List of The Tale of Genji characters

The characters of The Tale of Genji do not possess birth names. Instead they are assigned sobriquets derived from poetic exchanges (ex. Murasaki takes her name from a poem by Genji), from the particular court positions they occupy (in the Tyler translation, characters are often referred to by such terms as His Highness of War, Her Majesty the Empress, His Grace, the Palace Minister and so on), from their geographical location (ex. Lady Akashi who lived on the Akashi coast before meeting Genji), or from the name of their residence (ex. Lady Rokujō, whose mansion is on the Sixth Avenue, rokujō, or Fujitsubo, literally wisteria pavilion, the part of the Imperial Palace where this particular lady resided). Out of the two most recent translations into English, Seidensticker’s tends to systematically employ the same names (ex. Genji, Murasaki, Akashi, Utsusemi, etc.), whereas Tyler’s, a more textually accurate translation, tends to change sometimes characters’ appellation with every chapter.

Similarly, many women writers of the Heian period left behind their sobriquets alone. Murasaki Shikibu is no exception: “Murasaki” is presumably borrowed from her character in the tale, whereas “Shikibu” refers to a court position in the Bureau of Ceremonial (shikibu), that her father used to occupy.

Following Genji, all the other characters are introduced following the chronology of the events in the tale. However, this chronology does not take into account the first time a character is mentioned, but rather the time a character actually makes his or her debut into the tale. Some of the character descriptions below include a reference to the chapter in which the character is introduced to the narrative. Important characters are in capital letters.

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