ABSTRACT
Komova explores how Genji monogatari (c. 1008) frames grief through Chinese precedents, particularly Bai Juyi's Chōgonka (Song of Everlasting Sorrow, 807). Although formal missions to Tang China had ceased by the mid-9th century, the tale'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 motifs, the chapter argues that the imagined proximity of China provided a crucial affective foil. In this way, the tale's narration of death and loss exemplifies how Japanese literature integrated foreign sources into its own story-world of grief.
