Hum 5c Spring 2006 World Religions III: Gender and Religion Prof. Susan B. Klein Week 5a Angry Femal

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Hum 5c (Spring 2006)World Religions III Gender
and ReligionProf. Susan B. KleinWeek 5aAngry
Female Ghosts (1) Rokujô in the Tale of Genji
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REVIEW Function of Angry Spirits/Ghosts in
9th-12th c. Japan

• Explanatory (rational, scientific)
• Issues of gender oppression
• Political issues/class oppression
• Religious issues

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Explanatory Function

• Natural disasters
• Epidemic and individual disease

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Gender Oppression

• Abandoned wives and lovers
• Women who died in childbirth
• Why?
• Political issues as well
• Revenge is personal rather than national

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Political Situation in 9-11th c. Japan (Heian
period)

• How does political situation contribute to
  development of belief in angry ghosts?
• Heian aristocratic politics
• Northern branch of the Fujiwara clan killing off
  their rivals at court
• What are powerful political rivals likely to
  become?

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Examples of Exiled Aristocrats

• Catalpa Bow pp. 48-49
• Prince Sawara (died 785)
• Sugawara no Michizane (died 901)
• First raijin (thunder deity)
• After pacification Tenman Tenjin

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Angry Female Ghosts in 9th-12th century Japan
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Possession (mononoke) The Female Weapon

• Two main forms
• Possession illness
• Hysterical possession

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Possession Illness

• Mental or physical
• Non-contagious illness personal vendetta
• Contagious illness onryô on level of ekijin
• Multiple spirits

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Hysterical Possession

• Channeling
• Best subjects

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Basic Ritual in Heian period

• Buddhist priest officiates (yamabushi, esoteric
  Buddhist priest)
• Who is usually used as a medium?
• Priest uses various means (mantras, sutras,
  mudras etc.) to move the spirit to the medium so
  that it will name itself and tell its grudge
• Why is self-identification central?

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Ritual (Continued)

• Best result
• Failing that

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Historical descriptions of Angry Ghosts and
Exorcism Rituals

• Historical mainly about politics
• 9 out of 10 mentions of mononoke involve
  childbirth in Heian lit. Why?
• 1000 C.E. Fujiwara no Michinaga
• Cf. to earlier Fujiwara

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Fujiwara Marriage Politics

• 1) Marry your daughter to the emperor.
• 2) They have a son.
• 3) Get the emperor to abdicate and you become
  regent for the child emperor.
• 4) When he's 14 marry him to another one of your
  daughters or a niece (note you can have numerous
  wives)
• 5) Repeat the process. Obvious drawback?

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Anxieties?

• A.
• B.
• C.
• Any of these things could happen because of angry
  ghosts of Fujiwara enemies

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Historical Ghosts

• Eg. Tale of Flowering Fortunes (Eiga monogatari)
• Historical chronicle of Fujiwara no Michinagas
  ascension to power
• 17 mentions of mononoke, all involving pregnancy
  or childbirth
• Does spirit ever appear in its own form?

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Fictional ghosts

• Issues politics, but also social criticism

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Basis for Analysis

• Author/patrons
• Audience
• Religious beliefs
• Historical/Political/Economic context
• Goal
• Who benefits
• Genre

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Tale of Genji

• 1.  Author
• Murasaki Shikibu (Lady in Waiting to Empress
  Shôshi, who is the daughter of Michinaga)
• Class level Daughter of a Provincial Governor
• 2.  Patron
• Fujiwara no Michinaga
• 3.  Audience
• Michinaga, the Empress and her ladies in waiting,
  other court aristocrats

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• 4. Religious Beliefs Esoteric Buddhism,
  possession by angry spirits/ghosts as reason for
  illness and death
• 5. Political Context Fujiwara marriage politics
• 6. Goal
• Entertainment
• Social critique
• 7.  Benefit
• To Murasaki Shikibu
• To Fujiwara no Michinaga
• 8. Genre

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Who is Lady Rokujô in Tale of Genji?

• Situation at beginning of chapter Genji (18-19
  years old) is married to Aoi, but having an
  affair with Rokujô
• Rokujô is not the only woman Genji is having an
  affair with, but she is the most high-ranking,
  and therefore likely to be the most threatening
  to his wife
• Genji isnt taking the affair very seriously,
  despite Rokujôs high-rank, and it has become a
  matter of gossip at court, which is very painful
  to Rokujô

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Why is the affair problematic?1 Politics

• Rokujô is Genjis aunt by marriage (older by
  about 7 years)
• His father current emperor was involved in the
  deposing of her husband Genjis uncle
• Possible angry ghosts
• Rokujôs father, the former minister
• Rokujôs husband, dead crown prince

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2 Gossip (p. 147)

• Emperor (Genjis father) to Genji "The Crown
  Prince was so very fond of her he said to Genji,
  in open displeasure. It is sad that you should
  have made light of her, as if she were an
  ordinary woman. I think of the high priestess as
  one of my own children, and you should be good to
  her mother, for my sake and for the sake of the
  dead prince. It does no good to abandon yourself
  to these affairs quite as the impulse takes you.

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• The emperor continues You should treat any
  woman with tact and courtesy, and be sure that
  you cause her no embarrassment. You should never
  have a woman angry with you.

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3 Rokujôs Personality

• What is she like?
• Can she express anger?
• What is her dominant characteristic?

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Position of Heian Women as represented in Tale of
Genji

• A.
• B.
• C.

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Who is Aoi (AKA Heartvine or Aoi no Ue)?

• Older than Genji (married when she was 16 and he
  was 12)
• Proud
• Does she express anger? (p. 148)
• Pregnant
• What does this make her?

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Carriage Incident (pp. 148-54)

• Aoi goes at last minute
• Rokujô goes in disguise, but Aois men recognize
  her

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Rokujôs immediate thoughts (pp. 150-51)

• Quite aside from her natural distress at the
  insult, she was filled with the bitterest chagrin
  that, having refrained from display, she had been
  recognized. The stools for her carriage shafts
  had been broken and the shafts propped on the
  hubs of perfectly strange carriages, a most
  undignified sight. It was no good asking herself
  why she had come.

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After Genji passes without acknowledging her

• the Rokujo lady was in misery.She had been
  utterly defeatedShe was ashamed of her tears.
  Yet she thought of how sorry she would have been
  if she had not seen that handsome figure set off
  to such advantage by the crowds.

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Result

• Before
• Now
• Result

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Genjis Response (p. 153)

• Genji presently heard the story of the competing
  carriages. He was sorry for the Rokujo lady and
  angry with his wife. It was a sad fact that, so
  deliberate and fastidious, she lacked ordinary
  compassion. There was indeed a tart, forbidding
  quality about her. She refused to see, though it
  was probably an unconscious refusal, that ladies
  who were to each other as she was to the Rokujo
  lady should behave with charity and forbearance.
  It was under her influence that the men in her
  service threw themselves so violently about.
  Genji sometimes felt uncomfortable before the
  proud dignity of the Rokujo lady, and he could
  imagine her rage and humiliation now.

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Who does Genji blame?

• Does he blame himself?
• Who do you think is to blame?

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Rokujôs thoughts later (p. 156)

• For the Rokujo lady the pain was unrelieved. She
  knew that she could expect no lessening of his
  coldness, and yet to steel herself and go off to
  Ise with her daughtershe would be lonely, she
  knew and people would laugh at her. They would
  laugh just as heartily if she stayed in the city.
  Her thoughts were as the fishermans bob at Ise.
  Her very soul tama seemed to jump wildly about,
  and at last she fell physically ill.

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Aoi in the grip of malign spirit (pp. 156-57)

• At Sanjo, Genjis wife seemed to be in the grip
  of a malign spirit.
• Is there a narrative connection between Rokujôs
  thoughts and Aois illness?
• What are the symptoms?
• Who is suspected? Why?

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Initial Exorcism scene (pp. 156-57)

• What is typical about this scene?
• What is different?

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Rokujôs point of view (pp. 160, 163)

• Description of her dream vision
• Is she conscious of what shes doing?
• What kind of tama is this?

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Labor Exorcism (pp. 161-65)

• What are the effects on Aoi?
• What is unusual about Aois possession?
• Why does the author do it this way?
• A.
• B.

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Is the exorcism successful?

• Yes
• No

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How does Rokujô kill Aoi? (pp. 164-65)

• Genji has gone to see his other son, the crown
  prince (making excuses).
• Her father is gone as well.
• What has stopped?
• She is seized by a strangling shortness of
  breath and dies

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Summary

• What are Aoi and Rokujô able to do through
  possession?
• What does Rokujô serve as?
• Madwoman in the Attic concept from Jane Eyre
  (mad wife in the attic is able to express
  criticism of gender oppression that the good
  heroine cant be allowed to state)
• What happens to Rokujô in the end?
• What is Murasaki Shikibus goal here?