SUMMARY OF VOLUMES I AND II
Genji is an illegitimate son of the Emperor. At the age of twelve he is affianced to Lady Aoi, daughter of the Minister of the Left; but she is older than he is, and looks down upon him as a mere schoolboy. Genji falls in love with Rokujō, a widow eight years older than himself. She is passionately jealous of his wife, and relations with her become very difficult. Genji turns for consolation to Utsusemi, wife of a provincial governor: to Yūgao, a discarded mistress of his friend Tō no Chūjō: to the fantastic Suyetsumu, the ‘lady with the red nose.’ Utsusemi is carried off to the provinces by her husband; Yūgao dies, withered by the virulence of Rokujō’s jealousy. Meanwhile Genji succeeds in establishing better relations with his wife, Aoi, only to lose her through the operation of the same baleful force that had destroyed Yūgao. Since his childhood he has passionately admired Fujitsubo, his father’s second wife. He has a son by her, who is believed by the public to be the Emperor’s child.
Genji’s enemies, in particular Kōkiden, who had been his mother’s rival, are striving to get rid of him. He simplifies matters for them by starting an intrigue with Oborozuki, a much younger sister of Kōkiden.
At the end of Vol. I Genji marries Lady Murasaki, a niece of Fujitsubo; some years before he had taken her into his house and adopted her.
In Vol. II, Rokujō leaves the capital and goes to live at Ise, where her daughter is Vestal Virgin. Genji is caught making love to Oborozuki, and knowing that his enemies now have him in their grasp he retires as a voluntary exile to Suma. Here a storm destroys his house, and the Old Recluse of Akashi (a neighbouring bay) persuades him to move thither. Here he falls in love with the Recluse’s daughter (the Lady of Akaski), by whom he has a child (called the Princess from Akashi). Genji, after three years of exile, is recalled, and wants to send for the Lady of Akashi to live with him in his palace. But she fears that her position there will be humiliating, and will not consent. Finally he instals her in a country house at Ōi, several miles from the capital. In this volume both Utsusemi (the governor’s wife) and Rokujō re-appear at the capital. There is also a further encounter, of a diverting kind, between Genji and the lady with the red nose.