Kaoru Genji is a fictional character in The Tale of Genji

The Tale of Genji

is a classic work of Japanese literature attributed to the Japanese noblewoman Murasaki Shikibu in the early 11th century, around the peak of the Heian period. It is sometimes called the world's first novel, the first modern novel, the first psychological novel or the first novel still to be...

(Genji Monogatari). He is the son of Hikaru Genji's

Hikaru Genji

is the protagonist of Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji. In the story, he is described as the most handsome man in the world and he attracts all women. Genji is the second son of Emperor Kiritsubo , but he is delegated to civilian life for political reasons and begins a career as an imperial...

 wife, "Third Princess" (known as Onna san no miya in the Seidensticker version, or Nyōsan in Waley's), and Genji's nephew Kashiwagi. Genji is aware of the affair by his wife and nephew Kashiwagi. However, this does not crush him because he feels that perhaps this is karma

Karma

Karma in Indian religions is the concept of "action" or "deed", understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh philosophies....

, for Genji himself is committing adultery

Adultery

Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...

 with his step-mother Fujitsubo.

Kaoru is known for having a strange, but pleasant smell always around him.

Niou, is an imperial prince, the son of Genji's daughter, the current Empress now that Reizei has abdicated the throne, while Kaoru is known to the world as Genji's son but is in fact fathered by Genji's nephew. In the final chapters of the Tale of Genji abruptly end, with Kaoru wondering if the lady he loves, Ukifune

Ukifune

Ukifune , meaning "drifting boat" or "floating boat", is the title of the chapter of The Tale of Genji that revolves around the character of the same name. She is the unrecognized daughter of the Eighth Prince of Japan in the novel , and is the half sister of Oigimi and Nakanokimi...

 is being hidden away by Niou. Kaoru has sometimes been called the first anti-hero

Anti-hero

In fiction, an antihero is generally considered to be a protagonist whose character is at least in some regards conspicuously contrary to that of the archetypal hero, and is in some instances its antithesis in which the character is generally useless at being a hero or heroine when they're...

in literature.