Chapter 44 - Takekawa

"Takekawa" (Bamboo River) is Chapter 44 of The Tale of Genji, which recounts the story of a senior courtier's daughters and the competition for their hands — a section that reads almost as a novella within the novel, focusing on characters peripheral to the main Genji narrative. The "bamboo river" of the title refers to a poem and to the flowing continuity of time and generation that carries characters forward even as the great figures of the central narrative age and die. Ebina's print captures the chapter's somewhat different narrative register.