THE PATTERN OF HIERARCHY

In an ideal image that Japan adopted from China, the Emperor faces south to survey his realm, flanked by his two Ministers: the Minister of the Left (the Emperor's left, the east) and the Minister of the Right. That is why in history, as in the world of the tale, the imperial palace compound is located in the north of the capital city, facing south, and why the residences of the nobility all face south as well. It also explains the government's bilateral symmetry. Many official organs had Left and Right components, and in the tale this division appears in the titles borne by their officers. The reader meets, for example, a Chief Left Equerry and an Aide of the Right Palace Guards. In the early chapters the same symmetry appears in the power struggle between the faction represented by the Minister of the Left and Genji, and that of the Minister of the Right and his daughter, the mother of the Heir Apparent. The City was also divided administratively into Left and Right. Court music and dance, too, were divided into Left and Right repertoires, and contests, from wrestling to poetry, were divided into "east" and "west" sides.

All offices were associated with a numbered rank, from one down to nine. These ranks were divided into full ("third rank") and junior ("junior third rank") levels, and at the fourth rank and below, the full and junior levels were further subdivided into upper and lower grades ("junior fourth rank, upper grade"; "junior sixth rank, lower grade"). Numbered ranks are not prominent in the text, but the characters are acutely aware of them.

The Emperor stood above this numbered system. The narrator may call him "without rank," or words to that effect, rather as something infinitely precious is "beyond price." However, significant imperial offspring, both male and female, also had their place on the ladder of rank. An example is the Princess whom Genji marries. The degree to which Genji must honor her is soon a burden, and the burden becomes still heavier when she is promoted in rank.

The Emperor was not obliged to recognize all his children, particularly those from socially or politically insignificant mothers, but most of the imperial children prominent in the tale are recognized. Except for Genji himself, they are Princes and Princesses. In this book, a Prince (His Highness) is therefore an Emperor's son whom that Emperor has formally acknowledged and appointed to a suitable rank. The same can be said of a Princess (Her Highness). However, "Princess" also covers an imperial granddaughter in the male (not the female) line. For example, Sue-tsumuhana is a Princess because she is the daughter of the Hitachi Prince, whereas Aoi is not a Princess although her mother is one, because Aoi's father (the Minister of the Left) is a commoner. The personally daunting Aoi is of very high standing, and her father is exceptionally powerful. Her weight in her world is incomparably greater than that of the pathetic Suetsumuhana, whose father is in any case dead. Nevertheless, Suetsumuhana carries an aura of imperial quality that has not come down to Aoi. So do other Princesses in the tale, even ones as disadvantaged as Oigimi and Naka no Kimi. Most of these Princesses, whether first or second generation, inhabit a twilight zone between imperial prestige and what seems to have been regarded as sturdy commoner banality. A Princess can seldom marry without marrying down (to a commoner), and that is reason enough that in principle she should not marry at all; but as Retired Emperor Suzaku observes in "Spring Shoots I," she may be dangerously vulnerable to scandal if she does not. Her position is often unhappy.

An Emperor who does not appoint a son as a Prince, but who nonetheless prefers not to consign him to oblivion, can give him a surname, which makes him a commoner. This is what Genji's father does for Genji. In English, Genji is often called "Prince Genji," but the usage of this translation forbids that. "Prince" is a title formally conferred by an Emperor on a son whom he wishes to recognize fully and to retain in the imperial family. Before Genji receives his surname he is an imperial son whose station in life remains to be determined, and afterward he is a commoner.

The Buddhist hierarchy glimpsed in the tale also deserves a word. A ranking cleric is likely to be the brother of a distinguished official, a Prince or Princess, or even an Emperor. Examples are Murasaki's great-uncle, Suetsumuhana's brother, and probably the cleric who exorcises Ukifune. The upper levels of the Buddhist hierarchy were often staffed by sons of the highest aristocracy.