The Sacred Tree

GENJI is an illegitimate son of the Emperor; his mother dies soon after his birth. At the age of twelve he is affianced to Lady Aoi, the daughter of the Minister of the Left; but she is older than he is, and looks down upon him as a mere schoolboy.

Utsusemi is carried away to the provinces by her husband; Yūgao dies, withered by the virulence of Rokujō’s jealousy. Meanwhile Genji manages to establish better terms with his wife, Aoi, only to lose her through the operation of the same baleful force that had destroyed Yūgao. Since his childhood Genji has had a passionate admiration for Lady Fujitsubo, his father’s second wife and therefore his own stepmother. He has a son by her which is believed by the world to be the Emperor’s child. Had this misdemeanour became known, Genji’s enemies, led by Lady Kōkiden who had been his mother’s rival, would have had an ample pretext for driving him away from Court.