Table Of ContentUnreal Houses
Harvard East Asian Monographs 429
Unreal Houses
Character, Gender, and Genealogy
in the Tale of Genji
Edith Sarra
Published by the Harvard University Asia Center
Distributed by Harvard University Press
Cambridge (Massachusetts) and London 2020
© 2020 by The President and Fellows of Harvard College
Printed in the United States of America
The Harvard University Asia Center publishes a monograph series and, in coordination
with the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, the Korea Institute, the Reischauer Institute of
Japanese Studies, and other facilities and institutes, administers research projects designed
to further scholarly understanding of China, Japan, Vietnam, Korea, and other Asian countries.
The Center also sponsors projects addressing multidisciplinary and regional issues in Asia.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Sarra, Edith, 1955- author.
Title: Unreal houses : character, gender, and genealogy in the Tale of Genji / Edith Sarra.
Description: Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Asia Center, 2020. | Series:
Harvard East Asian monographs ; 429 | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Summary: “The Tale of Genji (ca. 1008, by noblewoman Murasaki Shikibu) is known for its
sophisticated renderings of fictional characters’ minds and its critical perspectives on class
and gender asymmetries in eleventh-century Japan. In Unreal Houses, Edith Sarra argues
that in both form and content the Genji re-envisions the elite practice of polygynous marriage
and the construction of mansions as expressions of familial power. She radically rethinks the
Genji by focusing on the figure of the house—encompassing both fictionalized images of
aristocratic mansions and representations of their inhabitants. How do key characters in the
Tale of Genji “think” about houses? Through close readings of the Genji and other Heian
narratives, Sarra elucidates the tale’s fabrication of the social, architectural, and affective
spaces of polygyny, and shows how the figure of the house contributes to the structuring of
narrative sequences and the expression of relational nuances among fictional characters.
Combining literary analysis with the history of gender, marriage, and the built environment,
this study opens new perspectives on the architectonics of the Genji and the feminine milieu
that midwifed what some have called the world’s first novel”— Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019043584 | ISBN 9780674244436 (hardcover)
Subjects: LCSH: Murasaki Shikibu, 978?– Genji monogatari. | Dwellings in literature. |
Marriage in literature. | Genealogy in literature. | Japanese literature--Heian period, 794–
1185—History and criticism.
Classification: LCC PL788.4.G43 S258 2020 | DDC 895.63/14--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019043584
Index by Jac Nelson
Printed on acid-free paper
Last figure below indicates year of this printing
26 25 24 23 22 21 20
I have been blessed with two mothers:
the late Joan Torrance Sarra,
my first and best interlocutor,
who taught me how to read, write, and cherish old houses;
and Mieko Kobayashi, whose kindness and grace—
powerful enough to span an ocean
and more than forty years—still gladden my heart.
This book is dedicated to them in love and gratitude.
家
House (ie ): 1) A built structure in which people live; a
residence. “From the ship, we could see people’s houses”
(Tosa Diary, ca. 935). 2) One’s own house; my house. “We
arrived at our house, and passing through the gate, it all
looked so beautiful, with the moon shining brightly”
(Tosa Diary). 3) Wife. “The wife of the Minister of the Left
had been since long ago a person of exceptional discern-
ment” (Tale of the Hollow Tree, late tenth century). 4) Kin;
family. “Shio mountain / as I crested it / the horse I rode
/ faltered / how my family must long for me” (The Collec-
tion of Ten Thousand Leaves, late eighth century). 5) Fam-
ily name. “My only thought—was this what would carry
on my family’s name?” (Tale of the Hollow Tree). 6) Lin-
eage; pedigree. “A lowly house” (Tale of Genji, ca. 1008).
7) Good pedigree; a noble family. “From time to time I
have come across a man who, though born to a noble
house, was slovenly and stupid” (Essays in Idleness, late
fourteenth century). 8) A box for keeping small tools of
various kinds. “While others’ talk burgeons / do you long
for me / as I for you / though we are housed apart / like
two sheathed swords?” (The Collection of Ten Thousand
Leaves).
—Adapted from Ōbunsha kogo jiten
Contents
Acknowledgments xi
List of Figures xv
Introduction 1
Thinking about Houses 6
Whose Houses? 11
Organization of Unreal Houses 15
Chapter 1: Aristocratic Marriage and the Real-and-Imagined
Houses of Heian Court Fiction 21
Polygynous Marriage and Residence Patterns of the
Heian Elite 22
Spatiality and the Imagined House 29
Character Typing and the Imagined Householder 36
The Real-and-Imagined House as Corporate
Construction 40
Part I: Polygyny Reimagined
Chapter 2: Architects of Polygyny: Genji, His Women,
and Their Houses 51
Lethal Architecture, the Origins of the Hero,
and Soothing the Dead 54
The Nijōin and Murasaki: The Creation of a
House-bound Heroine 58
The Nijō Tōin: Distractions and Deferrals 66
Why Leave the Nijōin? 79
viii Contents
Chapter 3: The Rokujōin: The House of Wishful Thinking 85
The House That Talk Built 88
Orchestrating the Dollhouse: The Placement
of Surrogate and Birth Mothers 93
To Dwell in Possibilities 102
A Final Year: Closure and the Problem of Genji’s
Self-Awareness 112
The Fate of the Corporate House 124
Part II: Tamakazura’s Problems of Placement
Chapter 4: A Balancing Act: Tamakazura in Genji’s House 129
A House of Dangerous Liaisons 131
The Space of a Stepdaughter’s Education 139
Chapter 5: Tamakazura’s House 158
Tamakazura’s Marriage: Secrets and Self-Presentation 159
The Widow as Mistress of Her Own House 171
Bamboo River and the Echoes of the Past 181
Part III: Kaoru and the Undoing of the House
Chapter 6: What Kaoru Inherits: Fathers, Sons, and the
Ethics of Genealogical Fiction 189
Genealogical Secrets: Thinking about Paternity across
Generations 192
The Sobriety of the Second Generation 201
A Mamebito in Spite of Himself 205
Chapter 7: As One Who Dwells Provisionally 212
Kaoru’s Weakness as a Protagonist 214
The Heroine Who Defeats Him 217
Kaoru’s Marriage: A Fine and Private Place 222
Kaoru and the Dead 230
Unfinished Houses, Unresolved Tale 236
Contents ix
Epilogue: Leaving the House 248
The Limits of the Possible: Gender, Status,
and Maternal Agency 251
The Significance of Leaving the House 255
The Afterlife of Genji Characters 258
List of Abbreviations 263
Notes 265
Bibliography 313
Index 327
