Prince Genji mourns a lost lover, while unbeknownst to him, his dear wife's heart is in disarray. Having overcome the punishment for his affair, Genji returns to the political sphere. As he spends his time intimately with his beloved wife Murasaki, he thinks back on a woman he loved when he was young, as well as the lover and child he left in Akashi. Meanwhile, the time for his separation with his eternal love comes ever closer...

Prince Genji adopts the daughter of his departed lover, but her beauty causes him to lose his good sense. His welcoming this girl, raising her to be a lady and arranging the best marriage for her was supposed to have been done out of parental affection. But heart swept away by her charm, he crosses a line as her adoptive father...

His loves are countless, but the love Prince Genji seeks is never there. Genji betrays his father and the result of his affair with with Fujitsubo is the conception of their child. Then, his own wife becomes pregnant. Genji sees this coming child as a saving grace, but when one of his lovers finds out, she brings torment to his wife ...

One of Prince Genji's lovers is the daughter of his political rival as well as the consort of Genji's own brother. Dangerous love sometimes brings tragedy. Though Genji has now married Lady Murasaki, who's grown up to look just like Princess Fujitsubo, his search for the ideal woman continues. He continues to see Oborozukiyo, his brother's wife, in an ongoing affair, but eventually, they're discovered. Suspected of plotting treachery, Genji is ousted from the political world ...

Genji has reached the heights of worldly glory, but a new young wife begins to drive his life out of order. Living in an estate with his many wives, Genji wields the highest power in the country, but even so he still continues to search for his ideal woman—so he welcomes a young princess as his wife. Did he truly want this woman so badly, he would even hurt his most beloved Lady Murasaki to have her? Read this manga to have a good understanding of The Tale of Genji!

With its vivid descriptions of courtly society, gardens, and architecture in early eleventh-century Japan, The Tale of Genji—recognized as the world’s first novel—has captivated audiences around the globe and inspired artistic traditions for one thousand years. Its female author, Murasaki Shikibu, was a diarist, a renowned poet, and, as a tutor to the young empress, the ultimate palace insider; her monumental work of fiction offers entry into an elaborate, mysterious world of court romance, political intrigue, elite customs, and religious life. This handsomely designed and illustrated book explores the outstanding art associated with Genji through in-depth essays and discussions of more than one hundred works. The Tale of Genji has influenced all forms of Japanese artistic expression, from intimately scaled albums to boldly designed hanging scrolls and screen paintings, lacquer boxes, incense burners, games, palanquins for transporting young brides to their new homes, and even contemporary manga. The authors, both art historians and Genji scholars, discuss the tale’s transmission and reception over the centuries; illuminate its place within the history of Japanese literature and calligraphy; highlight its key episodes and characters; and explore its wide-ranging influence on Japanese culture, design, and aesthetics into the modern era. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Verdana}

Written in the eleventh century by the Japanese noblewoman Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji is a masterpiece of prose and poetry that is widely considered the world's first novel. Melissa McCormick provides a unique companion to Murasaki's tale that combines discussions of all fifty-four of its chapters with paintings and calligraphy from the Genji Album (1510) in the Harvard Art Museums, the oldest dated set of Genji illustrations known to exist. In this book, the album's colorful painting and calligraphy leaves are fully reproduced for the first time, followed by McCormick's insightful essays that analyze the Genji story and the album's unique combinations of word and image. This stunning compendium also includes English translations and Japanese transcriptions of the album's calligraphy, enabling a holistic experience of the work for readers today. In an introduction to the volume, McCormick tells the fascinating stories of the individuals who created the Genji Album in the sixteenth century, from the famous court painter who executed the paintings and the aristocrats who brushed the calligraphy to the work's warrior patrons and the poet-scholars who acted as their intermediaries. Beautifully illustrated, this book serves as an invaluable guide for readers interested in The Tale of Genji, Japanese literature, and the captivating visual world of Japan's most celebrated work of fiction.