To the Stage of the Uji Chapters
The final part of the famous Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu,the Uji Chapters,
is set inUji, Kyoto.
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1. The Tale of Genji: The Uji Chapters
The first half of The Tale of Genji features Hikaru Genji as the protagonist in an elegant world.
The glamorous imperial court, often depicted in films and dramas, is famous for its extravagant pastimes, political intrigue, and beautiful visuals.
The Uji Chapters deal with the deepest "spirituality" in the entire Tale of Genji, focusing on the generation of Genji's children and grandchildren.
It is packed with what seems to be the "philosophy of life" that Murasaki Shikibu reached in the latter half of her work.
It is a story that is profoundly quiet, where hearts waver amidst the mist, the river, the mountains, and the changing of the four seasons.
When you summarize the story of the Uji Chapters, you feel...
How does one process this feeling of having nowhere for the heart to go...?
The Uji Chapters also end in a way that feels incomplete.
What the characters teach us is...
A state where emotions wander, a heart with nowhere to go.
"Myself, without any answers"
They seem to embody the "beauty of unfulfilled human beings."
Something in your heart that has nowhere to go ❓
When you feel a sense of emptiness, this is surely a place you would want to visit.
2. The Uji Chapters is a story about "how people live when their hearts are not fulfilled"
🍵 Every character in the 🍵 Uji Chapters,
・Wants to be loved, wants to love someone, but it never comes to pass
・Has no place to belong
・Is bound by the shadow of someone else
They live carrying such unavoidable pain.
The option of "living while remaining unfulfilled" is also depicted. And regarding how Murasaki Shikibu's story ends,
when I asked ChatGPT ⬇
The Uji Chapters is a story that intentionally leaves the heart with nowhere to go, ending with only a lingering resonance.
In modern times,
"If you face it, you can solve it"
"If you try hard, you will be fulfilled"
are ways of thinking we often see.
But the characters in the Uji Chapters are not like that.
・Remaining unfulfilled
・Remaining lost
・Remaining incomplete
Yet, their figures as they "try to live somehow" are depicted.
This is by no means a weakness,
but rather the natural state of the heart itself.
3. That is precisely why! The vividly framed scenes stand out.
This is the location of the scene where Niou-no-Miya sneaks into the hermitage on the island after crossing by boat from Uji Shrine to 'To-no-shima' (the sandbank) with Ukifune.
This is the moment where, for two days, they forget the outside world and draw close, and Ukifune feels 'needed by someone for the first time.' This is the only part of the story where I feel a vivid 🍁red color🍁.
For this time only, they are freed from hesitation and pain, and simply 'truly feel the joy of living.'
It was a moment they were immersed in🥹🥹🥹
What one feels in this fleeting moment of life.
The passion of Ukifune and Niou-no-Miya during those two days on To-no-shima is like proof of being alive.
It makes you feel like you can go on living.
4. What did the Uji Chapters depict?
Something like a single ray of light amidst the confusion of life itself.
The reason only one scene feels vividly framed is precisely because of the emptiness and suffering that remain unknown in other scenes.
The figure searching for a small light (salvation) within that.
A vivid memory amidst suffering and confusion.
The theme of the Uji Chapters is
that 'the un-savability of the human heart and the salvation one searches for within it' really resonated with me👋
