looking at a lot of work. Well she does

567
00:34:28,280 --> 00:34:34,680
Speaker 1: it by chapters, all right, Yeah, catch up. He's he's like, yes, dear,

568
00:34:34,840 --> 00:34:37,760
Speaker 1: I'm you know, I'm working my way up to chapter

569
00:34:38,880 --> 00:34:42,560
Speaker 1: six eight three, but I'm only on twenty two so far,

570
00:34:42,680 --> 00:34:46,160
Speaker 1: so call me when you finish it. Click it's like

571
00:34:46,520 --> 00:34:50,080
Speaker 1: all right, and the accordions it back up. But his

572
00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:53,520
Speaker 1: patronage was essential if she wanted to keep writing, because

573
00:34:53,640 --> 00:34:56,399
Speaker 1: he was providing her with the expensive paper and ink

574
00:34:56,719 --> 00:35:00,160
Speaker 1: and court calligraphers to make copies. So I'm like, she

575
00:35:00,280 --> 00:35:02,160
Speaker 1: might have just been given in poems because she's like,

576
00:35:02,360 --> 00:35:05,319
Speaker 1: you're paying for this, yeah, here read it, don't here's

577
00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:07,839
Speaker 1: what your money's buying. Or she's like, I guess I'll

578
00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:11,000
Speaker 1: let you touch my boobs if it means I can

579
00:35:11,080 --> 00:35:15,399
Speaker 1: write my story. I don't know. Yeah, we've all been there. Um,

580
00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:19,759
Speaker 1: I forget sometimes the you know, the expenses that would

581
00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:21,880
Speaker 1: go into this paper and ink were not you know,

582
00:35:21,960 --> 00:35:25,120
Speaker 1: you can just go down to the old office depot

583
00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:29,800
Speaker 1: and uh and and pick up a ream And the

584
00:35:29,920 --> 00:35:32,680
Speaker 1: other thing I don't think of is like how thirsty

585
00:35:32,840 --> 00:35:35,880
Speaker 1: people would be for a chapter of something or a

586
00:35:35,960 --> 00:35:39,200
Speaker 1: poem or whatever because you didn't have Netflix, you know,

587
00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:42,240
Speaker 1: you didn't even have a Blockbuster. This was well before

588
00:35:42,320 --> 00:35:45,440
Speaker 1: either of those things. By a couple of years, and um,

589
00:35:49,360 --> 00:35:53,320
Speaker 1: oh my god, a piece of fiction. I've been waiting

590
00:35:53,440 --> 00:35:56,160
Speaker 1: years to read one of these. Literally, you know. Well,

591
00:35:56,239 --> 00:35:58,479
Speaker 1: just like the legend was that she wrote the Tale

592
00:35:58,480 --> 00:36:01,000
Speaker 1: of Genji because the Empress didn't have a new story

593
00:36:01,120 --> 00:36:03,239
Speaker 1: and she wanted one. She's like, I'm so sick of

594
00:36:03,320 --> 00:36:05,880
Speaker 1: these old stories. I already heard a thousand times. Tell

595
00:36:05,960 --> 00:36:11,000
Speaker 1: me something new. Also, Missionaga had thirteen kids. Okay, he

596
00:36:11,120 --> 00:36:13,560
Speaker 1: had six with each of his two wives, the sisters

597
00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:17,240
Speaker 1: of those warrior clans, and one with an unknown woman.

598
00:36:18,320 --> 00:36:22,080
Speaker 1: If I can pull into speculation station really quick, what

599
00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:27,240
Speaker 1: if Murasaki was the baby mama this random kid. Yeah,

600
00:36:27,480 --> 00:36:31,279
Speaker 1: I mean, look, she's given him poems and stories. If

601
00:36:31,320 --> 00:36:33,640
Speaker 1: not to your baby daddy, then who. I'm not sure

602
00:36:33,680 --> 00:36:37,800
Speaker 1: if I believe it myself, because just her character doesn't

603
00:36:38,320 --> 00:36:41,239
Speaker 1: bear out to me. Somebody who A would maybe have

604
00:36:41,320 --> 00:36:44,400
Speaker 1: an affair like this, or B wouldn't write about it,

605
00:36:44,520 --> 00:36:47,319
Speaker 1: rite write it down somewhere, because she did write down

606
00:36:47,360 --> 00:36:50,680
Speaker 1: a lot of things that like some roasty type comments

607
00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:54,520
Speaker 1: where you're like, oh, ship, I don't know, I don't know.

608
00:36:55,600 --> 00:36:58,200
Speaker 1: And speaking of all these poems that you know she

609
00:36:58,360 --> 00:37:01,400
Speaker 1: was giving to Missionaga, just everything she was right, she

610
00:37:01,480 --> 00:37:04,279
Speaker 1: was in such high demand. Uh, I kind of want

611
00:37:04,320 --> 00:37:07,080
Speaker 1: to hear some of that, right, So hey, I get

612
00:37:07,120 --> 00:37:10,080
Speaker 1: an idea. Why don't we go on down to the

613
00:37:10,280 --> 00:37:14,560
Speaker 1: poetry corners and we'll hear what Murasaki has written. For

614
00:37:14,719 --> 00:37:18,480
Speaker 1: much as the Song of the Crickets fades in the hedge,

615
00:37:19,280 --> 00:37:23,279
Speaker 1: it is impossible to stop Autumn's farewell. How sad they

616
00:37:23,360 --> 00:37:27,400
Speaker 1: must be too. Wow, that is somber. Let's hear what

617
00:37:27,480 --> 00:37:33,160
Speaker 1: else she's got tonight? Westward messages following the moon? Why

618
00:37:33,200 --> 00:37:39,239
Speaker 1: would I forget to send news along with the drifting clouds? Yeah,

619
00:37:39,320 --> 00:37:42,040
Speaker 1: it's lovely evocative. Yeah, you can see why she was

620
00:37:42,120 --> 00:37:46,880
Speaker 1: in high demand, especially when there was, like again, no

621
00:37:47,040 --> 00:37:52,160
Speaker 1: other entertainment. Seriously, I mean if she if the if

622
00:37:54,400 --> 00:37:57,360
Speaker 1: all the Internet went away, people will be thirsty for

623
00:37:57,440 --> 00:38:00,160
Speaker 1: some Murasaki. They would be They would fight each other

624
00:38:00,280 --> 00:38:01,840
Speaker 1: just to get their hands on a three line poem,

625
00:38:02,520 --> 00:38:04,760
Speaker 1: like anyone just stand up in front of me and entertained,

626
00:38:04,800 --> 00:38:10,279
Speaker 1: may for five minutes or more. God. So, now you've

627
00:38:10,320 --> 00:38:12,719
Speaker 1: heard some of her poetry. We know that she's a

628
00:38:12,760 --> 00:38:16,279
Speaker 1: popular author of this this novel that's going around, So

629
00:38:16,400 --> 00:38:20,280
Speaker 1: it might be that Missionaga wanted Maurasaki there to elevate

630
00:38:20,480 --> 00:38:25,640
Speaker 1: Empress show she's court um because Emperor Ichijo's mother, since

631
00:38:25,719 --> 00:38:29,560
Speaker 1: she had a very well respected literary salon of her own,

632
00:38:30,360 --> 00:38:32,880
Speaker 1: So a lot like the French court of Madame Pompadour,

633
00:38:33,080 --> 00:38:35,520
Speaker 1: if anyone remembers that episode from way back in the day,

634
00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:41,520
Speaker 1: very first. UM. Noble women may have led some restricted lives,

635
00:38:41,719 --> 00:38:46,240
Speaker 1: but they could wield considerable influence by holding powerful artistic

636
00:38:46,320 --> 00:38:50,560
Speaker 1: salons like Madame Papadour did. And so essentially they're creating

637
00:38:50,640 --> 00:38:53,040
Speaker 1: pop culture in these salons, you know what I mean,

638
00:38:53,160 --> 00:38:56,360
Speaker 1: They're they're deciding what's what other people need to be

639
00:38:56,600 --> 00:38:59,959
Speaker 1: reading and talking about. So common pastimes for noble women

640
00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:05,520
Speaker 1: included having love affairs, writing poetry, and keeping diaries. Sounds great, uh,

641
00:39:05,640 --> 00:39:07,880
Speaker 1: And some of the writing done by noble woman in

642
00:39:07,960 --> 00:39:11,000
Speaker 1: the Hyend period is recognized as some of the earliest

643
00:39:11,120 --> 00:39:15,320
Speaker 1: and among the best Japanese literature. In fact, their writing

644
00:39:15,400 --> 00:39:18,760
Speaker 1: has been called instrumental in creating a written Japanese language.

645
00:39:19,239 --> 00:39:21,440
Speaker 1: So if it weren't for these women writing these stories

646
00:39:21,640 --> 00:39:24,240
Speaker 1: in kana, you know what I mean, Like they basically

647
00:39:24,320 --> 00:39:27,839
Speaker 1: set the foundation for a Japanese literature. UM, They also

648
00:39:27,880 --> 00:39:32,279
Speaker 1: adhered to rigid fashions of floor length hair, whitened skin,

649
00:39:32,520 --> 00:39:37,960
Speaker 1: and blackened teeth. Blackened teeth, what a look? Who's like

650
00:39:38,040 --> 00:39:41,160
Speaker 1: Halloween all the time? I mean, how good were teeth

651
00:39:41,200 --> 00:39:44,480
Speaker 1: in the year one? Anyway, that's fair. I'm just picture.

652
00:39:44,520 --> 00:39:48,440
Speaker 1: I'm just going to the like Japanese horror movie with

653
00:39:48,600 --> 00:39:51,000
Speaker 1: like a girl with a with a white painted face,

654
00:39:51,200 --> 00:39:53,759
Speaker 1: hair down to the floor and black and teeth, and

655
00:39:53,920 --> 00:39:57,560
Speaker 1: I'm not going to sleep tonight. Um, Like, I've seen

656
00:39:57,640 --> 00:40:01,080
Speaker 1: that movie too many times. I mean again, I think

657
00:40:01,120 --> 00:40:03,800
Speaker 1: there's everyone's teeth stucked and we're like brown and yellow

658
00:40:03,880 --> 00:40:05,920
Speaker 1: and broken. She were like, I mean, we can't make

659
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:10,840
Speaker 1: them whiter, so let's make them darker, trying to make

660
00:40:10,880 --> 00:40:13,680
Speaker 1: it look like there's no teeth, and maybe it was like, so, yeah,

661
00:40:13,760 --> 00:40:18,399
Speaker 1: there's no teeth, so it's just this pink mouth. I mean,

662
00:40:19,280 --> 00:40:21,160
Speaker 1: I don't know if anyone out there read Memoirs of

663
00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:23,480
Speaker 1: a Geisha and loved it like I did when I

664
00:40:23,560 --> 00:40:25,759
Speaker 1: was in high school and I was obsessed. But she

665
00:40:25,880 --> 00:40:29,320
Speaker 1: talks a lot about how their fashion was very specific

666
00:40:29,520 --> 00:40:33,080
Speaker 1: to make you think of Vagina's. Oh my goodness, so

667
00:40:33,200 --> 00:40:36,920
Speaker 1: their their hairstyles would be like a like a peach

668
00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:39,400
Speaker 1: shape or a rose shape with a pink ribbon in between.

669
00:40:39,840 --> 00:40:42,320
Speaker 1: You'd catch a little glimpse of pink or whatever. And

670
00:40:42,400 --> 00:40:44,520
Speaker 1: it was just all that was supposed to be making

671
00:40:44,600 --> 00:40:46,920
Speaker 1: men think about sex, because if there's one thing men

672
00:40:47,040 --> 00:40:52,760
Speaker 1: need reminders of kind I mean, come on, did you forget?

673
00:40:53,040 --> 00:40:58,800
Speaker 1: So let my hair remind you. It's like, oh, I

674
00:40:58,840 --> 00:41:01,800
Speaker 1: almost forgot about Vagina's. I forgot I was here to

675
00:41:02,160 --> 00:41:04,880
Speaker 1: try and do it. It's also just caught myself sounding

676
00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:10,560
Speaker 1: like Seth Rogan, I forgot about Vagina's. He definitely had

677
00:41:10,600 --> 00:41:13,479
Speaker 1: said that before, like during sausage party. He was like, oh, ship,

678
00:41:14,160 --> 00:41:16,799
Speaker 1: I guess we'll just call it sausage party. Forgot about

679
00:41:16,880 --> 00:41:23,560
Speaker 1: vagina put that in the soundboard. I need a sound

680
00:41:23,600 --> 00:41:29,640
Speaker 1: cure forgot about Vagina's. She also had literary salons, so

681
00:41:29,800 --> 00:41:33,040
Speaker 1: you've got the Emperor's mother sen she who had very

682
00:41:33,080 --> 00:41:35,879
Speaker 1: well respected salons, and Tashi had one of her own

683
00:41:35,960 --> 00:41:39,000
Speaker 1: going on. And she had another great writer named Say

684
00:41:39,040 --> 00:41:43,319
Speaker 1: Shawnaghan who wrote the Pillow Book, and this was another

685
00:41:43,400 --> 00:41:47,200
Speaker 1: highly regarded piece of Japanese literature. Unlike Genji, the Pillow

686
00:41:47,239 --> 00:41:51,240
Speaker 1: Book wasn't fictional. It was actually a series of observational essays.

687
00:41:51,640 --> 00:41:53,680
Speaker 1: There was some I think there was some poems in there,

688
00:41:53,920 --> 00:41:57,640
Speaker 1: like some random observator. It was like a miscellaneous collection

689
00:41:57,800 --> 00:42:04,000
Speaker 1: of h yeah plugs, the medium posts of their time. Yeah. Now,

690
00:42:04,280 --> 00:42:07,680
Speaker 1: Tashi herself died in childbirth sadly in one thousand one,

691
00:42:08,360 --> 00:42:12,160
Speaker 1: so Murasaki and Shahnagan the two writers, they weren't here

692
00:42:12,200 --> 00:42:15,320
Speaker 1: at court at the same time. So Missonaga may have

693
00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:18,480
Speaker 1: wanted a writer of similar stature as Shownagan to be

694
00:42:18,520 --> 00:42:21,760
Speaker 1: a part of show She's Court, and Murasaki was already

695
00:42:21,800 --> 00:42:24,480
Speaker 1: well known as a great writer, which chapters of Genji

696
00:42:24,520 --> 00:42:26,880
Speaker 1: already kind of being distributed around the court, so that

697
00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:30,560
Speaker 1: might be why he got her to come join Showsi's Court.

698
00:42:30,760 --> 00:42:34,640
Speaker 1: It was like, oh, if Tashi had Shownagan, I got

699
00:42:34,760 --> 00:42:38,120
Speaker 1: a one up that, so I'm getting Murasaki. But officially,

700
00:42:38,560 --> 00:42:43,759
Speaker 1: Murasaki was there as a companion tutor to teach, to

701
00:42:43,960 --> 00:42:48,759
Speaker 1: teach Showshi Chinese poetry, to teach Shoshi Chinese poetry, say

702
00:42:48,760 --> 00:42:51,960
Speaker 1: that ten times Chinese poet don't actually say tenda, I'll

703
00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:56,759
Speaker 1: just repeat it. And the attitude towards Chinese as a

704
00:42:56,840 --> 00:43:00,680
Speaker 1: language was contradictory. Though here say Shoonagan, who was the

705
00:43:00,840 --> 00:43:04,400
Speaker 1: author in Tashi's Salon, showed off her knowledge of Chinese

706
00:43:04,920 --> 00:43:09,640
Speaker 1: and show she learned classical Chinese from Murasaki, but it

707
00:43:09,800 --> 00:43:13,040
Speaker 1: was in secret. Didn't want to know she was learning

708
00:43:13,160 --> 00:43:18,200
Speaker 1: Chinese taboo, I guess. But she added screens with Chinese

709
00:43:18,280 --> 00:43:22,000
Speaker 1: writing in her palace, and this caused an uproar because

710
00:43:22,280 --> 00:43:26,000
Speaker 1: only men new Chinese, so it's not supposed to be

711
00:43:26,040 --> 00:43:29,000
Speaker 1: associated with women in any way. Yeah, oh, dare, old

712
00:43:29,000 --> 00:43:31,879
Speaker 1: woman puts screens up with Chinese writing on it. We've

713
00:43:31,920 --> 00:43:34,279
Speaker 1: never been so offended. I guess it'd be like, you know,

714
00:43:34,360 --> 00:43:36,360
Speaker 1: how men used to be the only ones to curse,

715
00:43:37,080 --> 00:43:38,879
Speaker 1: and if a woman put up a poster that said

716
00:43:39,000 --> 00:43:41,360
Speaker 1: fuck you know I like, all the dudes would be like,

717
00:43:41,440 --> 00:43:49,279
Speaker 1: oh my god, my heart peterpetations. But in either case,

718
00:43:49,719 --> 00:43:52,480
Speaker 1: it was still becoming less popular to know Chinese anyway,

719
00:43:52,560 --> 00:43:56,120
Speaker 1: since Japan was actively trying to assert its own language

720
00:43:56,160 --> 00:43:59,880
Speaker 1: and culture at this point in history. So although Miasaki

721
00:44:00,080 --> 00:44:02,359
Speaker 1: used the language in her writing and taught it to show,

722
00:44:02,440 --> 00:44:06,239
Speaker 1: she publicly she rejected it. She was like, no, I'm

723
00:44:06,239 --> 00:44:09,040
Speaker 1: not into that. Yeah. She loved Chinese poets and she

724
00:44:09,160 --> 00:44:11,960
Speaker 1: read a lot of Chinese literature, and I mean, you know,

725
00:44:12,080 --> 00:44:15,040
Speaker 1: it was a mark of education still, and you had

726
00:44:15,120 --> 00:44:17,000
Speaker 1: to know it if you're a man, even if you

727
00:44:17,040 --> 00:44:19,560
Speaker 1: don't want to, because that was the language of the government,

728
00:44:19,640 --> 00:44:22,560
Speaker 1: you had to know. Um. But yeah, she was like

729
00:44:22,719 --> 00:44:25,920
Speaker 1: to be patriotic. I will say that Chinese is pretentious.

730
00:44:28,560 --> 00:44:31,840
Speaker 1: So time for a little anybody commercial break, We'll be

731
00:44:32,000 --> 00:44:36,680
Speaker 1: right back. Welcome back everyone, We are here the Imperial Court.

732
00:44:37,040 --> 00:44:40,200
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if Marisaki had a say in going

733
00:44:40,280 --> 00:44:41,800
Speaker 1: to court or not. So I don't know if it

734
00:44:41,960 --> 00:44:44,440
Speaker 1: was like a thing where you get invited quote unquote,

735
00:44:44,480 --> 00:44:47,560
Speaker 1: but it's like you don't get to say no, or

736
00:44:47,640 --> 00:44:49,759
Speaker 1: if she really did have an opportunity to say, oh,

737
00:44:49,840 --> 00:44:51,879
Speaker 1: thank you so much, but I'm good, I'll just stay

738
00:44:51,920 --> 00:44:54,400
Speaker 1: at my dad's house. But if she did have a choice,

739
00:44:54,680 --> 00:44:56,439
Speaker 1: it may have been that she felt like she needed

740
00:44:56,480 --> 00:44:59,040
Speaker 1: a bit of a change after her husband's death. She

741
00:44:59,160 --> 00:45:01,719
Speaker 1: seemed to be pretty sad, So I'm not sure if

742
00:45:01,880 --> 00:45:04,880
Speaker 1: she was sad that he was dead life because of himself,

743
00:45:05,480 --> 00:45:07,640
Speaker 1: or if she just didn't like being a widow and

744
00:45:07,680 --> 00:45:11,239
Speaker 1: felt kind of bored. She wrote, I felt depressed and

745
00:45:11,360 --> 00:45:14,759
Speaker 1: confused for some years. I had existed from day to

746
00:45:14,880 --> 00:45:18,440
Speaker 1: day in a listless fashion, doing little more than registering

747
00:45:18,480 --> 00:45:21,960
Speaker 1: the passage of time. The thought of my continuing loneliness

748
00:45:22,120 --> 00:45:26,480
Speaker 1: was quite unbearable. So yeah, she may have just been like, sure,

749
00:45:26,640 --> 00:45:28,839
Speaker 1: change up my life. I'll go to the court. It'll

750
00:45:28,880 --> 00:45:31,120
Speaker 1: be something different. Um, But she seems to not have

751
00:45:31,239 --> 00:45:34,640
Speaker 1: liked court life very much. She really disdained the writing

752
00:45:34,680 --> 00:45:38,080
Speaker 1: of the other famed authors on the Court, including shown Agan.

753
00:45:38,440 --> 00:45:43,040
Speaker 1: Although she was like reluctantly respectful, She's like, yeah, she's good,

754
00:45:43,160 --> 00:45:47,719
Speaker 1: but she's too lighthearted. She felt everyone at the court

755
00:45:47,840 --> 00:45:51,040
Speaker 1: was given to jealousy, drunkenness, and on we uh. She

756
00:45:51,120 --> 00:45:54,000
Speaker 1: wrote in her diary, I cannot be bothered to discuss

757
00:45:54,080 --> 00:45:56,960
Speaker 1: matters in front of those women who continually carp and

758
00:45:57,000 --> 00:45:59,960
Speaker 1: are so full of themselves. It would only cause trouble.

759
00:46:00,600 --> 00:46:03,200
Speaker 1: So all they see of me is a facade. There

760
00:46:03,239 --> 00:46:05,319
Speaker 1: are times when I am forced to sit with them,

761
00:46:05,680 --> 00:46:08,839
Speaker 1: and on such occasions I simply ignore their petty criticisms,

762
00:46:09,320 --> 00:46:12,400
Speaker 1: not because I am particularly shy, but because I consider

763
00:46:12,480 --> 00:46:15,440
Speaker 1: it pointless. As a result, they now look upon me

764
00:46:15,600 --> 00:46:19,920
Speaker 1: as a dullard. That is so relatable, Like that feels

765
00:46:19,920 --> 00:46:23,719
Speaker 1: like high school, so middle school, really honestly so hard

766
00:46:23,800 --> 00:46:27,320
Speaker 1: to me. I was like, I get this whole sentence, Gary,

767
00:46:27,440 --> 00:46:29,560
Speaker 1: just like I'm not going to enter into any of

768
00:46:29,640 --> 00:46:31,920
Speaker 1: your bullshit, and now everybody thinks you're no fun to

769
00:46:32,000 --> 00:46:35,839
Speaker 1: hang out with, Like everyone's being the worst. So I'm

770
00:46:35,880 --> 00:46:37,719
Speaker 1: just going to sit over here, which means they're going

771
00:46:37,760 --> 00:46:40,400
Speaker 1: to look at me and be like, wow, that person

772
00:46:40,440 --> 00:46:43,760
Speaker 1: is so boring sitting over there just not saying anything.

773
00:46:43,800 --> 00:46:45,000
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, what do you want me to say?

774
00:46:45,080 --> 00:46:47,400
Speaker 1: Your bullshit is terrible and I want to be a

775
00:46:47,440 --> 00:46:49,879
Speaker 1: part of that, right, And if they're spending the whole

776
00:46:49,920 --> 00:46:52,360
Speaker 1: time being like you're so boring, what a dumb bitch?

777
00:46:52,800 --> 00:46:56,560
Speaker 1: What are you gonna do? You be like, yeah, let

778
00:46:56,600 --> 00:46:58,160
Speaker 1: me sit here and argue with you about whether or

779
00:46:58,200 --> 00:47:00,400
Speaker 1: not I'm a dumb bitch, like obvious say, I'm not

780
00:47:00,400 --> 00:47:03,840
Speaker 1: going to do that anyway. So she knew that others

781
00:47:03,920 --> 00:47:09,560
Speaker 1: in the court found her quote pretentious, awkward, difficult to approach, prickly,

782
00:47:09,920 --> 00:47:17,040
Speaker 1: too fond of her tails, haughty, prone to versifying, disdainful, cantankerous,

783
00:47:17,400 --> 00:47:22,840
Speaker 1: and scornful. But so many bad adjectives in her But

784
00:47:23,000 --> 00:47:25,319
Speaker 1: she also wrote once that people see her that way

785
00:47:25,400 --> 00:47:27,480
Speaker 1: and then if they ever take the time to know her,

786
00:47:27,880 --> 00:47:30,960
Speaker 1: they're very surprised that she's kind and gentle. So it's

787
00:47:31,000 --> 00:47:34,800
Speaker 1: like maybe she has a real aloof I don't know aspect,

788
00:47:35,040 --> 00:47:37,200
Speaker 1: you know what. I like, she's resting bitch face or something,

789
00:47:37,400 --> 00:47:40,000
Speaker 1: and people are like, she's probably really mean. And then

790
00:47:40,040 --> 00:47:42,560
Speaker 1: if they actually give her, you know, some space to

791
00:47:42,640 --> 00:47:45,040
Speaker 1: be yourself, she's pretty cool. I don't know. If you

792
00:47:45,160 --> 00:47:49,680
Speaker 1: have that many negative adjectives about someone, you're bound to

793
00:47:49,800 --> 00:47:52,720
Speaker 1: be overstating it and you're gonna be That's like setting

794
00:47:52,760 --> 00:47:56,040
Speaker 1: you at your bar so low for someone, and then

795
00:47:56,080 --> 00:47:59,400
Speaker 1: they're like hi, and you're like, wow, I thought you

796
00:47:59,440 --> 00:48:01,560
Speaker 1: were going to literally stabbed me in the throat, but

797
00:48:01,680 --> 00:48:06,080
Speaker 1: you actually said hello to me very I am very impressed.

798
00:48:07,239 --> 00:48:10,560
Speaker 1: Thomas Inge, who is an Asian literature scholar, believes that

799
00:48:10,719 --> 00:48:14,840
Speaker 1: she quote had a forceful personality that seldom won her friends.

800
00:48:15,680 --> 00:48:20,600
Speaker 1: So she's probably really opinionated and again just dismissive of

801
00:48:20,880 --> 00:48:22,600
Speaker 1: all the stuff they were doing and liked to do.

802
00:48:23,440 --> 00:48:26,439
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's not not not super popular at court

803
00:48:26,680 --> 00:48:29,000
Speaker 1: as a person. As a writer, yes, as a person,

804
00:48:29,160 --> 00:48:33,000
Speaker 1: not so much. Now it's possible that she didn't hate

805
00:48:33,120 --> 00:48:35,840
Speaker 1: court life as it was, but rather just found it

806
00:48:36,360 --> 00:48:40,280
Speaker 1: boring to be a part of show. She's court snooze

807
00:48:40,360 --> 00:48:44,840
Speaker 1: fast show. She was a very serious person and she

808
00:48:45,080 --> 00:48:49,480
Speaker 1: judged people by very rigid standards, so her court quote

809
00:48:49,560 --> 00:48:54,160
Speaker 1: gained a reputation for extreme dullness. As Miurasaki wrote, not

810
00:48:54,320 --> 00:48:57,200
Speaker 1: what Missionaga was going for. By the way, you know

811
00:48:57,360 --> 00:48:59,279
Speaker 1: he's over at the side, like Danna, we need to

812
00:48:59,320 --> 00:49:01,920
Speaker 1: get some dance in here. Is trying to liven this

813
00:49:02,080 --> 00:49:04,879
Speaker 1: up by introducing a poet. Is there a comedy writer

814
00:49:05,000 --> 00:49:10,680
Speaker 1: in the house anyone? So apparently show she gave her

815
00:49:10,760 --> 00:49:15,040
Speaker 1: ladies in waiting some advice about not appearing too flirtatious,

816
00:49:15,600 --> 00:49:20,360
Speaker 1: saying that going too far could lead to quote unpleasant consequences,

817
00:49:21,200 --> 00:49:24,320
Speaker 1: so they should just reject men's advances, but not in

818
00:49:24,480 --> 00:49:26,640
Speaker 1: such a way as to hurt their feelings. I'd be like,

819
00:49:26,800 --> 00:49:29,520
Speaker 1: Jesus God, you'd really gave me a narrow window to

820
00:49:29,560 --> 00:49:31,600
Speaker 1: work in here, right, I mean, this is a classic

821
00:49:31,760 --> 00:49:34,279
Speaker 1: female problem here. I just want you to know that

822
00:49:34,360 --> 00:49:39,960
Speaker 1: because the female trouble flirty, not to flirty, and if

823
00:49:40,000 --> 00:49:41,520
Speaker 1: you don't like them, you have to let them down

824
00:49:41,560 --> 00:49:47,280
Speaker 1: easy because they might murder you. Right, Oh God, Murasaki wrote, quote,

825
00:49:47,400 --> 00:49:51,279
Speaker 1: now that the Empress is exceedingly stylish, brothers brings so

826
00:49:51,480 --> 00:49:54,640
Speaker 1: many of their young courtier friends to amuse themselves at

827
00:49:54,680 --> 00:49:58,480
Speaker 1: her house, we have, in self defense, been obliged to

828
00:49:58,560 --> 00:50:02,279
Speaker 1: become more virtuous than ever. I think that's a good

829
00:50:02,320 --> 00:50:07,120
Speaker 1: sign of a sense of humor. And yeah, that's been

830
00:50:07,160 --> 00:50:11,080
Speaker 1: a little sarcastic, like we're like into these guys, but no,

831
00:50:11,360 --> 00:50:13,040
Speaker 1: we're going to put up our fans on our face

832
00:50:13,160 --> 00:50:15,560
Speaker 1: and we're not even to look at him show she

833
00:50:15,560 --> 00:50:18,480
Speaker 1: wouldn't like it. Yeah, now that all these hot boys

834
00:50:18,560 --> 00:50:23,560
Speaker 1: showed up, I guess we'll just be saintly virgins. Great choice,

835
00:50:23,640 --> 00:50:26,600
Speaker 1: show she thank you? Or like, also, like, thanks for

836
00:50:26,680 --> 00:50:29,600
Speaker 1: your advice. Why are you bringing all these dudes around?

837
00:50:30,280 --> 00:50:32,160
Speaker 1: If you want me to let him down easy, don't

838
00:50:32,239 --> 00:50:36,359
Speaker 1: let him in. Bring some ugly dudes in here. Next

839
00:50:36,440 --> 00:50:40,040
Speaker 1: time we'll have much easier time. Oh, thank you so much.

840
00:50:40,120 --> 00:50:42,279
Speaker 1: I would love to, but I have to wash my

841
00:50:42,400 --> 00:50:45,359
Speaker 1: floor length hair tonight and it does take some time.

842
00:50:45,520 --> 00:50:52,080
Speaker 1: Makes two weeks, three people. Um so who knows. She

843
00:50:52,200 --> 00:50:54,080
Speaker 1: may have liked court life better if she was serving

844
00:50:54,200 --> 00:50:56,839
Speaker 1: Lady Send She the Emperor's mother, Her court was more

845
00:50:56,960 --> 00:51:01,879
Speaker 1: lighthearted and fun, but hard to say because it doesn't

846
00:51:01,880 --> 00:51:04,920
Speaker 1: seem like Mirisaki really approved of lighthearted kind of stuff

847
00:51:04,960 --> 00:51:07,680
Speaker 1: that was going on up there, Like she tended to

848
00:51:07,719 --> 00:51:10,239
Speaker 1: look down on women who had affairs, for example, and

849
00:51:10,360 --> 00:51:14,120
Speaker 1: she didn't like drunkenness, and she didn't enter like poetry

850
00:51:14,200 --> 00:51:19,600
Speaker 1: competitions or anything like that speculation station did she teach

851
00:51:20,200 --> 00:51:22,719
Speaker 1: so she to be dull, Like when when she was

852
00:51:22,760 --> 00:51:25,200
Speaker 1: teaching a poetry was she like, also, it's not classy

853
00:51:25,360 --> 00:51:27,400
Speaker 1: to flirt with men, do you know what I mean?

854
00:51:27,520 --> 00:51:29,880
Speaker 1: Like she had a little influence there, but then she

855
00:51:30,000 --> 00:51:33,360
Speaker 1: got sarcastic about it. She did, so then I was like,

856
00:51:33,520 --> 00:51:37,840
Speaker 1: maybe maybe they were just kind of similar in that respect,

857
00:51:38,280 --> 00:51:42,399
Speaker 1: or she was just conforming maybe or yeah, or maybe

858
00:51:42,480 --> 00:51:44,520
Speaker 1: she was like making fun of it, Like this kid

859
00:51:44,680 --> 00:51:47,319
Speaker 1: is so serious? What's going on? We're seeing her as

860
00:51:47,400 --> 00:51:51,720
Speaker 1: like a Daria type, like real like kind of flattened,

861
00:51:51,760 --> 00:51:54,400
Speaker 1: like I'm not getting excited about things. No, I'm not

862
00:51:54,480 --> 00:51:58,840
Speaker 1: going going to engage in your spirited activities. But no,

863
00:51:59,080 --> 00:52:01,080
Speaker 1: don't get drunk an on me and have a party

864
00:52:01,280 --> 00:52:04,680
Speaker 1: and also don't be boring. Yeah, Like I think that's

865
00:52:04,719 --> 00:52:07,240
Speaker 1: where I'm feeling about her. Right now, He's like, she's Daria,

866
00:52:07,680 --> 00:52:11,920
Speaker 1: Daria right on. I think that works for me. After

867
00:52:12,120 --> 00:52:16,520
Speaker 1: Emperor Shi Joe died in one thousand eleven, show she

868
00:52:16,719 --> 00:52:18,960
Speaker 1: left the court along with Murasaki and they lived in

869
00:52:19,000 --> 00:52:21,960
Speaker 1: a Fujiwara mansion, and Murasaki may have died in the

870
00:52:22,040 --> 00:52:24,919
Speaker 1: year one thousand fourteen, though some believe she died maybe

871
00:52:24,960 --> 00:52:28,279
Speaker 1: in one thousand twenty five, quite a bit later, but

872
00:52:28,440 --> 00:52:31,759
Speaker 1: she dedicated her days to literature and religion and her

873
00:52:31,840 --> 00:52:34,799
Speaker 1: daughter ken. She became a distinguished poet in her own right,

874
00:52:35,000 --> 00:52:38,319
Speaker 1: and The Tale of Genji, meanwhile, has never gone out

875
00:52:38,360 --> 00:52:43,080
Speaker 1: of style. Helen McCullough, an American translator and jet panologists,

876
00:52:43,600 --> 00:52:47,920
Speaker 1: says it has universal appeal because quote it's basic subject

877
00:52:48,000 --> 00:52:51,839
Speaker 1: matter and setting are those of the romance. Murasaki's Shikibu's

878
00:52:52,040 --> 00:52:55,120
Speaker 1: unique genius has made the work for many a powerful

879
00:52:55,200 --> 00:52:59,719
Speaker 1: statement of human relationships, the impossibility of permanent happiness in

880
00:53:00,040 --> 00:53:03,360
Speaker 1: of and the vital importance in a world of sorrows

881
00:53:03,680 --> 00:53:07,560
Speaker 1: of sensitivity to the feelings of others. Japan has not

882
00:53:07,880 --> 00:53:13,279
Speaker 1: seen another such genius. Wow. That is both very complementary

883
00:53:13,440 --> 00:53:16,360
Speaker 1: to this work and very insulting to every author of

884
00:53:16,440 --> 00:53:21,640
Speaker 1: Japan ever since then. Listen and I've got a great teacher.

885
00:53:21,680 --> 00:53:25,840
Speaker 1: Only Zuka Manga that I would say different, ma'am. The

886
00:53:25,960 --> 00:53:29,319
Speaker 1: story was so popular that Emperor Ichijo had it read

887
00:53:29,400 --> 00:53:31,840
Speaker 1: to him, even though it was in Japanese and not Chinese,

888
00:53:32,840 --> 00:53:35,840
Speaker 1: and it was highly sought after in provinces where copies

889
00:53:35,880 --> 00:53:38,400
Speaker 1: were scarce, of course, because they weren't close to the

890
00:53:38,440 --> 00:53:42,239
Speaker 1: court to get Are you done with that yet? Do

891
00:53:42,280 --> 00:53:43,680
Speaker 1: you know? They probably read him out of order and

892
00:53:43,719 --> 00:53:46,040
Speaker 1: stuff too, Like whever they got a chapter they were

893
00:53:46,080 --> 00:53:49,480
Speaker 1: just like, fuck it, you read it. As early as

894
00:53:49,520 --> 00:53:52,960
Speaker 1: the twelfth century, her writing was considered required reading for

895
00:53:53,080 --> 00:53:56,440
Speaker 1: court poets and was studied by scholars, so it didn't

896
00:53:56,440 --> 00:53:59,399
Speaker 1: take very long before they were like, this is good.

897
00:54:00,239 --> 00:54:05,160
Speaker 1: In the seventeenth century, female virtue became tied to literary knowledge, right,

898
00:54:05,400 --> 00:54:11,840
Speaker 1: ladies learning, We love it, and suddenly Miurasaki or Genji

899
00:54:11,920 --> 00:54:15,720
Speaker 1: inspired stuff was in high demand. Sixteen hundreds, this stuff

900
00:54:15,760 --> 00:54:19,719
Speaker 1: was popping off lacquer boxes. He had screens with the

901
00:54:19,760 --> 00:54:22,520
Speaker 1: images painted on him, scrolls and so on. They all

902
00:54:22,600 --> 00:54:26,880
Speaker 1: depicted scenes from Genji or illustrations of Miurasaki. These all

903
00:54:26,920 --> 00:54:30,880
Speaker 1: became very popular for noble women and they symbolically imbued

904
00:54:31,040 --> 00:54:35,319
Speaker 1: a bride with more cultural status, so they became uh,

905
00:54:35,520 --> 00:54:37,880
Speaker 1: you know, like great wedding gifts and stuff. In the

906
00:54:38,000 --> 00:54:41,040
Speaker 1: eighteenth century, these items had come to symbolize marital success,

907
00:54:41,640 --> 00:54:45,080
Speaker 1: so everyone was like, get your Genji lunch boxes, get

908
00:54:45,160 --> 00:54:51,799
Speaker 1: your Genji letterman jackets, get your Genji uh phone cases, socks. Yeah,

909
00:54:52,000 --> 00:54:54,279
Speaker 1: we got shirts with Marisaki on us, she's looking at

910
00:54:54,320 --> 00:54:58,240
Speaker 1: the moon. You can wrap your car and chatter eights

911
00:54:58,320 --> 00:55:02,000
Speaker 1: if tailor Genji, yeah that you could make one of

912
00:55:02,040 --> 00:55:04,520
Speaker 1: those bags that's got all the words from the story.

913
00:55:04,560 --> 00:55:07,200
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, those those that would be a

914
00:55:07,280 --> 00:55:12,759
Speaker 1: big bag. It was in two thousand eight Kyoto held

915
00:55:12,880 --> 00:55:16,960
Speaker 1: a year long celebration of the one thousand year of

916
00:55:17,000 --> 00:55:19,879
Speaker 1: the Tale of Genji. Um. That's what that New York

917
00:55:19,920 --> 00:55:23,799
Speaker 1: Times article is about. The authors at that celebration kind

918
00:55:23,840 --> 00:55:27,720
Speaker 1: of describing it. And they held poetry competitions and women

919
00:55:27,719 --> 00:55:29,719
Speaker 1: would dress up in the court dress of the high

920
00:55:29,800 --> 00:55:33,279
Speaker 1: end period, so they were wearing floor link wigs. They

921
00:55:33,320 --> 00:55:35,800
Speaker 1: were on those sandals that they would wear that just

922
00:55:35,920 --> 00:55:38,360
Speaker 1: had like basically two little boards you were walking on,

923
00:55:39,080 --> 00:55:44,799
Speaker 1: and they had these really elaborate dresses and everything. Maybe

924
00:55:47,320 --> 00:55:50,200
Speaker 1: maybe they didn't do it all. They might have left

925
00:55:50,239 --> 00:55:53,160
Speaker 1: that part out, since the epic is so long. As

926
00:55:53,239 --> 00:55:56,839
Speaker 1: we've pointed out, very few people read the actual thing

927
00:55:56,960 --> 00:56:01,160
Speaker 1: anymore in Japan, i should say, but they consume racy

928
00:56:01,280 --> 00:56:05,960
Speaker 1: manga's and abridged editions that are sometimes very body and

929
00:56:06,080 --> 00:56:09,360
Speaker 1: they're written in modern Japanese. New York Times says that

930
00:56:09,520 --> 00:56:13,800
Speaker 1: inventors at Kyoto University have even produced a Murasaki robot

931
00:56:14,040 --> 00:56:19,840
Speaker 1: that recites passages of her work. We need a robot

932
00:56:19,920 --> 00:56:22,879
Speaker 1: for everything. This one just reads passages from the Tail

933
00:56:22,920 --> 00:56:26,440
Speaker 1: of Genji. Well, it's kind of like how we had

934
00:56:26,480 --> 00:56:29,640
Speaker 1: Wishbone classics, you know what I mean, Like, I know

935
00:56:29,760 --> 00:56:31,880
Speaker 1: kids are not going to read the Odyssey, but allow

936
00:56:31,960 --> 00:56:35,400
Speaker 1: this beagle through the Odyssey. But yeah, you know, they

937
00:56:35,480 --> 00:56:38,040
Speaker 1: just want to engage you with this classic work in

938
00:56:38,160 --> 00:56:42,640
Speaker 1: any way they can basically um, and I'm curious, So

939
00:56:42,680 --> 00:56:44,840
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie I would read a racy manga.

940
00:56:46,760 --> 00:56:50,320
Speaker 1: So yeah, that that's the story of Murasaki's Shikibu and

941
00:56:50,400 --> 00:56:52,600
Speaker 1: the Tale of Genji. Yeah, I think this is so

942
00:56:52,680 --> 00:56:55,480
Speaker 1: cool to like kind of take a different view of

943
00:56:56,200 --> 00:56:58,960
Speaker 1: of romance, you know, again, not through a couple, but

944
00:56:59,080 --> 00:57:01,800
Speaker 1: rather through like a whole cultural movement and a worker

945
00:57:01,880 --> 00:57:05,920
Speaker 1: literature that really uh, you know, not even changed the game,

946
00:57:05,960 --> 00:57:09,600
Speaker 1: but it was definitive, you know, it grew into something else.

947
00:57:09,640 --> 00:57:12,080
Speaker 1: I think that's really cool. Yeah, And I just got

948
00:57:12,160 --> 00:57:16,040
Speaker 1: really fascinated that somebody who experienced so little romance in

949
00:57:16,080 --> 00:57:18,840
Speaker 1: her own life was so great about writing about it

950
00:57:19,080 --> 00:57:22,000
Speaker 1: that everyone's still talking about it a thousand years later,

951
00:57:22,600 --> 00:57:26,360
Speaker 1: and she's a symbol for marital happiness. Like that's just

952
00:57:26,480 --> 00:57:28,840
Speaker 1: funny to me that. I feel like if she could

953
00:57:28,840 --> 00:57:32,000
Speaker 1: see her her the effect today, she'd be like, oh

954
00:57:32,200 --> 00:57:36,720
Speaker 1: for real, all right, she'd take a creative writing course today,

955
00:57:36,760 --> 00:57:39,720
Speaker 1: and the first thing they'd say is first lesson is

956
00:57:39,880 --> 00:57:42,080
Speaker 1: right what you know? And she'd be like, fuck, you

957
00:57:43,720 --> 00:57:45,680
Speaker 1: write what I think and it's going to be brilliant,

958
00:57:46,440 --> 00:57:48,600
Speaker 1: it's going to endure. And you got to be that

959
00:57:48,720 --> 00:57:51,200
Speaker 1: smart to do that. Very true, and she actually had

960
00:57:51,320 --> 00:57:54,640
Speaker 1: something interesting to say with her applications, as did say,

961
00:57:54,760 --> 00:57:57,560
Speaker 1: shown a gun. Right Without without the Pillow Book, we

962
00:57:57,600 --> 00:58:00,240
Speaker 1: also wouldn't know very much about high end court life

963
00:58:00,720 --> 00:58:03,200
Speaker 1: and what it was like. So because of their writing,

964
00:58:03,560 --> 00:58:07,600
Speaker 1: you know, really gave us a peek into an ancient culture.

965
00:58:07,880 --> 00:58:09,520
Speaker 1: So these are This was cool. I hope you guys

966
00:58:09,600 --> 00:58:11,960
Speaker 1: enjoyed this one. Yeah, yeah, this was a really fun one.

967
00:58:12,080 --> 00:58:13,880
Speaker 1: And it's like you said, so great to kind of

968
00:58:13,920 --> 00:58:17,200
Speaker 1: peek back at ancient feudal Japan, kind of learned something.

969
00:58:17,280 --> 00:58:21,320
Speaker 1: They're uh such a cool culture and just stylistically from

970
00:58:21,360 --> 00:58:24,640
Speaker 1: the outside looking in, I think I love that era. Well, uh,

971
00:58:24,920 --> 00:58:27,240
Speaker 1: definitely let us know what you all thought. You know

972
00:58:27,320 --> 00:58:29,520
Speaker 1: how to reach us our email addresses romance at I

973
00:58:29,600 --> 00:58:32,400
Speaker 1: heart media dot com, and we're on social media. I'm

974
00:58:32,440 --> 00:58:35,400
Speaker 1: at Diana mighte boom on Instagram and Twitter and I

975
00:58:35,520 --> 00:58:38,920
Speaker 1: am at Oh great, it's Eli and the show is

976
00:58:39,040 --> 00:58:42,360
Speaker 1: at ridic Romance And don't forget if you want to

977
00:58:42,440 --> 00:58:45,520
Speaker 1: jump onto Apple podcasts, they are like the only place

978
00:58:45,600 --> 00:58:48,240
Speaker 1: you can leave an actual review of the show. And

979
00:58:48,400 --> 00:58:50,480
Speaker 1: we love them. We love getting them, and we love

980
00:58:50,520 --> 00:58:52,360
Speaker 1: here nor from you guys, and we love seeing your

981
00:58:52,440 --> 00:58:55,600
Speaker 1: kind awesome words and they help the show get out

982
00:58:55,680 --> 00:58:57,680
Speaker 1: to more people. Don't forget to go check us out

983
00:58:57,800 --> 00:59:02,560
Speaker 1: on Ridiculous History. Harder there with Diana and I both

984
00:59:03,000 --> 00:59:04,520
Speaker 1: popping in to say hi to ben A Noal, we

985
00:59:04,600 --> 00:59:06,680
Speaker 1: had a great time joining them, and a lot of

986
00:59:06,760 --> 00:59:09,360
Speaker 1: you have said you want a speculation station T shirts,

987
00:59:09,440 --> 00:59:12,120
Speaker 1: so we will try to get the battle rolling on that.

988
00:59:12,760 --> 00:59:17,560
Speaker 1: Now that we've sold what ten that's something. Yeah, yeah,

989
00:59:17,680 --> 00:59:19,080
Speaker 1: we just we got to take it to the corporate

990
00:59:19,120 --> 00:59:21,640
Speaker 1: over lords and say, look how much money you could

991
00:59:21,640 --> 00:59:27,400
Speaker 1: be making off of us at least fifty dollars. Like, hey,

992
00:59:27,880 --> 00:59:29,600
Speaker 1: sorry to break the news for you, but those shirts

993
00:59:29,640 --> 00:59:35,680
Speaker 1: ain't gonna be five bucks. They're gonna make us pay more. True. Well, anyway,

994
00:59:35,760 --> 00:59:39,560
Speaker 1: we'll see what happens. Thanks Agaan, y'all, we will talk

995
00:59:39,560 --> 00:59:42,920
Speaker 1: to you soon. I love you by so long. Friends,

996
00:59:43,000 --> 00:59:46,640
Speaker 1: it's time to go. Thanks so listening to our show

997
00:59:47,240 --> 00:59:50,480
Speaker 1: tell your friends names Uncle Sandance to listen to a

998
00:59:50,560 --> 00:59:52,120
Speaker 1: show ridiculous? Well Nance