No Cloud-Boat as a Guide

Komova explores how Genji monogatari (c. 1008) frames grief through Chinese precedents, particularly Bai Juyi&s;s Chōgonka (Song of Everlasting Sorrow, 807). Although formal missions to Tang China had ceased by the mid-9th century, the tale&s;s characters continually evoke Chinese models when mourning, underscoring the immediacy of ‘China’ as an emotional and cultural presence. By examining how localised adaptations reshaped Chōgonka &s;s motifs, the chapter argues that the imagined proximity of China provided a crucial affective foil. In this way, the tale&s;s narration of death and loss exemplifies how Japanese literature integrated foreign sources into its own story-world of grief.