Decadence, an effete culture and the first novel

Because of the Buddhist belief in rebirth, beauty, in all its forms, was seen as a sign of virtue in a former existence. To have lovely handwriting, or a talent for poetry, was a mark of good character, in a former life as well as in the present one. A priest in [A Tale of] “Genji” describes a young woman as follows: “She really is quite beautiful, isn’t she! No doubt she was born with such features as a reward for good deeds performed in a previous life.” Prince Genji himself is described as cutting “such an attractive figure that the other men felt a desire to see him as a woman. He was so beautiful that pairing him with the very finest of the ladies at the court would fail to do him justice.”
It was, as all this suggests, a rather effete culture. The aristocratic ideal of male beauty—highly perfumed, moon-faced, smooth-skinned, extravagantly dressed—was close to the feminine ideal. A distinct air of decadence during the peak of the Heian period also suggests the approaching end of a regime, a world, in Genji’s words, “where everything seems to be in a state of decline.”

“The Tale of Genji” - a new translation of the "first novel."