The World of the Shining Prince

The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan | Ivan Morris

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I read this to help contextualise The World of Genji. It was published in the 1960s, & there is the sense that it was written by an American to explain Japanese history to a largely Western audience. Some of the ideas are dated, but that can't be helped. I still found it an illuminating, useful supplementary read, especially the chapter, "The Cult of Beauty". Courtly life in the Heian-era makes 21st-century self-commodification seem quite tame.

batsy Art from Wikimedia: "Fidelity (Shin), depicted as Murasaki Shikibu", from the series Five Cardinal Virtues, c. 1767, by Suzuki Harunobu #Genji 5y

Leftcoastzen Love those old Tuttle books! 5y

batsy @Leftcoastzen Their covers are so delightful! 5y

Faibka Great! I‘ll have to check it out, thanks for sharing 5y

batsy @Faibka My pleasure. Not the most enthralling style of writing, but the info was helpful! 5y

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batsy

The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan | Ivan Morris

Apologies for the terrible pic and the wall of text @saresmoore but it gives some insight into the lives of the peasants vs the nobility during the Heian-era. #Genji @Lindy

Lindy Thanks for this. I will keep this larger context in mind as I read The Tale of Genji. 5y

LauraBeth Hobbes would have loved Trump 5y

saresmoore Urgh, how awful! 5y

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LazyDays Still relevant today.š’ 5y

batsy @Lindy You're welcome! I'm finding it an interesting accompaniment. 5y

batsy @LauraBeth I've only seen this quote over and over and never read the text it's from, but no doubt Trump would consider this the ideal way of things š� 5y

batsy @saresmoore @LazyDays So true! 5y

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batsy

The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan | Ivan Morris

I'm reading the tagged book for some context into the world of Genji and the thing that intrigues me the most is the absolute stratification of society based on rank. I thought this quote would be interesting for fellow #Genji readers.

The association of a high(er) rank with a person's moral character is of course one of the worst things about social hierarchy.

TheWordJar This is all fascinating. And you can‘t even escape it when you die! šµ 5y

batsy @TheWordJar That's what I was thinking! I'll be like, I JUST WANT TO REST 5y

saresmoore Genji is a classically base, amoral character if I ever read one! This rings true throughout the medieval world, too, I think. But, like, whyyyyy? 5y

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batsy @saresmoore In Chap 4 he seems to show signs of a conscience, perhaps? There's a heart in there somewhere š§ 5y

saresmoore Nothing like a good dose of spirit-inflicted death-of-a-lover to induce some remorse! š™ And what a shame to lose a woman so pliable and constantā€”true wife material. 5y

batsy @saresmoore "Indeed! If she had truly revealed her own mind and her knowledge of things forbidden to women, like Chinese literature, better for her to have been eaten by a demon," Genji said, sadly. 5y

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