Genji

Genji The Tale of Genji is one of the most important stories of ancient Japanese literature. Japanese scholar Sin Ohno said that there is no literature written during the Heian Era which is written in as precise language as The Tale of Genji. The author, Murasaki Shikibu, is a woman. In this tale, we can see the concept towards marriage of women during her period. During the Nara Era, and some time before, the concept of marriage was totally different from the concept we know today. It is called "Tsuma Toi Kon." "Tsuma" means wife; "Toi" means to visit; "Kon" means marriage. In order to explain the marriage during this era, I will present an example of the typical interactions between men and women. When a man meets woman, somewhere like market where many people gather, the man would ask her address and name if he is interested in her. Asking for the name also avoids misunderstanding; asking for the address is so he can visit her. Visiting her is like marriage in today's sense. If the woman is interested in the man, she would tell her address and name. The man would visit the woman's house in the evening and genji, men, women, woman, man, during, visiting, marriage, visit, time, era, name, visited, tale, sub-house, sometimes, might, means, interested, house, family, concept, address, written, woman's, while, tsuma, toi, stopped, main, literature, kon, japanese, heian, generally, estates, each, baby, asking, worked, without, wife, whether, typical, two, traditional, towards, totally, today's, today, tell