Invitation to World Literature
The Tale of Genji The Tale of Genji – Connections

In the Images of World Literature slideshow, you saw images inspired by The Tale of Genji. Here at Connections, you can find varied interpretations, analyses, and performances of the story of the shining Genji.
Movies/Popular Interpretations/TV/Performance
- “Genji Monogatari Sennenki” — 11 half-hour episodes of this anime version of Genji.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=10223 - Murasaki Shikibu Genji Monogatari—Read about this anime movie.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=3270
See a trailer for the movie.
http://elestialkitsune.wordpress.com/2009/01/06/tale-of-genji-anime-trailer/ - Liza Dalby’s web site “The Tale of Murasaki” gives Dalby’s take on the writer and her characters.
http://www.lizadalby.com/LD/tale_of_murasaki.html - Read Arthur Waley’s English translation of Aoi No Uye. This Noh play is about a battle of wills between the Rokujo Lady and Lady Aoi.
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/japanese/noh/WalAoin.html
Art
- Screens and Scrolls has 16 images from a scroll painting of the story.
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~arth17/Genji.index.html - A 1654 edition of the novel is now online; click a character name to see the manuscript of her story, with illustrations.
http://shinku.nichibun.ac.jp/genji/en/ - The twelfth century Illustrated Handscroll of the Tale of Genjihas beautiful full-color illustrations.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki
/Category:Illustrated_Handscroll_of_The_Tale_of_Genji
_%28Tokugawa_Art_Museum%29 - University of Florida professor Judith Shoaf studies Japanese dolls in Japanese and Western literature and culture. Visit her Web page about “Dolls in the Tale of Genji.”
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/jshoaf/Jdolls/genji.htm
Music
- Takugen Ogawa is a Japanese marimba player who has created musical themes for the main characters of the novel.
http://marimba.asia/ - Flautist Ron Korb has played on many movie soundtracks; hear his composition “The Tale of Genji.”
http://www.last.fm/music/Ron+Korb
/_/The+Tale+Of+Genji+%28Genji+Monogatari%29?autostart
Books
- Janet Goff, Noh Drama and the Tale of Genji: The Art of Allusion in Fifteen Classical Plays, Princeton UP, 1991.
http://www.amazon.com/Noh-Drama-Tale-Genji-Translations/dp/0691068356/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273588171&sr=1-1 - “The Tale of Genji” web site has photos of dozens of buildings and places featured in the novel.
http://www.taleofgenji.org - Norma Field, The Splendor of Longing in “The Tale of Genji,”1987.
http://www.amazon.com/Splendor-Longing-Tale-Genji/dp/0691014361/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1273588188&sr=1-1-fkmr0 - Ivan Morris, The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan, 1994.
http://www.amazon.com/World-Shining-Prince-Ancient-Kodansha/dp/1568360290/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273588209&sr=1-1 - Murasaki Shikibu, The Diary of Lady Murasaki, trans. Richard Bowring, 2005.
http://www.amazon.com/Diary-Lady-Murasaki-Penguin-Classics/dp/014043576X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273588224&sr=1-1 - Sei Shonagon, The Pillow Book, trans. Ivan Morris, 1992.
http://www.amazon.com/Pillow-Book-Sei-Shonagon/dp/0231073372 - William J. Puette, “The Tale of Genji”: A Reader’s Guide, 2009.
http://www.amazon.com/Tale-Genji-Readers-Tuttle-Classics/dp/4805310847/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1281708665&sr=1-1 - Haruo Shirane, The Bridge of Dreams: A Poetics of “The Tale of Genji,” 1988.
http://www.amazon.com/Bridge-Dreams-Poetics-Tale-Genji/dp/0804717192/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1273588282&sr=1-2-fkmr0 - Haruo Shirane, Envisioning “The Tale of Genji”: Media, Gender, and Cultural Production, 2008.
http://www.amazon.com/Envisioning-Tale-Genji-Cultural-Production/dp/0231142366/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1281708752&sr=1-1