Year of Genji
An 11-Month Journey into The Tale of Genji
In 2026, I’ll be leading a sustained, guided reading of The Tale of Genji (Genji Monogatari)—not as a distant literary monument, but as a lived social world: intimate, ruthless, exquisitely aesthetic, and relentlessly observant.
We’ll be reading using the new Dennis Washburn translation (also available on Audible), moving at a pace designed for real life. This is not a race through the text. It’s a long immersion—slow enough to notice patterns, spacious enough to let the book work on you.
This is a work I know intimately, and a period of history that has shaped the last decade of my scholarship. We’ll read closely, attending to how power moves through beauty, how reputation forms before speech, how desire appears as timing and restraint, and how attention itself becomes a survival skill.
How the Year Works
Year of Genji unfolds over eleven months. Each month functions as a “chapter” in the larger journey—focused, manageable, and designed to accumulate into a deep, coherent understanding of the novel.
You’ll never be asked to keep up at an unsustainable pace. Instead, we’ll build familiarity gradually, letting themes echo and return the way Genji itself does.
What You’ll Receive Each Month
Each month includes:
A clear reading plan aligned to the Washburn translation
Concise chapter summaries (what happened, and why it matters)
Key themes and motifs to track as they develop and recur
Journaling prompts (analytical, personal, or creative—your choice)
Optional listening notes for those using the audiobook
A short closing reflection to integrate before moving on
Everything is designed to support sustained attention rather than overwhelm.
What We’ll Learn to See
Over the course of the year, we’ll train ourselves to read for:
Status and social risk — who can act, who cannot, and at what cost
Desire under surveillance — love, ambition, possession, silence
The politics of attention — what is noticed, repeated, remembered
Aesthetic literacy — seasons, clothing, poetry, gesture, architecture
Impermanence — what is built, what dissolves, what lingers
Genji is often misread as romance. Read slowly, it becomes something sharper: an anatomy of power, intimacy, and loss.
The Monthly Arc
Month 1 — Entering the World
How the court functions, how the novel speaks, how reputations begin.Month 2 — The Shining Prince
Charisma, access, and the first patterns of attachment and consequence.Month 3 — Rumor, Rivalry, and Risk
When desire becomes public knowledge—and why that changes everything.Month 4 — Women’s Quarters, Women’s Power
Constraint as environment; tact, refusal, and endurance as art forms.Month 5 — Poetry as Evidence
Letters, verse, timing—language as both refuge and liability.Month 6 — The Cost of Being Loved
Jealousy, possession, and the emotional economics of rank.Month 7 — Saturation
Repetition, excess, and the limits of charisma.Month 8 — Aftermath
Grief, substitution, memory, and reshaped selves.Month 9 — The Turn
A shift in moral temperature; impermanence deepens.Month 10 — Reading as Witness
How to read late Genji: echo, consequence, and restraint.Month 11 — Closing the Circle
Integration, reflection, and what it means to finish a novel that changes you.
Who This Is For
Readers who’ve tried Genji before and want a structure that makes it possible
Writers and scholars interested in craft, psychology, and social systems
Readers drawn to beauty and the rules that discipline beauty
Anyone who wants to read slowly, attentively, and in company
No prior knowledge is required—only curiosity and patience.
Join the Year of Genji
If you’ve been waiting for the right way into The Tale of Genji, this is an invitation to take it slowly, together, over the course of a year.
Subscribe to follow along, receive the monthly materials, and enter Genji’s world with guidance, context, and care.