The Tale of Genji Plot Summary, Ch. 1 - 12

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The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu (Plot Summary; Ch. 1 – 12) 1. The Emperor falls in love with a court lady and she becomes his new favorite. The lady Kokiden is the Emperor’s oldest wife and mother of his oldest son and she is the daughter of the Minister of the Right. She’s jealous of the court lady and turns the other ladies against her, driving her into depression. The lady gives birth to Genji and tolerates the ladies’ anger because she loves the emperor, the love is mutual. She goes home and dies, and Genji becomes the emperor’s new favorite, but chooses Kokiden’s son to be the crown prince because he doesn’t want Genji to be as isolated as his mother was. The emperor is depressed over Genji’s mother’s death, but takes a new lady into his court, Fujitsubo, because she looks exactly like his lost love. Genji feels a lot of affection for Fujitsubo and is allowed to be close to her because he is a child. When Genji turns twelve, he has a huge ceremony for his entrance into adulthood; it was more elaborate than the crown prince’s. That night, Genji is married to the Minister of the Left’s daughter (previously denied to the crown prince), but Genji would rather stay at court to be with Fujitsubo (separated by a curtain) than at Sanjo with his wife. 2. Genji isn’t satisfied with his life so he has many unhappy affairs. He visits Koremitsu’s (his servant and best friend) mother with Koremitsu because she is on her death bed, but on the way he finds himself in a poor neighborhood where he picks a flower. The lady known as “Evening Faces” comes out and presents Genji with a fan that has a love poem written on it. At this time, Genji is having an affair with a governor’s wife and stepdaughter, but he finds himself attracted to Evening Faces because of her youth and innocence. The two begin an affair but keep their identities concealed from each other because Genji is of a much higher rank than Evening Faces is. He moves them away to a place where he only has three servants so they can see each other in the day. But one night, an evil spirit comes to their bed and Evening Faces has a seizure and dies. Genji is so distraught that he gets very sick for twenty days and worries everyone. After his illness, he becomes even more handsome and returns to court. He reflects on his affair with Ukon, Evening Faces’ friends, and finds out that Evening Faces had a daughter with To no Chujo and that she was the perfect woman for Genji because her passiveness would have allowed him to make her into any woman he wanted her to be. 3. Sick with malaria, Genji goes to a mountain temple to be cured by a hermit sage. He sees young girls running about and discovers that Fujitsubo’s grandmother is there because she is sick and dying. The grandmother/nun raises her granddaughter, Murasaki, because the girl’s father, Prince Hyobu, is preparing to marry another woman who cannot stand the little girl. Genji feels instant affection for this girl because she looks so much like her aunt, Fujitsubo. He wants to be the caretaker to this girl so he can mold her into the perfect lover, but everyone else assumes he wants to have an affair right now and the nun’s ladies assume he’s a pedophile. Genji takes a short break from the temple to go back to court and visit the emperor but when he visits his wife, she treats him very coldly and unkindly. Back at the temple, Fujitsubo and Genji are both being healed when they sleep together and she gets sicker and sicker before everyone discovers she is pregnant over a course of 3-4 months. When the emperor sees her, he believes he’s the father, but Fujitsubo and Genji know the truth and try to conceal it. Murasaki’s grandmother dies and she is left alone, so Genji keeps her company for the night, and then takes her away from her home before Prince Hyobu can so that he can be her teacher. She lives in the west wing of Genji’s home in happiness with her studies, Genji, and the playmates he brings her from the east wing. Genji adores Murasaki because she cares so much about him and reflects that this is better than a f