Yuagao

Question: Yūgao yields to Genji quite readily, as the narrator notes: “[Yūgao’s] utter submissiveness, however curious, [is] extremely engaging” (64). Nevertheless, despite her “utter submission,” she seems to withhold something from Genji. When Genji asks Yūgao to tell him her name, she merely replies that “[she is] only a diver’s daughter” (69). As a result, Genji complains that although Yūgao and he are “as close as [they] could possibly be, but at heart [she is] still keeping [herself] from [him]” (70). So what does Yūgao try to conceal from Genji? What does Yūgao’s secret tell us about the nature of her submission to Genji?

Evidence: The easy answer seems to be Yūgao’s personality; as her nurse Ukon says, Yūgao “is so exceptionally shy”
Just as flowers need water to grow, Yūgao need a men to survive. However, it is not her own well-being, but her daughter’s, with which she is primarily concerned. She feels ashamed to lead a comfortable life without labor, since she is “deeply embarrassed by this clatter and clatter all around them of people rising and preparing to go about their pitiful tasks” (65). But she has to seek Genji, out of her love for her daughter and her responsibility as a mother. When Genji offers to raise Tō no Chūjō and Yūgao’s daughter, Ukon says [she does] not like to think of [the little girl] growing up so far out in the west of the City. [Her] lady left [the girl] there only because [her lady] had no one else to look after [the girl] properly” (84). Yūgao so eagerly seeks Genji partly because Genji is the dew essential to her daughter’s wellbeing.

Opening: In Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji, though depicted as a shy and reserved lover by her former lover Tō no Chūjō, Yūgao exhibits a complicated personality in her encounter with Genji. She is not only a blind lover bewitched by Genji, but also a responsible mother who seeks care for her daughter. Her quick and utter submission to Genji is a mixture of romantic love and maternal