Chapter 51 - Ukifune

"Ukifune" (Floating Boat) is Chapter 51 of The Tale of Genji, in which the young woman Ukifune — caught between Kaoru's possessive devotion and Niou's irresistible charm — is driven to attempt suicide by throwing herself into the Uji River. Her body is not found, and her disappearance becomes the mystery that drives the novel's final chapters. The "floating boat" of the title describes her situation perfectly: adrift, belonging nowhere, carried by currents not of her choosing. Ebina's print captures the desperate beauty of this most tragic of Genji's women.