Lady Fujitsubo is a fictional character in Murasaki Shikibu

Murasaki Shikibu

Murasaki Shikibu was a Japanese novelist, poet and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court during the Heian period. She is best known as the author of The Tale of Genji, written in Japanese between about 1000 and 1012...

's 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).

Daughter of a previous emperor and thus imperial princess, Fujitsubo enters the service of Kiritsubo Emperor at age 16, mainly because of her resemblance to the deceased Kiritsubo Consort

Kiritsubo Consort

is a fictional character in The Tale of Genji . She is mother of Genji. 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. ...

. She soon becomes an imperial favorite, but also Genji

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...

’s childhood crush and later lifelong obsession. By chapter seven, “Momiji no ha,” it becomes obvious that Fujitsubo and Genji are already involved in an illicit love affair (although the author does not describe it, but rather implies the beginning of the relationship), the result of which is the birth of Reizei (future emperor) whom everyone, except the two lovers, believes to be the son of the Kiritsubo Emperor. Elevated to the rank of Empress and having her son named Heir Apparent (Reizei is supposed to succeed Suzaku), Fujitsubo gradually grows more and more troubled by guilt and the fear of having her secret exposed. Once Genji’s advances intensify and, in the public realm, the faction of the Kokiden Lady comes to power, Fujitsubo’s only countermeasure is to take vows and become a nun (“Sakaki”). By this, she hopes on the one hand, to permanently put Genji off and eliminate the risk of their affair being discovered and, on the other hand, to reassure Kokiden that she renounces any secular, political claims to power. After Genji’s return from exile, she forms a political alliance with him and turns into a genuine “politically ambitious” figure in the tale. Only on her deathbed (in “Usugumo”) does she return to being a romantic heroine.

Fujitsubo’s importance in the tale lies beyond her immediate contribution to the plot, in what Norma Field

Norma Field

Norma M. Field is an author and professor of East Asian studies at the University of Chicago. She teaches Premodern Japanese Poetry and Prose, Premodern Japanese Language, and Gender Studies as relating to Japanese women....

 termed as being an “original substitute” (she makes her debut as a substitute for Kiritsubo, yet, later, Genji will look for substitutes for her, in women such as Utsusemi, the Third Princess, but most of all, in Murasaki

Murasaki

Murasaki refers to both the heroine of the Genji Monogatari , and the book's author, Murasaki Shikibu. Curiously, in both cases the name is a pseudonym, and the real names are unknown....

).