J314 Marriage Politics and the Fujiwara Regency
Fujiwara no Michinaga (986-1028)
Had Four Daughters who married into the "Sun" or Royal Line making Michinaga
1. Father-in-Law to 2 Emperors, Ichijo and Sanjo
2. Grandfather to a 3rd Go-Ichijo
3. Great grandfather to a 4th - Go-Suzaku
4. Grandfather and Father-in-Law to a 5th - Go-Sanjo
So, 996-1017 was the Peak of Fujiwara dominance - it was the Age of "Glory and Splendor." As Michinaga wrote in a poem about himself:
This world, I think,
Is indeed my world.
Like the full moon I shine,
Uncovered by any cloud.
Well, yep, he was pretty central to what was going on in his day! He was at both the center and the pinnacle of power.
The population of Japan during the Heian period was probably about 5 million of which maybe 1% lived in the capital city, Kyoto, and only about 10% of these people (so 1/10 of 1% of the total population) belonged to the rank hierarchy. In this society, people were very conscious of Rank - it was everything.
Actually, "Lady Murasaki" (not her real name) was the daughter of a Fujiwara clan member who was not of the Kugyô or highest ranks of the nobility. He was a provincial governor of Harima, and later Echigo, so he was more of a "middle level aristocrat."
Nevertheless, she was very learned and skilled in literary arts, and her literary gifts brought her to the attention of Fujiwara-no-Michinaga himself who employed her as a tutor for his daughter; and she later came to join Empress Akiko (aka Shōshi)'s literary circle in around 1005. Her father, Michinaga, did something unprecented, he named Akiko Empress when there already was another empress in place, pitting two camps against each other in rivalry. Much of this tension and competittion betwewen two factions finds its way into the Genji in the form of the two camps:
1. That of Lady Kokiden, daughter of the Minister of the Right, married to the reigning monarch, mother of the Crown Prince. So she should be secure but....enter
v.
2. Lady Kiritsubo/Fujitsubo and Genji who was married to Lady Aoi, daughter of the Minister of the Left.
Lady "Murasaki," the author--she came to be called this after the main character in the Genji--would have been about 32 years old and already married and widowed by the time she started writing. She was a fairly serious and somber person dedicated to learning, including Chinese learning--at which women were not supposed to excel--and to writing. Apparently Michinaga propositioned her once...but she turned him down.
It was said that these women--in their literary "circle" convened by Akiko or Shōshi--started thinking about the existing monogatari of their day and found them wanting. They saw them as a form that had become stale, outdated, and in need of something new, some rejuvenation. These older tales or monogatari were neither very realistic nor convincing so these literate women started brainstorming how they could get something more from these tales. Poetry was clearly the dominant literary form of the day, but could prose be made "poetic" and engaging too? How might they do that?
So, Empress Akiko (also known as Shōshi) asked her ladies-in-waiting to come up with some ideas. It is said that Lady Murasaki (b. 973) -- her real name was Fujiwara; her father was Fujiwara Tamatoki, and official and poet, her grandfather a poet who knew Ki-no-Tsurayuki--produced a draft of a chapter or two of what would eventually evolve into 54 chapters that aristocrats and others read avidly. She brought her "maki," or chapters to court, where they were probably read aloud, and then discussed and thoroughly enjoyed. Something new was in the air and it was very exciting.
In the author's lifetime, the Genji was not "published" it but circulated by means of hand-copied versions, always beautiful calligraphy on lush silk backgrounds. We know from diary entries that young ladies were reading the Genji in virtually complete form between 1010-1020--if, indeed, it ever was completed. It is believed that the author withdrew to a monastery later in life and died perhaps in 1014.
WHAT WAS THE WORLD IN WHICH THESE ARISTOCRATS LIVED LIKE?
Heian Aristocratic Society featured some 9 court Ranks, the top three being subdivided into Senior and Junior grades, and most of the others into Upper (上) and Lower ( 下) so altogether there were some 30 grades to the Nobility. The top Three Ranks were known as the Kuge or Kugyô--i.e., the "High Nobility"--and were constituted from those who held Clan or Uji titles under the old, Pre-Taika Reform system. It was from these ranks to which most of the Genji characters belonged, so even if they speak of someone not of the highest rank, it probably meant someone in the lower echelons of Rank Three.
Fourth and Fifth Ranks drew their members from "lesser" uji in the Yamato Region. Below the Fifth Rank did not receive their "ranks" or appointments from the emperor himself, but rather indirectly from the Great Council of State (Dajôkan) and they were not sufficiently privileged to be allowed into the Imperial Audience Chamber.
Part of being a Kugyô or a Kuge member meant that you were granted peasant households and land known as "Sustenance Households" from which they were entitled to receive all of the income generated by these estates. Meanwhile the taxes from these lands did not go to the central government treasury.
In the world of the Genji, then, court rank was everything. It was very important because it determined
--titles,
--income levels and wealth,
--offices, and hence
--power.
All the characters we encounter in the Genji were part of the Aristocracy, they were all considered "yoki hito" or "persons of quality." As Ivan Morris writes,
...members of the upper clas are almost all related to each other. They are totally uninterested in everyone outside their own charmed circle and exceedingly sensitive in judging the precise social level of each person who does belong. (The World of the Shining Prince, 81)
This makes them sound very insular and snobbish but and they were...but it is not that simple, either.
It is said that “The lack of urgent state business did not mean the aristocrats were idle. Though competition for the top government posts was intense, many male aristocrats held political office of some kind. Theoretically, politics was a male domain during the Heian period (in contrast with the Nara period), and men held all formal ministerial offices. Private residences and public buildings, however, featured large open rooms. Thin screens of fabric divided these open spaces, and women were frequently nearby in one capacity or another, particularly in the imperial place where the emperor's wives and female relatives had groups of ladies-in-waiting as attendants.
No spatial arrangement could have been more ideal for political intrigue, particularly because, as we shall see, aristocratic men and women often had multiple sex partners. Conversations were easy to overhear, and word traveled fast in the small, gossip-loving world of the capital. Under these circumstances, women often involved themselves in politics behind the scenes, the marriage politics of the Fujiwara clan being but one example of many."
(http://factsanddetails.com/japan/cat16/sub106/entry-5311.html#chapter-3)
These men and women possessed a very refined sensibility which may have been another, quite viable way to acquire the essential truths of human existence.
One author writes: “The affairs, the promiscuity, and the exchanging of poetry between lovers provided much excitement in the life of the kuge. Personal relationships were dramatized in a most extravagant way; both men and women spent incredible amounts of time strategizing how to win a lover and evaluating the significance of his or her lover's actions. For men isolated from politics and business these affairs offered excitement."
"With every detail of everyday life as carefully prescribed as it was in the late Heian, no courtier presumed to be spontaneous or original; court ladies offered his only chance of adventure” (Dilts 91). In a society extremely preoccupied with rank, marriages (or becoming a concubine for the lower classes) offered women a way to move up in society and to make important social ties for their family. For this reason courtiers actually preferred having daughters rather than sons.
So, yes, the aristocratic liferstyle came with a focus on life, love, changes in fortunes, the ups and downs of life, and most fundamentally, it was about the transient nature of human life, and therefore it points to the sadness, the pathos of things (mono-no-aware), said to be the hallmark of the Genji monogatari.
We live, we love, we get our hearts broken, our peers or the "public" regard us with a jaundiced eye and that hurts us. We feel, we know pain, we encounter loss -- lovers, parents, children, position or status -- all could disappear at any moment and this truth serves to remind us how precious each moment of life is, but also how futile it can be to cling to all these things and believe they are what constitutes the entire reality of being fully human. We can decide to dismiss the Heian period as an odd, alien place--or even condemn it, as some do, for failing to meet some modern-day standards of what love, fidelity, marital relationships are supposed to be like.
But I would argue that taking Heian society and its values seriously (and on their own terms), however, enables us to see more of the wide range of human experience. Examining the Heian period helps us realize that our current social arrangements are in large part arbitrary. They are not "natural" or obvious or "valid" in any universal sense. It is in this way that the study of Heian society can help de-familiarize the present and all the social practices and arrangements that we take for granted.
The Genji may not be Confucian Philosophy or Philosophical Daoism such as the Chinese came up with, but it does manifest an attitude toward life--influenced by Buddhism, to be sure--a certain way to stand or "to be" in the world, enabling one to experience what there is to be experienced, and to express oneself about these experiences and "peak moments" in verse and in story, in this case utilizing a brand new, monogatari form.
Mono (物), btw, stands for "Thing" while Kataru (語る) is a verb meaning "to Tell," or recite. So monogatari can be defined as a story, a narrative or a "tale," especially a romance.
When done correctly, a monogatari can go very deep; it gets to the heart of things -- and therefore it gets to the heart of all things. And it reminds us that perhaps the most valuable thing we can do is to be aware of this truth and to live our lives as fully as possible.
Some Background on the Empress' Impressive Literary Circle
Fujiwara no Shōshi (藤原彰子?, 988–1074), also known as Jōtōmon-in (上東門院?), was the eldest daughter of Fujiwara no Michinaga, and became Empress of Japan from c. 1000 to c. 1011. Her father sent her to live in the Emperor Ichijō's harem at age 12. Because of his power, influence and political machinations she quickly achieved the status of second empress (中宮 Chūgū). As empress she was able to surround herself with a court of talented and educated ladies-in-waiting such as Murasaki Shikibu, author of The Tale of Genji.
By the age of 20, she bore two sons to Ichijō, both of whom went on to become emperors and secured the status of the Fujiwara line. In her late 30s she took vows as a Buddhist nun, renouncing imperial duties and titles, assuming the title of Imperial Lady. She continued to be an influential member of the imperial family until her death at age 86.
Background:
In 995 Michinaga's two brothers Fujiwara no Michitaka and Fujiwara no Michikane died in rapid succession, leaving the regency vacant; Michinaga won a power struggle against his nephew Fujiwara no Korechika, brother to Emperor Ichijō's wife Teishi, aided by his sister Senshi (mother to Emperor Ichijō, Emperor En'yū's wife). Because Teishi supported Korechika—later discredited and banished from court—her base of power disintegrated.[3]
SOUNDS LIKE THE KIND OF STUFF WE SEE IN THE GENJI MONOGATARI!!
Four years later Michinaga sent Shōshi, his eldest daughter, to Emperor Ichijō's harem when she was about 12 years old. A year after placing Shōshi in the imperial harem, in an effort to undermine Teishi's influence and increase Shōshi's standing, Michinaga had her named Empress although Teishi already held the title. As historian Donald Shively explains, "Michinaga shocked even his admirers by arranging for the unprecedented appointment of Teishi (or Sadako) and Shōshi as concurrent empresses of the same emperor, Teishi holding the usual title of "Lustrous Heir-bearer" kōgō and Shōshi that of "Inner Palatine" (chūgū), a toponymically derived equivalent coined for the occasion". She went on to hold the title(s) of Empress Dowager (Kōtaigō) and Grand Empress Dowager (Taikōtaigō).
To give Shōshi prestige and to make her competitive in a court that valued education and learning, Michinaga sought talented, educated and interesting ladies-in-waiting to build a salon to rival that of Teishi and Senshi (daughter of Emperor Murakami). Michinaga invited Murasaki Shikibu, author of The Tale of Genji, to Shōshi's court, where she joined Izumi Shikibu and Akazome Emon. At Teishi's court as lady-in-waiting was writer Sei Shōnagon, author of The Pillow Book. The women at the two empresses' courts wrote some of the best-known and enduring Heian era literature.
Shōshi gave Ichijō two sons, in 1008 and 1009. The births are described in detail in Murasaki's The Diary of Lady Murasaki. The boys were born at their grandfather's Tsuchimikado mansion, with Buddhist priests in attendance.
On the 50th day after the birth a ceremony was held in which the infant was offered a piece of mochi; Michinaga performed the ritual offering of the rice cake to his grandson Atsuhira. In her diary Murasaki described the event that she probably attended.
Michinaga's influence meant that Shōshi's two sons had a better chance of ascending the throne than Teishi's children—particularly after Teishi's death in 1001. When Ichijō abdicated in 1011 and died soon after, Shōshi's eldest son, the future Emperor Go-Ichijō, was named crown prince. At that time Shōshi retired from the Imperial Palace to live in a Fujiwara mansion in the Lake Biwa region, most likely accompanied by Murasaki. In 1016 when Michinaga had Emperor Sanjō—married to Shōshi's younger sister Kenshi—removed from the throne, Go-Ichijō became emperor. Shōshi's second son, Go-Suzaku, became crown prince in 1017. With an emperor and a crown prince as sons, Shōshi's position was secure and she became a powerful influence at court.
For many years Shōshi's power extended to selecting friends and relatives to fill court positions and to approving consorts—decisions that effected the imperial court. The consorts she selected were her father's direct descendants, thus she asserted control of her father's lineage for many years.
From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Sh%C5%8Dshi
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