Possessions One and Two have received varied treatment in studies of the tale. Some readers dismiss one or both. For example, Ikeda Kikan called them a “failure” in the author’s attempt to achieve large-scale coherence between Parts One and Two.^[48] Other, similar views are cited in “Genji and Murasaki.” Such criticism probably has to do with notions of psychology and with sympathy for Murasaki. Compelling psychological reasons seem already to explain her illness (she can no longer bear the way Genji treats her), and the idea of attributing it to spirit possession may seem feeble, even annoying, in comparison.

Another psychological approach has been to see Possession One, especially, as a projection of Genji’s own guilty conscience (kokoro no oni) towards Rokujō, even though the narrative never suggests that he has one. Fujimoto Katsuyoshi invoked Genji’s “deep psychology” to this end and suggested that Rokujō’s appearance in both instances is essentially a “hallucination” (genshi) on Genji’s part.^[49]

The diversity of reactions to Possessions One and Two, and the ingenuity of the explanations proposed for them, suggest the presence of a particularly difficult problem. No understanding of them may ever seem quite convincing, but at least it is possible to view them from a different perspective.

Possessions One and Two certainly tie this part of the tale back into the earlier chapters, since they prolong a theme already established there. As for what might have prompted the author to bring Rokujō back this way, Ōasa Yūji emphasized the calculated character of both possessions as plot devices. Ōasa observed that Rokujō’s possessing spirit is the only one identified in the tale.^[50] Elsewhere, illness arouses suspicions of spirit possession,^[51] but these may be wrong (as when Genji is ill after Yūgao’s death); and even when they are right (as in the case of Princess Ochiba’s mother), it seems not to matter much who or what the spirit is. The dying Kashiwagi even scoffs at the idea, confirmed nonetheless by the best diviners, that a woman’s spirit has possessed him. In contrast, the author presents Possessions One and Two without qualification. Ōasa therefore suggested that they are less examples of the supernatural in the tale (kaii no mondai) than evidence of plot construction (kōsō no mondai).^[52] He wrote: “If viewed simply as a mono no ke, this one[’s appearance] is merely unnatural and abrupt; but that probably means that its nature is not to be sought by analyzing mono no ke.” He concluded that Rokujō’s interventions are devices intended to further the development of the plot.^[53]

Ōasa then observed that by attributing Murasaki’s illness and the Third Princess’s retirement from the world to the workings of Rokujō’s spirit, rather than to the affected women’s own feelings, the narrator keeps the emphasis solely on Genji. Nothing untoward would happen if the spirit did not wish it, and the spirit wants only to make Genji suffer. These two women’s plight is a matter entirely of Genji’s fate, not theirs.^[54] Ōasa’s insight sheds new light on a passage of Rokujō’s speech in Possession One. Her spirit says, “I have little enough against [Murasaki], but you are strongly guarded. I feel far away and cannot approach you, and even your voice reaches me only faintly.”^[55] Perhaps the protector is Sumiyoshi, to whose shrine Genji has just made an elaborate pilgrimage. However, the narrative has said nothing about divine protection since “Akashi,” and the subject will not come up again. The spirit’s words apparently serve in this context to reaffirm the focus on Genji. His women may languish, suffer, take holy vows, or even die, but nothing must make him falter until his own time (defined by the author) has come.

Possession One therefore seems not to invite the reader to sympathize with Murasaki against Genji, although the reader may well do so anyway. Instead the narrative purposely exonerates Murasaki as the cause of her own illness, for the likely reason that her giving in to her feelings would constitute an unbecoming and uncharacteristic affirmation of self. She herself would then become the reason Genji’s absence allows Kashiwagi access to the Third Princess. Possession One instead makes this misfortune the fault of Rokujō, who has been provoked by Genji’s foolish talk. Genji has slighted her again, as in Part One, and once more with dire consequences.

By reintroducing Rokujō into the tale at this point, the author has reaffirmed the plot centrality of pride, anger, and the will to revenge. In the pages and chapters that follow, she will demonstrate more impressively than ever what havoc these can cause. As Ōasa observed, Rokujō’s “curse” removes the “linchpin” from Genji’s world, causing it to crumble around him. However, Ōasa nonetheless accorded Possessions One and Two significance different from the one suggested here. By this time, he wrote, Rokujō has “no particular, individual motive to harm Genji.” Instead her spirit represents “Genji’s generalized past” and therefore functions toward him as a “literal ghost of the past,” the aim of which is to avenge his violation of Fujitsubo.^[56] This does not work, partly for reasons already explained and partly because an angry spirit can represent only itself; it cannot act for another power unrelated to it in life, still less for an abstraction like Genji’s past. Rokujō’s interventions in Part Two may or may not strike the reader as successful, but her spirit, once invoked by the author, certainly has reason to act as the author requires.

According to Possession Two—one of the oddest passages in the tale—the spirit attacks Genji through the Third Princess after failing with Murasaki. As a significant possession event it is strikingly short, and the spirit’s brusque, excited tone little resembles Rokujō’s previous utterances. The spirit seems to address Genji directly, as usual, but the narrative devotes only a few words to his reaction.

It is hard to gauge the content of his feelings. Is he so exasperated that he no longer cares what the spirit does? Does the spirit so frighten him by now that nothing more need be said? Moreover, as in the case of Possession One, the spirit’s declaration of victory may seem pointless. Having just given birth, the Third Princess is far more likely to be ill for natural reasons, especially considering her painful relationship with Genji. Fujimoto Katsuyoshi remarked that although Genji seems to take the spirit seriously as the cause of her desire to become a nun, Suzaku never even mentions it, and he described it more or less as a fake that Genji’s guilty conscience predisposes him alone to take seriously.^[58] Given these complexities, it is unlikely that many readers even remember Possession Two for long. It seems to make little useful sense. It might even be a remnant left over from some process of editing.

However, Possession Two can also be seen as critical. Possession One initiates the long illness that will eventually cause Murasaki’s death and destroy Genji, and it also sets in train the disaster of Kashiwagi. Possession Two then involves Suzaku in that same disaster. It therefore marks the point at which the tension between Genji and Suzaku tips toward catastrophe for Suzaku as well, and perhaps also toward the strangeness of the Uji chapters and the darkness that engulfs Ukifune.