Composed in kana script by the Heian noblewoman and lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikibu and attested in its complete 54-chapter form by 1021 in the Sarashina Nikki.
Chapters 1–41 chronicle the courtly love affairs, poetry exchanges, Suma exile, and political rise of Hikaru Genji, an emperor's son demoted to the Minamoto clan.
The final Uji chapters (45–54) shift after Genji's implied death to the psychological rivalry between his grandson Niou and his legal son Kaoru.