Family Relationships Early in the Tale of Genji: a Work in Progress 1.0*

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Family Relationships Early in The Tale of Genji: A Work in Progress 1.0* Names below follow the Seidensticker translation of Genji monogatari with nods to the Waley translation and reading tradition. At the core are the lineages of the Ministers of Left and Right and the Imperial family. For practical reasons, the generational focus is on Genji and Tô no Chûjô and their parents and children. Characters of importance but not of these three lineages by birth or marriage are generally excluded. Some people occur in two places in the chart because of their complex connections A Retired Emperor (Ichi no In) Minister of the Right Fourth Princess Minister Princess Crown Prince Lady Lady of the Emperor #1 Kokiden Fuji Dainagon of Ômiya [Deceased] Rokujô Paulownia Court (The Old the Left (Kiritsubo) Emperor) Tô no Chûjô Kashiwagi A Former Emperor Oborozukiyo Fujitsubo Daughter Prince Hyôbu Principal of a wife Dainagon Tô no Chûjô The Lady Aoi HIKARU GENJI Murasaki Daughter Higekuro Lady Emperor #2 Lady of the Shôkyôden (Suzaku) Consort Evening Faces (Yûgao) Akikonomu Emperor #3 (Reizei) Third Princess Tamakazura Higekuro Kashiwagi Akashi Lady Kumoinokari Yûgiri Akashi Empress Emperor #4 Prince Niou Kaoru ---Key--- Single line shows descent/parentage. Double line shows marriage/sexual union. A descent line drawn from a parent’s box, not from a union, means that the other parent is unknown, secret, or for another reason not shown here. *This chart builds on similar efforts by Ivan Morris in his World of the Shining Prince and Richard Bowring in his edition of the diary of Murasaki Shikibu, but errors are mine. Readers will note that it does not by any means show all of the relationships meaningful to Shining Genji even in his lifetime—it is currently by practical concerns of font size, keeping it to a facts-at-a-glance single-page format, and how in the world to cram everything into a single chart. Enjoy. Corrections & suggestions welcome. -- Bob Leutner, The University of Iowa, February 26, 2004.

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