Cast-off Cicada Shell

Re-Reading Genji #3 うつせみ (空蝉 / Utsusemi)

Does that ever happen to you? Arriving at your lover’s bedroom, you realize that the person in the bed is not your lover at all but a stranger… What to do? Well, if you are Prince Genji, you carry on!

Chapter three carries on the story of Genji, the shining prince and Utsusemi, the discarded shell of a cicada. Why did this story get divided into two chapters and what does her name mean?

The answer to the second question is easy. In trying to escape his relentless advances, the woman flees her bedroom leaving one of her robes (the empty shell) behind. The women of the time wore layers and layers of robes, sleeping in the inner layers and putting the outer ones back on when they awoke. Sometimes the outer robes were perfumed overnight, airing but also permeated with the sweet smoke of blended incense.

Aristocratic women were veiled by their robes and living behind bamboo blinds (misu 御簾) and standing curtains (kichō 几帳). The idea of a man peeping between the gaps of a fence—or sneaking a peak behind the curtains, called kaimami 垣間見, was experienced as being erotic in literature.

It is a kind of seeing that is also a transgression and possession. To see is to behold and to possess. Ancient emperors would climb a hill and behold their realm.. this was called kunimi.

うつせみ空蝉 Utsusemi

Noun

1. one's present existence; this mortal frame; this world; this life; temporal things​

Noun

2. cast-off cicada shell; cicada​

Other forms

虚蝉 【うつせみ】

I never heard of the first meaning of the word utsusemi before. I suppose it makes sense that the empty, cast off shell of the cicada after it molts (or dies?) somehow represents our lives and the world, この世.

Notes

空蝉: Ateji (phonetic) reading. 虚蝉: Ateji (phonetic) reading.I have always loved kanji that was created for phonetic reasons. This is called ateji. Explanation of ateji from Wikipedia:

For example, the word "sushi" is often written with its ateji "寿司". Though the two characters have the readings 'su' and 'shi' respectively, the character '寿' means "one's natural life span" and '司' means "to administer", neither of which has anything to do with the food. Ateji as a means of representing loanwords has been largely superseded in modern Japanese by the use of katakana (see also Transcription into Japanese), although many ateji coined in earlier eras still linger on.