ABSTRACT
The Genii has had an enormous influence in almost all areas of Japanese literature, theatre, and art. By the end of the 12th century, it was almost impossible to write poetry without making reference to this text, which was believed to represent the epitome of miyabi, or courtliness. The Genii's influence was felt most strongly in this area for quite a long period of time, even though the work provides a strong defense of fiction, parts of which read as follows:
There is, it seems, an art of so fitting each part of the narrative into the next that, though all is mere invention, the reader is persuaded that such things might easily have happened and is as deeply moved as though they were actually going on around him .... Even its practical value is immense. Without it what should we know of how people lived in the past .... We may indeed go so far as to say
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that there is an actual mixture of Truth and Error .... Viewed in this light the novel is seen to be not, as is usually supposed, a mixture of useful truth with idle invention, but something which at every stage and in every part has a definite and serious purpose.
