PART I: (Chs. 1-12) The Rise of Prince Genji
The opening section traces Genji’s ascent from gifted youth to powerful court figure. His beauty and ambition draw him into secret affairs, political rivalries, spirit possession, and eventual exile. Desire propels the story, while secrecy and jealousy expose the fragility of power and the costs of transgression in the Heian court.
1. The Paulownia Pavilion (Kiritsubo)
This opening chapter establishes Genji’s childhood and the emotional architecture of the entire tale. Born to the Kiritsubo Consort, a woman of low rank but exceptional beauty, Genji is marked from birth by illicit love and court resentment. His mother’s early death leaves him emotionally unmoored and politically vulnerable. During his youth, Genji develops a forbidden attachment to his father’s new wife, the Fujitsubo Consort, who closely resembles his dead mother. At the same time, Genji enters an arranged marriage with Aoi, daughter of the powerful Minister of the Left—an alliance that secures his position but offers no emotional fulfillment.
Key points:
Maternal loss as the origin of Genji’s emotional hunger
Desire precedes ethics and destabilizes hierarchy
Marriage as political instrument rather than intimacy
Women’s vulnerability within court power structures
2. The Broom Tree (Hahakigi)
Teenaged Genji participates in a late-night discussion about women with his male companions, including Tō no Chūjō. The men debate different “types” of women, revealing masculine anxieties about visibility, control, and reputation. The chapter introduces the idea of the “hidden flower”—a woman of refinement and beauty concealed in an unlikely or socially marginal place.
Key points:
Women discussed as literary and social abstractions
Masculine bonding through misogynistic classification
Desire shaped by secrecy and rumor
The “hidden flower” as narrative engine
Courtship framed as discovery and conquest
3. The Cicada Shell (Utsusemi)
Genji’s early adulthood is marked by restless curiosity and a growing confidence in secrecy. He becomes entangled with Utsusemi, the wife of a provincial governor—an intelligent, morally alert woman who understands far better than Genji the dangers of an illicit affair. Their brief connection is defined less by fulfillment than by evasion: Utsusemi escapes him, leaving behind only a cicada shell, a charged emblem of absence, restraint, and refusal. What lingers is not conquest, but frustration—and Genji’s first real encounter with a woman who will not be shaped by his desire.
Key points:
Utsusemi is a “hidden flower,” socially marginal yet morally clear-eyed
The cicada shell symbolizes evasion, restraint, and female refusal
Genji encounters the limits of charm and privilege
Desire produces memory rather than possession
4. The Twilight Beauty (Yūgao)
While sustaining a discreet relationship with the Rokujō lady and nursing an unspoken fixation on Fujitsubo, Genji stumbles upon Yūgao, a woman of fragile beauty living on the margins of court society. Their affair unfolds in secrecy and haste, but ends in terror when Yūgao dies, overwhelmed by a malignant spirit widely understood to arise from Rokujō’s jealousy. With Yūgao’s death, desire becomes genuinely dangerous, and emotional rivalry acquires supernatural force.
Key points:
Yūgao represents vulnerability and social invisibility
Jealousy manifests as spiritual violence
Secrecy no longer guarantees safety
Genji confronts fear, guilt, and loss
5. Young Murasaki (Waka Murasaki)
This chapter entwines longing, transgression, and projection. Genji succeeds in a forbidden tryst with his stepmother Fujitsubo, deepening a desire that must remain permanently unacknowledged. Soon after, while traveling for his health, he encounters her young niece Murasaki, a child whose resemblance to Fujitsubo captivates him. Rather than leave her behind, Genji removes her from her home and installs her in his household, intending to raise and shape her into the ideal woman. Care, desire, and control quietly fuse, setting the terms of a deeply unequal future relationship.
Key points:
Fujitsubo remains Genji’s unattainable ideal
Murasaki is valued for resemblance rather than autonomy
Genji assumes the role of guardian and architect
Desire becomes long-term and formative
6. The Safflower (Suetsumuhana)
Not all hidden flowers reward pursuit. Suetsumuhana, a princess of impeccable lineage but awkward appearance and social ineptitude, becomes the object of Genji’s curiosity—and mild mockery. The chapter plays with comic deflation: Genji’s expectations collapse not through danger or refusal, but through dullness and discomfort. Beneath the humor lies a critique of aristocratic aesthetics and Genji’s entitlement to judge women by charm alone.
Key points:
Suetsumuhana disrupts ideals of beauty and romance
Comedy replaces erotic tension
Lineage proves insufficient without allure
Genji’s condescension is gently exposed
7. Beneath the Autumn Leaves (Momiji no Ga)
Public splendor and private guilt collide during an imperial excursion where Genji performs a celebrated dance with Tō no Chūjō. As the court applauds, Fujitsubo watches in silence, burdened by the knowledge that the child she carries is not the emperor’s. Elsewhere, young Murasaki plays contentedly in Genji’s residence, unaware of the forces shaping her future. Ceremony masks transgression, and performance shields dangerous truths.
Key points:
Court spectacle conceals moral crisis
Fujitsubo’s pregnancy intensifies secrecy
Genji’s public success contrasts with private guilt
Paternity becomes a political fiction
8. Under the Cherry Blossoms (Hana no En)
Amid the intoxication of spring festivities, Genji begins a clandestine affair with Oborozukiyo, sister to the powerful Kokiden consort. The liaison is reckless: Oborozukiyo belongs to a rival political faction, and discovery would carry serious consequences. The falling blossoms mirror the fragility of discretion, as pleasure and danger unfold side by side.
Key points:
Oborozukiyo embodies political as well as erotic risk
Seasonal beauty underscores impermanence
Genji ignores clear warnings
Rival factions sharpen their hostility
9. Heart to Heart (Aoi)
Tensions erupt publicly at the Kamo Festival when Aoi’s carriage humiliates that of the Rokujō lady, provoking a crisis of shame and rage. Soon after, Aoi—pregnant and emotionally isolated—is afflicted by possession attributed to Rokujō’s wandering spirit. Though she gives birth to Genji’s son Yūgiri, Aoi dies shortly thereafter. Loss, guilt, and rivalry converge, irrevocably altering Genji’s household.
Key points:
Female rivalry is enacted through public spectacle
Emotional violence manifests as spiritual possession
Aoi’s death marks a moral turning point
Genji’s domestic stability collapses
10. The Green Branch (Sakaki)
Horrified by the consequences of her jealousy, the Rokujō lady withdraws from court life, departing with her daughter to Ise. Power shifts decisively when Genji’s father dies and the Suzaku Emperor ascends, bringing the Kokiden faction to dominance. Genji’s attempts to see Fujitsubo again fail when she takes religious vows. His renewed affair with Oborozukiyo is exposed, sealing his political vulnerability.
Key points:
Renunciation replaces rivalry
Court power realigns against Genji
Fujitsubo chooses religious retreat
Genji’s indiscretion becomes catastrophic
11. Falling Flowers (Hana Chiru Sato)
This brief chapter offers a pause rather than a turning point. Genji visits a gentle, unambitious woman—one of his father’s lesser consorts—whose affection is uncomplicated and unthreatening. The encounter lacks political or emotional intensity, functioning as a quiet interlude before exile.
Key points:
Emotional simplicity contrasts with court intrigue
The woman poses no threat or demand
The chapter provides narrative stillness
Falling blossoms signal impermanence
12. Suma (Suma)
Anticipating formal punishment, Genji removes himself from the capital and retreats to the coastal outpost of Suma. Stripped of rank and ceremony, he reflects on loss, impermanence, and longing—especially for Murasaki. A purification ritual meant to cleanse misfortune instead summons a violent storm, suggesting that exile cannot sever him from the moral and cosmic consequences of his past.
Key points:
Self-imposed exile replaces privilege
Nature mirrors emotional and ethical turmoil
Genji’s attachments persist despite distance
Purification fails to erase history
