The Tale of Genji (manga)

The Tale of Genji: Dreams at Dawn (あさきゆめみし) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Waki Yamato. It is a manga version of Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji, following nearly the same plot with some modern adaptation. It was serialized in Kodansha's shōjo manga magazines Mimi and Minmi Excellent from 1979 to 1993, with its chapters collected in 13 tankōbon volumes. The first ten volumes focus on Hikaru Genji and his life, while the final three volumes follow two princes, lord Kaoru and Niou no Miya (Royal Prince with Perfumes) after Hikaru Genji's death.

Kodansha International published four volumes, as part of its bilingual manga program, from 2000 to 2001. Kodansha USA published the manga digitally in ten volumes from 2019 to 2020.

An anime adaptation was scheduled to air on Fuji TV's Noitamina programming block starting in January 2009; however, the producer decided to make the anime directly from the original Tale of Genji, calling the new anime Genji Monogatari Sennenki.

The series has sold over 18 million copies.

Characters

 * Hikaru Genji
 * A royal prince and the second son of Emperor Kiritsubo. People called him the Shining Prince for his beauty and exellence. His father, the Emperor, gave him a branch house called Gen, which meant he was no longer part of the royal family and lost the right to succeed the throne, since his mother was a concubine of low rank. Therefore, he was called Gen-ji, shining Gen-ji (Hikaru Genji).


 * Emperor Kiritsubo
 * Father of Genji. He wished Genji to become his successor, but it was impossible since his mother Kiritsubo-koui's was of low rank and the mother of his first son, Kokiden-nyougo, was of high rank.


 * Kiritsubo-koui
 * Second class concubine of Emperor Kiritsubo and mother of Genji. The emperor loved her most, but the jealousy and hatred of other concubines in the palace resulted in her death.


 * Kokiden-nyougo
 * First class concubine and mother of the first royal prince (later, Emperor Suzaku) of Emperor Kiritsubo. She was the daughter of the Minister at the right.


 * Fujitsubo-nyougo
 * Royal princess and first class concubine of Emperor Kiritsubo. Fujitsubo looked a lot like late Kiritsubo-koui. Emperor Kiritsubo loved her and she became the Empress consort (Chuuguu). Lord Genji secretly loved and adored Fujitsubo too which made him commit adultery with her.


 * Murasaki no ue
 * Daughter of the Imperial prince Hyobukyo no miya and niece of Empress consort Fujitsubo. Lord Genji first met her when she was 12 years old. Later, Genji married her and she was called Murasaki no ue (high Dame Murasaki).


 * Aoi no ue
 * Daughter of the Minister at the left. She was 4 years older than Genji. Aoi was the first spouse of Genji, therefore she was called Aoi no ue (high Dame Aoi). She was raised to be married to the next emperor, but was instead married to Genji who was the second son of the emperor, which made hef grow cold and distant. Aoi was killed by the jealous living ghost of royal Dame Rokujou.


 * Rokujou-miyasudokoro
 * Mother of Umetsubo-nyougo and a first class concubine of the former Crown Prince who was an elder brother of Emperor Kiritsubo. After her husband's death, she locked herself up in her mansion and only came out during poetry recitals. Considered to be very popular at court due to her reputation of wisdom and charm, she became Genji's mistress. Her love overwhelmed the Prince Genji which eventually drove him away from her. "Miyasudokoro" is title of mother of royal prince/princess.


 * Yuugiri
 * Second son of Genji. His mother was high Dame Aoi.


 * Emperor Suzaku
 * First son of Emperor Kiritsubo. His mother was Kokiden-nyougo. Suzaku succeeded his father Kiritsubo's throne and became emperor. Kokiden-nyougo was, then, grand Empress consort.


 * Emperor Reizei
 * Son of Empress consort Fujitsubo. He was to be considered as the royal prince, son of Emperor Kiritsubo, but his real father was Lord Genji, making him a child of adultery.


 * Tou-no-chuujou
 * Eldest son of the Minister at the left and elder brother of Aoi. He was a rival and a good friend of Genji.


 * Yuugao
 * A young lady from the middle class but was reputed for her beauty. She was one of Genji's loves. She was killed by the living ghost of the jealous Rokujou-miyasudokoro at the age of nineteen. Her death threw Genji into a pit of depression. She left a girl baby called Tamakadura, who was a daughter of Tou-no-chuujou.


 * Oborodukiyo
 * Daughter of the Minister at the right and younger sister of grand Empress consort Kokiden. She was a beautiful and brave lady. Kokiden planned to make her first class concubine of Emperor Suzaku, but she had love affairs with Lord Genji. Then, she became the chief Lady of Chamber (Naishi-no-kami) of Emperor Suzaku. Kokiden got angry and Genji retired to the seashore palace at Suma.


 * Akashi-no-okata
 * Daughter of Priest Akashi. Genji and his followers were met with a typhoon at Suma which made them take refuge in Priest Akashi's house. Genji, then, made love with her and begot a baby girl (later, Akashi-no-nyougo).


 * Shin-Kokiden-nyougo
 * Daughter of Tou-no-chuujou and elder sister of Kumoi-no-Kari. She was a first class concubine of Emperor Reizei.


 * Umetsubo-nyougo
 * Daughter of Rokujou-Miyasudokoro and the former Crown Prince. She was a Royal princess, entering the palace of Emperor Reizei as nyougo (first class concubine). After her mother's death, Genji became her father in palace low. Emperor Reizei became aware that Genji was his real father which filled his heart with agony but he later came to terms with it. Reizei raised Umetsubo to the Empress consort for she was Genji's daughter. Umetsubo became Akikonomu-chuuguu. Genji became de facto Ex-Emperor, Rokujou-in.


 * Kumoi-no-Kari
 * Daughter of Tou-no-chuujou and younger sister of shin-Kokiden-nyougo. She fell in love with Yuugiri, the son of Genji, whom she later married.


 * Tamakadura
 * Daughter of Tou-no-chuujou. She left Kyoto for Dazai-fu at Kyushu at a young age. After having grown up and become a young lady, she returned to Kyoto. Genji found her and announced she was his daughter. Many high rank noblemen sent love-letters to her. Royal army General at the left, Kurohige, proposed to her and then kidnapped her.

Publication
Written and illustrated by Waki Yamato, The Tale of Genji was serialized in Kodansha's shōjo manga magazines Minmi and Minmi Excellent from 1979 to 1993. Kodansha collected its chapters in 13 tankōbon volumes, released from November 15, 1980, to July 13, 1993.

Kodansha International published four volumes, as part of its bilingual manga program, from 2000 to 2001. Kodansha USA started publishing the manga digitally, with ten volumes released from February 26, 2019, to February 4, 2020.