Mid-Heian Marriage Analysis
Aristocratic marriages in mid-Heian period in “Gossamer Years” depict visiting marriages without formal ceremonies. Politic plays a significant role and men can have multiple wives and concubines. While the nature of aristocratic marriage and family in this period appears peculiar to us; the practices in marriage and family in mid-Heian period are actually more reasonable than it might sounded at first if we approached with the widespread point of view back then.
Instead of moving in together after marriage, the husband and wife still live separately. The wife remains in her parent’s residence and the husband visits the wife during his spare time. Also, the wife is responsible for raising children. The demonstration of this practice is shown …show more content…
Prior to the quote, “It had meanwhile become clear that I was to have a child.” (p. 37), there is no place where a marriage ceremony is described or a shock about having a child which indicate that marriage ceremony is not a custom during mid Heian period. Aristocratic men of Heian period tended to have multiple wives and having a formal ceremony for each wife will be a daunting task. In the Heian age, transportation is also not very convenient so assembling aristocrats to attend formal marriage ceremony will also sacrifice a significant amount of time on the audience’s end that could have been used to work for the society. Arranging formal marriage only for some wives will most likely precipitate frictions in family.
Another less but still peculiar aspect of Heian Marriage is that it is highly influenced by politic as the following quote indicate. “You cannot continue to ignore such a man,” she said. “You must stop being so kittenish.”(p. 34) Here the author’s mother emphasizes to her that she should accept the prince’s feeling even if she does not have any for him only because he is from a higher aristocratic class. This aspect of Heian marriage also exists in today’s society especially in Asia. Richer and more powerful families do it to keep their power while others do it to raise their social
Instead of moving in together after marriage, the husband and wife still live separately. The wife remains in her parent’s residence and the husband visits the wife during his spare time. Also, the wife is responsible for raising children. The demonstration of this practice is shown …show more content…
Prior to the quote, “It had meanwhile become clear that I was to have a child.” (p. 37), there is no place where a marriage ceremony is described or a shock about having a child which indicate that marriage ceremony is not a custom during mid Heian period. Aristocratic men of Heian period tended to have multiple wives and having a formal ceremony for each wife will be a daunting task. In the Heian age, transportation is also not very convenient so assembling aristocrats to attend formal marriage ceremony will also sacrifice a significant amount of time on the audience’s end that could have been used to work for the society. Arranging formal marriage only for some wives will most likely precipitate frictions in family.
Another less but still peculiar aspect of Heian Marriage is that it is highly influenced by politic as the following quote indicate. “You cannot continue to ignore such a man,” she said. “You must stop being so kittenish.”(p. 34) Here the author’s mother emphasizes to her that she should accept the prince’s feeling even if she does not have any for him only because he is from a higher aristocratic class. This aspect of Heian marriage also exists in today’s society especially in Asia. Richer and more powerful families do it to keep their power while others do it to raise their social