"Yuki no Yama niya Ato o Kenamashi" : Oigimi Monogatari and Ise Monogatari

Abstract

Kaoru loses his sweetheart Oigimi forever. His figure of fretfulness is described in a condensed way in the narrative of "Ashizuri." In Oigimi Monogatari, Oigimi's death is lamented by quoting the phrases from the 6th Dan of Ise Monogatari. Moreover, the relationship between the two isolated lovers (who cannot be connected with each other even by the medium of Uta poems)is vividly described. Above all, the quotations from the 49th and 107th Dan, (which are basically the stories of lively flirtation of a man and woman who are connected with each other by means of Uta poems)function as an element to drive Oigimi to death. Genji Monogatari in no time seems to have estranged itself from Uta poems and reached the stage where it contradicts the concept of the Uta monogatari.