Nest of Protection, 2022巣守 - SumoriSumori (“Nest of Protection”) is the granddaughter of

Nest of Protection, 2022巣守 - SumoriSumori (“Nest of Protection”) is the granddaughter of Prince Hotaru, Genji’s younger half-brother, but you won’t find her in a single line of the novel we know today as the Tale of Genji. You will find her in the apocryphal chapter “Sumori”.For hundreds of years there have been writings floating around claiming to be secret or “lost” chapters of the Tale of Genji. Many fakes, of course, but it’s not an impossible idea. A thousand years is a long time, and the tale was written and shared as it was being created. Distribution was a super manual process of copying, and there were certainly errors, edits and tweaks by the author (or authors, depending on what theories you subscribe to) and by the copyists. The Tale of Genji we have today is remarkably coherent in no small part thanks to the diligence of centuries of fans.There are three chapters generally considered to have higher-than-average likelihood of being legit parts of the Tale of Genji written by Murasaki Shikibu. Of these, Sumori appears to be the best documented. It exists only in fragments today, but these fragments contain people and pieces of poetry that are actually mentioned in some very, very old critiques and analyses of the Tale of Genji - including genealogies that map out the relationships of the characters. Such references have aided in its partial reconstruction. The gist of the pieced-together plot is that Niou is pursuing Sumori, who can’t stand him and his philandering ways. She falls in love with Kaoru instead because he’s so noble and sincere. When Niou tries to go after her again, she’s like “get away from me you creep” and runs away to the mountains, where Kaoru visits her. There are several theories about what Sumori really is. One is that it’s a Kamakura-period fanfic written by a Kaoru fan unhappy with how the Uji chapters ended. If this theory is true, it’s a classic move in the long-running history of fandom, and it wouldn’t have been the only historical fanfic attempting to right perceived wrongs against a beloved character. (Go Team Kaoru!)Another interesting hypothesis is that Sumori is actually an early draft of what would later be polished into the Uji chapters. It has quite a few similarities and parallels, particularly Niou and Kaoru in a love triangle with a woman who then becomes a nun. If this theory is true, it’s intriguing that the original concept is a lot more sympathetic and favourable to Kaoru - giving him a “good” ending - than the version we know today, 1,000 years later.Fascinating, right? As a creator and participant/appreciator of fandoms, Sumori sums up so many things I love about stories in general and Tale of Genji studies in particular! You can read more about the “lost” chapters of the Tale of Genji here: https://yab.yomiuri.co.jp/adv/chuo/dy/research/20100204.htmlReading the Tale of Genji is a fantastic resource for this and many other Tale of Genji apocrypha: https://cup.columbia.edu/book/reading-the-tale-of-genji/9780231537209And aaaahhhhhhh I did it!! Nearly five years later, the Genjimonogatari series is now complete! For fun, I’ve included some wip photos showing the progress of this particular piece, including my trying to figure out the palette from looking at my fountain pen ink swatches, on my Pillowfort!You can see all 55 illustrations one for each chapter of the tale (including the blank chapter Kumogakure), on my website. The commentary for each illustration is here on Tumblr and on Pillowfort!Now… I hope to do something with all these illustrations… when I have time…humangray.com / Print available on INPRNT / Genjimonogatari series -- source link

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