BARRIER HOUSE
We left beautiful Cicada at the time when she quitted the capital with
her husband. Now this husband Iyo-no-Kami, had been promoted to the
governorship of Hitachi, in the year which followed that of the demise
of the late ex-Emperor, and Cicada accompanied him to the province. It
was a year after Genji's return that they came back to the capital. On
the day when they had to pass the barrier house of Ausaka
(meeting-path) on their homeward way, Hitachi's sons, the eldest known
to us as Ki-no-Kami, now became Kawachi-no-Kami, and others went from
the city to meet them. It so happened that Genji was to pay his visit
to the Temple of Ishiyama on this very day. This became known to
Hitachi, who, thinking it would be embarrassing if they met with his
procession on the road, determined to start very early; but, somehow
or another, time passed on, and when they came to the lake coast of
Uchiide (modern Otz, a place along Lake Biwa), the sun had risen high,
and this was the moment when Genji was crossing the Awata Road. In the
course of a few hours the outriders of Genji's cortège came in sight;
so that Hitachi's party left their several carriages, and seated
themselves under the shade of the cedars on the hill-side of Ausaka,
in order to avoid encountering Genji and his procession. It was the
last day of September. All the herbage was fading under the influence
of the coming winter, and many tinted autumn leaves displayed their
different hues over the hills and fields. The scene was in every way
pleasing to the eyes of the spectators. The number of the carriages of
Hitachi's party was about ten in all, and the style and appearance of
the party showed no traces of rusticity of taste. It might have been
imagined that the party of the Saigû journeying towards or from Ise,
might be something similar to this one.
Genji soon caught sight of them, and became aware that it was Hitachi.
He therefore sent for Cicada's brother--whom we know as Kokimi, and
who had now been made Uyemon-no-Ske--from the party, and told him that
he hoped his attention in coming there to meet them would not be
considered unfavorable. This Kokimi, as we know, had received much
kindness from Genji up to the time of his becoming a man; but when
Genji had to quit the capital he left him and joined his
brother-in-law in his official province. This was not viewed as very
satisfactory; but Genji manifested no bad feeling to him, and treated
him still as one of his household attendants. Ukon-no-Jiô, a
brother-in-law of Cicada, on the other hand, had faithfully followed
Genji to his exile, and after their return he was more than ever
favored by Genji. This state of things made many feel for the bad
taste of the ordinary weakness of the world, exhibited by the
faithfully following of one when circumstances are flourishing, and
deserting him in the time of adversity. Kokimi himself was one of
those who fully realized these feelings, and was pained by them. When
Genji finished his visit to the Temple, and was coming back, Kokimi
once more came from the capital to meet him. Through him Genji sent a
letter to his sister, asking her if she had recognized him when he
passed at Ausaka, adding the following verse:--
"As onward we our way did take,
On Meeting-Path, both I and you,
We met not, for by the saltless lake,
No _milme_[124] by its waters grew."
In handing the letter to Kokimi, Genji said, "Give this to your
sister; it is a long time since I heard anything from her, still the
past seems to me only like yesterday. But do you disapprove of my
sending this?" Kokimi replied in a few words, and took the letter back
to his sister, and told her, when he gave it, that she might easily
give him some sort of answer. She did indeed disapprove of treating
the matter in any way more seriously than she had formerly done, yet
she wrote the following:--
"By Barrier-House--oh, name unkind,
That bars the path of friendly greeting;
We passed along with yearning mind,
But passed, alas! without a meeting."
After this time some other correspondence now and then passed between
them. As time rolled on the health of her aged husband visibly
declined; and after fervently enjoining his sons to be kind and
attentive to her, in due time he breathed his last.
For some time they were kind and attentive to her, as their father had
requested, and there was nothing unsatisfactory in their behavior
towards her, yet many things which were not altogether pleasant
gradually presented themselves to her, and so it is always in life.
Finally Cicada, telling her intentions to no one beforehand, became a
nun.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 124: The name of a seaweed, but also meaning the eyes that
meet, and hence the twofold sense of the word.]