Hanachirusato (花散里)
Hanachirusato is
one of the chapter titles of Genji Monogatari (The tale of Genji). It is the 11th Chapter. This is the shortest chapter in the novel. The chapter name is derived from the poem Hikaru Genji composed, "It catches the scent of memory, and favors the village where the orange blossoms fall."
She is a fictional character who appears in Genji Monogatari.
It came to be one of the score names of such traditional performing arts as koawase (incense-smelling game) and kisenryu-tosenkyo no meitei (rating of the kisen style fan-tossing game).
Story line
It is set in the summer when Hikaru Genji was 25 years old.
In the early summer rainy season, Genji visited Reikeiden no nyogo (Lady Reikeiden), one of the Empresses of the late Kiritsubotei (Emperor Kiritsubo). Her younger sister, the third daughter Hanachirusato, was Genji's lover, and the sisters lived in obscurity under the Genji's patronage after the Emperor's death. Hikaru Genji, on his way, wrote a poem to a woman of Nakagawa whom he once met, but who gently rejected him, perhaps because she had already changed her mind. At the Nyogo's residence filled with the aroma of tachibana (mandarin orange tree) flowers, Genji talked with Nyogo quietly about the singing of little cuckoos which reminded him of the old days, and later secretly visited San no kimi.
Personal profile
She was one of Hikaru Genji's wives. She made her first appearance in the Chapter of "Hanachirusato" and her name came from the aforementioned Waka poem, from which the chapter name was derived. Genji's father's Reikeiden no nyogo, Kiritsubotei was her elder sister and seems to have been associated with Genji from her earlier years. She was not so good looking but had a gentle and modest nature, was of high birth, and was good at sewing and dyeing. She came to have the next highest position after Murasaki no ue among Genji's wives.
At first, she was one of Genji's lovers, but was later received into the west annex of the newly built Nijohigashi no in ("Matsukaze," Genji Monogatari), and after Rokujo in was built, became the lady of Natsu no machi (the rooms called 'summer town') and also was called "Natsu no onkata" (lady of summer town) or "Higashi no onkata" (lady of eastern Rokujo in, or "Otome" in Genji Monogatari). Although her marital affairs with Genj ended early on, she won his confidence due to her home-oriented and trustworthy personality, and reared Yugiri (Genji Monogatari) and Tamakazura (Genji Monogatari) functioning as their mother, and later took in one of Yugiri's children and nurtured the child as her grandchild. She exited from the story with the final appearance in the "Maboroshi" (Genji Monogatari) chapter, and after Genj's death, inherited his Nijohigashi no in and moved into it again ("Nioumiya").