Yokai Web Dictionary

Lady Rokujo & Spirit Possesion

六条御息所と生霊

By Liu, L

The Tale of Genji

The Tale of Genji is one of most studied Japanese literature. Written in the eleventh century by Murasaki Shibuki, it is not only a representative of Japanese literature, but also a masterpiece of monogatari (story), considered to be the highest peak of Japanese classical literature. The works reflects not only the beauty of the Japanese literature, but also the fatalism in Buddhism, the social contradictions in the Heian era, and the unique perspective of aristocratic women of Japan’s Heian era. The novel follows the main character, Genji, as he navigates romance in court life, and the writer of this novel is one of his court ladies.

Among the countless female images in The Tale of Genji, Lady Rokujo is one of the most extremely vivid characters. Many fear her vengeful and jealous spirit, but hold sympathy for her bitter relationship with Genji at the same time.

Lady Rokujo

Lady Rokujo married the Crown Prince and gave birth to her daughter. However, unexpectedly, the Crown Prince died prematurely, which widowed her at very young age. Lady Rokujo is beautiful, elegant, graceful, and talented, but at the same time she is aloof.

Genji

The second son of the Emperor, handsome and talented, was the dream lover of almost all women at that time. His mother's status was low and passed away when he was three years old. Because of the lack of political background, Emperor reduced his status and gave him the name of Minamoto (Genji clan).

Aoi

The only daughter of the Left Minister. Four years elder than Genji. Delicate and lovely, noble, married to Genji as his wife at the age of sixteen. Aoi doesn’t have a good relationship with Genji, but her father and brother hold great political power.

The Delicate Triangle

Genji does not love his wife, Aoi, but is closely related to the forces behind her (parent and brother) and respects her very much. Meanwhile he appreciates Rokujo's talent and beauty and develops intimate courtship with her, but fearing of his father's attitude and people's discussion behind his back, he refuses to marry(recognize) Rokujo.

The weak balance is broken when Aoi is pregnant, which puts larger distance between Rokujo and Genji and escalates Rokujo's grievance and jealousy. Her suffering and resentment reaches the peak when the carriage incident happens.

The Carriage Conflict

Lady Rokujo want to visit one ceremony in low profile, but her carriage accidentally collides with Aoi’s carriage in the parking space. She was recognized and humiliated by the servants of Aoi. Her carriage is eventually smashed and destroyed.

Regretting coming to the ceremony, she wants to go back immediately. However, her cart was blocked other people’s gorgeously decorated carriages. It is when Genji’s parade walking past by. Genji smiles at some of the cart whom he recognizes as his lovers’. He also greets his wife Aoi’s car with great solemnity and respect. So does all his attendants. In contrast, Rokujo is left on her shabby broken carriage and ignored completely by Genji. Overwhelmed by humiliation, shame and jealousy, Lady Rokujo’s hatred bursts.

The Spirit Possession

Hearing about this incident, Genji feels bad about Rokujo and goes over to the Rokujo's. However, Rokujo refuses his comfort, which makes her to be considered as unreasonable by Genji. Meanwhile, Lady Rokujo determines to go to Ise with her daughter, but she is afraid that others would make fun of them. On the other hand, it is really embarrassing to stay in the capital and be brutally insulted.

Genji knows that she is going to leave. Instead of persuading her to stay, he only left some ambiguous sweet nothings, which makes her painful and entangled. Coming back to Aoi’s pregnancy. Aoi is extremely ill and believed to be haunted by ghosts. Aoi sobbed all day long, always coughing and vomiting, and suffering. The whole family and capital are concerned about Aoi’s condition, especially Genji. Lady Rokujo hears about this situation and is greatly jealous. Genji asked priests to perform rituals for her in her room. The prayer exorcises many ghosts and creatures effectively. There is just one soul that always refuses to leave the patient. This tenacious soul seems to be unusual.

Aoi is about to give birth. The various priests step up their prayers. However, the soul has been attached to her forever. Everyone thinks it is Aoi’s limit when she asks to speak to Genji. Genji enters the room, noticing that the face of Aoi is unusually beautiful. Aoi is dressed in white. Her hair was thick and slender, with vivid black color. Her abdomen bulges high. Her lying posture, even if others see it, will feel sorry for her, not to mention Genji.

The serious and shy Aoi is now looking at Genji with tiredness, after gazing for a while, her tears flow out. Genji think she is sad and scared of the mortal illness, so he comforts her not to worry too much. However, when Aoi speaks, the voice and attitude are completely different from the usual Aoi. Aoi becomes another person. When Genji is surprised, he carefully thinks about it and realizes that this person was actually Rokujo.

After giving birth to Genji's first son, Aoi died eventually because of the possession of Rokujo. Meanwhile, Lady Rokujo found that her body was covered with the scent of incense used in rituals after waking up, which is the proof that her soul was traveling and went to Aoi’s side.

Rokujo speaks to Genji through Aoi's body.

Rokujo's body was covered with the smell of exorcism incense.

Ikiryō of Lady Rokujo

Mono no Ke (物の怪) can be understood as supernatural phenomenon realted to a dead spirit or a living being, including ghosts still entangled in people after death, as well as living creatures or living souls. They are moods that are depressed or resentful and concealed for too long, thus the product of intense explodes in extreme ways. In the Heian period of Japan (794 - 1183), there was originally a Goryo belief, mainly referring to people who were politically degraded because of grievances. After death, they turned into vegenful spirits caused social shocks such as epidemics or catastrophe, for example, Japanese most famous Onryo, Sugawara no Michizane. After the middle of the peace period, Goryo belief gradually declined, and the belief in the "Mono no Ke" of a certain person was developed. The way of inflicting curse is no longer a social turmoil , but rather attached to the human body to induce weird diseases or cause dystocia. Lady Rokujo's Ikiryo in Tale of Genji is the most representative example.

Ikiryo, or Ikisudama, is related to the popular belief in Japan that human soul can escape from their body and harrasse other people and possesse their body spiritually. Categorized under vegenful spirits (Onryo/怨霊), Lady Rokujo's spirit inflicts curses on people(Aoi) like other Onryo did. Different from Michizane, in the case of Rokujo, the curse happens when she is still alive. In fact, Ikiryo is written as 生霊 in Kanji, which literatually means living(生) spirits(霊).

In Tale of Genji, the reason for the appearance of Lady Rokujo's Ikiryo is described ambiguously as her worrying vacillation. Although suffered from her toxic relationship with Genji, she is unable to serve her feelings for him completely. In two minds as to what to do next, her heart is "floating like a buoy in the sea", and her soul gets out of her body — "floating in the air". Lady Rokujo is unaware of the process of spiritual possession, she even feels mortified and asks for exoticism. Yet, hearing about Aoi's pregnancy and Genji's reaction only makes Lady Rokujo's jealousy deeper and her Ikiryo more aggressive.

The people involves in spiritual possession are almost all women. The reason for their revenge is mostly because of the deception and betrayal of the lover. According to Bargen in "A Woman's Weapon : Spirit Possession in the Tale of Genji", Mononoke or spiritual possession is used as intimidating tools to counteract men's exorbitant vision: "In terms of its effect on the social structure, the putatively supernatural event of spirit possession momentarily inverts traditional roles and upsets the normal order of values so that possessed women temporarily assert control over men without overtly claiming any kind of authority"(3). Although there are sympathy expressed for them, Ikiryo is often the object of people’s disgust or condemnation. People often asks priests to perform rituals in order to suppress the spirit. This shows that in feudal patriarchal society, women not only suffer from deception and abandonment, but also in a very passive position in public opinion. Once they are out of the way, they will incur the condemnation and suppression of the surrounding environment. As a character with a fiery temperament, Lady Rokujo is the opposite of Japanese ideal female "Yamato Nadesiko"(大和撫子), who is required to be polite, shy, moderate, tender and considerate, expressing the beauty of pure and peace. The formation of the Ikiryo of Lady Rokujo is also the process of her breaking these characteristics or "rules" of how to become a perfect Japanese female figure — being considered as unthoughful by Genji and couldn't control her jelousy — thus arouses the horror among people and results in exoticism.

What's more, there is another important factor in the causation of spiritual possession — "hurting pride"(Haji/恥) . Going back to the carriage conflict, the broken Lady Rokujo's low-profile cart has troubled her with great shame. Being former Crown Prince's wife, she used to hold a very high status, yet now she is "downgraded" as Genji's mistress and insulted by Genji's wife's servants. Her embramsment is exposed to the public and ignored by Genji. The overwhelming humiliation is disastrous for her. Similar to Michizane, being degraded, treated disrespecful, and unregonized by thier Emporer or husband, the top leadership in the Confucianism social structure, a vegenful has emerged. Also, the exposion of Lady Rokujo's embrassement recalls the story of Izanagi violating the "do-not-look" taboo in Kojiki, in which Izanami's ugly form has been exposed. Izanami become extremely angry for Izanagi has brought shame to her, similarly, Lady Rokujo holds a grudge towards Aoi for the public insult.

Liminal "spaces"

In the story of Aoi and Lady Rokujo, Genji's ambiguous attitude and words could also be regarded as a special kind of liminal "space". Like how yokai exists in uncontrolled area (mountain) or boundary (bridge), the ambiguity, unclear relationship is the origin and hotbed for Lady Rokujo's suffering, therefore her Ikiryo emerges.

Additionally, there are some common use of liminal spaces like the birthing chamber. When Aoi is possessed by Rokujo's Ikiryo, her pregnant body also becomes the liminal spaces where supernatural happens. For one, it is common religious belief that childbirth is filthy(Kegare/穢れ), hence leading to unfortuanate events. For another, Aoi's mental state has also made herself as the perfect medium for Rokujo's spirit. As Bargen analysed in "Spirit Possession in The Context of Dramatic Expressions of Gender Conflict: The Aoi Episode of The Genji Monogatari", the possession is a mutual reaction between Aoi and Rokujo: " The assertiveness that Aoi displays in the positioning of carriages for the courtiers' procession appears as a show of strength and a triumph over Rokujo. However, it is from weakness and insecurity that Aoi resorts to a most rude and brash action without which she might very well have been eclipsed by her rival. What unites Rokujo and Aoi in spirit possession, then, is aggression-revengeful on Rokujo's part and defensive on Aoi's ... If we attend equally to everyone involved and to the dynamics of interaction, we realize that aggression" (on the part of both possessing spirit and the possessed) and remorse (on the part of the witness) emerge as the two conflicting emotional forces of spirit possession" (101). Same as Lady Rokujo, she is filled with jealousy as well. As Genji's wife, Aoi has to put up with all his love affairs and obviously doesn't have a happy marriage. The contradiction between these two figures actually awakens corresponding responses in them, thus results in a strong binding spiritual possession.

Hannya

The story of Lady Rokujo spiritually possessing Aoi has been transformed into a famous Noh play, Aoi no Ue. In the play, the scene where Aoi is possessed by Lady Rokujo's spirit, the actor who plays Lady Rokujo put on a scary mask with extreme facial expressions: splitting mouth, golden eyes, horns, and reverse canine tooth. The mask is called Hannya mask. The word Hannya also refers to female demons called kijo, a kind of oni that used to be human women who were consumed by jealousy and transformed into demonesses. During the spiritual possession scene, the action of the play focuses on a miko and a priest exorcising the spirit of Lady Rokujo (Hannya) from the body of Aoi. Aoi does not appear on stage, instead an empty kimono lays on the ground to represent her. In the noh play, Lady Rokujo's spirit eventually come down and become a buddha through the chanting of Hannya Shingyo. It may be due to materializing Lady Rokujo's Ikiryo into a yokai with shape makes it less scary and easier to be purified.

Hannya mask has also been used in many other noh play such as Dojoji. It i worth mentioning that the protagonist in Dojoji, Kiyohime, similar as Lady Rokujo, is also the victim of ambiguous words from their love interest and insults from other people.

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