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ninth-day festival, when all the nobles present are exercising their inventive faculties on Chinese poems, they were to volunteer to pour forth their high-flying ideas on the dew-laid flowers of the chrysanthemum, thus endeavouring to rival their opponents of the stronger sex. There is time for everything; and all people, more especially women, should be constantly careful to observe the propriety of occasion, and not to air their attainments at a time when nobody cares for them. They should practise sparing economy in displaying learning and eloquence, and should even, if circumstances require, plead ignorance on subjects with which they are familiar.’

(B) ‘It appears that people were peeping out of the casement on the western side, probably being anxious to catch a glimpse of the Prince, whose figure was indistinctly to be seen by them from the top of a short screen standing within the trellis. Among these spectators there was one who, perhaps, felt a thrill run through her frame as she beheld him. It was the very moment when the sky was beginning to be tinted by the glowing streaks of morn, and the moon’s pale light was still lingering in the far distance. The aspect of the passionless heavens becomes radiant or gloomy in response to the heart of him who looks upon it. And to Genji, whose thoughts were secretly occupied with the events of the evening, the scene must have only given rise to pathetic emotions.’

(C) ‘One morning early, Genji was about to take his departure, with sleepy eyes, listless and weary, from the mansion at Rokujio. A slight mist spread over the scene. A maiden attendant of the mistress opened the door for his departure, and led him forth. The shrubbery of flowering trees struck refreshingly on the sight, with interlacing branches in rich confusion, among which was some convolvulus in full blossom. Genji was tempted to dally, and looked contemplatively over them. The same maiden still accompanied him. She wore a thin silk tunic of light green colour, showing off her graceful waist and figure. Her appearance was attractive. Genji looked at her tenderly, and led her to a seat in the garden, and sat down by her side. Her countenance was modest and quiet; her waving hair was neatly and prettily arranged…. At this juncture a page in Sasinuki [a particular kind of loose trousers] entered the garden, and, brushing away the dewy mist from the flowers, began to gather some bunches. The scene was one which we might desire to paint, so full of quiet beauty; Genji rose from his seat, and slowly passed homeward. In those days he was becoming more and more an object of admiration, and we might even attribute