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Paper short abstract:

In the "Picture Contest" chapter of the Tale of Genji, Genji's Suma diary defeats scrolls of several famous literary works, representing a victory for both Genji himself and the Tale of Genji, strategically allowing Murasaki to implicitly glorify both her work and her patron, Fujiwara no Michinaga.

Paper long abstract:

In the "Picture Contest" (E-awase) chapter of the Tale of Genji, before the imperial presence of his majesty the Reizei Emperor, rival patrons Tō no Chūjō and Hikaru Genji oversee a public art contest of sorts between various ladies of the court, who have arranged themselves into two competing factions, of the Left and of the Right. Yet this ostensibly culture-centered event—in point of historical fact entirely the invention of Murasaki Shikibu's fancy—is not to be understood here as merely an occasion for elegant sport. It is important to realize that it is portrayed, within the Tale, as an event with significant political undertones, bearing directly upon the outcome of power struggles between the imperial wives of the Reizei Emperor. Over the course of the picture contest, illustrated scrolls depicting famous literary works, such as the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, are brought out one after another in round after round. It is significant, however, that after this ultimately inconclusive series of exchanges, it is only with the appearance of Hikaru Genji's own diary of his recent exile at Suma that a decisive verdict is reached—in his faction's favor. Yet what this represents is not merely the triumph of Hikaru Genji the character, but also the victory of the Tale of Genji itself.

The use within the Tale of Genji of allusions in this fashion, with the mention of illustrious antecedent works of literature, functions effectively not only as an expression of Murasaki Shikibu's writerly self-confidence, but also as a technique for public glorification of her imperial mistress' own household. Seen in such a light, the Tale of Genji can be called an exquisitely strategic text. For even as Murasaki Shikibu here displays, within the work itself, her work's own achievements for appreciation by a court-society audience, she also subtly effects an encomium for the surpassing cultural (and political) gifts of her ultimate patron, Fujiwara no Michinaga.