Kiritsubo Consort

Character from The Tale of Genji

Fictional character

Kiritsubo Consort
The Tale of Genji character
In-universe information
Significant other	Emperor Kiritsubo
Relatives	Hikaru Genji (son)

Kiritsubo Consort (桐壺更衣, Kiritsubo no Kōi) is a fictional character in The Tale of Genji (Genji Monogatari). She is the mother of Genji.^[1] The Emperor favored her over all his other ladies, despite her relatively lower rank. He would stay with her longer than was generally considered "proper" and with the court's concern for propriety it was quite scandalous.^[2] The other ladies began to harass her and she began to waste away. She died three years after Genji's birth. After her death, Genji constantly sought to fill the void left by this loss by forming relationships with various women, many of whom resembled his mother.^[3]

References

^ Harper, Thomas; Shirane, Haruo (2015-12-01). Reading The Tale of Genji: Sources from the First Millennium. Columbia University Press. pp. 361–366. ISBN 978-0-231-53720-9.
^ Okada, Richard H. (1991-10-18). Figures of Resistance: Language, Poetry, and Narrating in The Tale of the Genji and Other Mid-Heian Texts. Duke University Press. pp. 186–189. ISBN 978-0-8223-8172-3.
^ Schalow, Paul Gordon (2006-12-31). A Poetics of Courtly Male Friendship in Heian Japan. University of Hawaii Press. p. 163. ISBN 978-0-8248-3020-5.