38

The Twelfth Month came and the visit was scheduled for the middle of the month. The Rokujo~ mansion echoed with music. Eager to see the rehearsals, Murasaki returned from Nijo~. The Akashi princess, who had had another son, was also at Rokujo~. Passing whole days with his grandchildren, delightful little creatures all of them, Genji had ample reason to think that a long life can be happy. Tamakazura too came for the rehearsals. Since Yu~giri had been conducting preliminary rehearsals in the northeast quarter, the lady of the orange blossoms did not feel left out of things.

The affair would not be complete without Kashiwagi, and his absence would seem very strange indeed. He at first declined Genji's invitation on grounds of poor health. Nerves, thought Genji, hearing that there were no very clear symptoms and sending off a warmer and more intimate invitation.

“You are refusing?” said To~ no Chu~jo~. “But he will think it unfriendly of you, and you do not seem so very unwell. You must go, even if it takes a little out of you.”

Reluctantly, when these urgings had been added to several invitations from Rokujo~, Kashiwagi set out.

The most important guests had not yet arrived. He was as always admitted to Genji's drawing room. He looked every bit as ill as reports had him. He had always been a solemn, melancholy youth, overshadowed by his lively brothers. Today he was quieter than usual. Most people would have said that he was in every way qualified to be a royal son-in-law, but to Genji (and he felt rather the same about the princess) he was a callow young person who did not know how to behave.

Though Genji turned on him what seemed a strong eye, the words were gentle enough. “It has been a very long time. I have had nothing to ask your advice about and we have had sick people on our hands. Indeed, I have had little time for anything else. Our princess here has all along thought of doing something in honor of her father, but we have had delay after delay and now the year is almost over. Though not at all what we would really like to do, we hope to put together a minor sort of banquet in keeping with his new position. No, that is too grand a word for it—but we do have our little princes to show off, and so we have had them at dance practice. In that, at least, we should not disappoint him. I have thought and thought and been able to think of no one but you to take charge of the rehearsals. And so I shall not scold you for having neglected me so.”

There was nothing in Genji's manner to suggest innuendos and hid-den meanings. Kashiwagi was acutely uncomfortable all the same, and afraid that his embarrassment might show.

“I was much troubled,” he finally managed to say, “at the news that first one of your ladies and then another was ill, but since spring I have had such trouble with my legs* that I have hardly been able to walk. It has been worse all the time and I have been living like a hermit and not even going to court. Now we have the Suzaku emperor's jubilee. Father says, quite rightly, that the event should be of more concern to us than anyone else. He has resigned his offices and should not be indulging in ceremonies and celebrations, he says, but in spite of my own insignificance we must give some evidence that my gratitude is as deep as his own. And so I forced myself to go with the rest of them.

“His Majesty has withdrawn more and more from the vulgar world and we were sure that he would not welcome an elaborate display. The simple, intimate sort of visit you have in mind seems to me exactly the right thing.”

Genji thought it well mannered of him not to dwell on the details of the Second Princess's visit, which he knew had been more than elaborate.

“You can see how little we mean to do. I had feared that people might think us wanting in respect and esteem, and to have the approval of the one who understands these things best is very reassuring. Yu~giri seems to be doing modestly well with his work, but he would seem by nature to be little inclined toward the more elegant things. As for the Suzaku emperor, there is not a single one of them at which he is not an expert, but music has always been his chief love and there is little that he does not know about it. He has as you say left the vulgar world behind and it would seem that he has given up music too, but I think that precisely because of the quiet and serenity in which it will be received we must give most careful attention to what we offer. Do please add your efforts to Yu~giri's and see that the lads are well prepared and in a proper frame of mind as well. I do not doubt that the professionals know what they are doing, but somehow the last touch seems missing.”

He could not have been more courteous and friendly, and Kashiwagi was of course grateful; but he was in acute discomfort all the same. He said little and wanted only to escape. It was far from the easy and pleasant converse of other years, and he did presently slip away.

In the northeast quarter he had suggestions to make about the cos-tumes and the like which Yu~giri had chosen. Though in many ways they already exhausted the possibilities, he showed that he deserved Genji's high praise by adding new touches.

It was only a rehearsal, but Genji did not want his ladies to be disappointed. On the day of the visit itself the dancers were to wear red robes and lavender singlets. Today they wore green singlets and pink robes lined with red. Seats for thirty musicians, all dressed in white, had been put out on the gallery which led to the angling pavilion, to the southeast of the main buildings. The dancers emerged from beyond the hillock to the strains of “The Misty Hermitage.” There were a few flakes of snow but spring had “come next door.” * The plums smiled with their first blossoms. Genji watched through blinds with only Prince Hyo~bu and Higekuro beside him. The lesser courtiers were on the veranda. Since it was an informal affair there was only a light supper.

Higekuro's fourth son, Yu~giri's third son, and two of Prince Hotaru's sons danced “Myriad Years.” They were very pretty and even now they carried themselves like little aristocrats. Graceful and beautifully fitted out, they were (was a part of it in the eye of the observer?) elegance incarnate. Yu~giri's second son, by the daughter of Koremitsu, and a grandson of Prince Hyo~bu, son of the guards officer called the Minamoto councillor, danced “The Royal Deer.” Higekuro's third son did a masked dance about a handsome Chinese general* and Yu~giri's oldest son the Korean dragon dance. And then the several dancers, all of them close relatives, did “Peace” and “Joy of Spring" and numbers of other dances. As evening came on, Genji had the blinds raised, and as the festivities reached a climax his little grandchildren showed most remarkable grace and skill in several plain, unmasked dances. Their innate talents had been honed to the last delicate edge by their masters. Genji was glad that he did not have to say which was the most charming. His aging friends were all weeping copiously and Prince Hyo~bu's nose had been polished to a fine, high red.

“An old man does find it harder and harder to hold back drunken tears,” said Genji. He looked at Kashiwagi. “And just see our young guardsman here, smiling a superior smile to make us feel uncomfortable. Well, he has only to wait a little longer. The current of the years runs only in one direction, and old age lies downstream.”

Pretending to be drunker than he was, Genji had singled out the soberest of his guests. Kashiwagi was genuinely ill and quite indifferent to the festivities. Though Genji's manner was jocular each of his words seemed to Kashiwagi a sharper blow than the one before. His head was aching. Genji saw that he was only pretending to drink and made him empty the wine cup under his own careful supervision each time it came around. Kashiwagi was the handsomest of them even in his hour of distress.