Indeed, Genji on more than one occasion stoops to actual kidnapping and de facto rape of his quarries. Virtually all the women in the novel are morally pure - that is, initial advances are almost always firmly rejected, and it is only through dogged persistence that these barriers are overcome. This becomes the initial attachment which leads him to eventually find out about her and, eventually, to seduce her. Thus, a common occurrence for Genji is, upon visiting a relative or an old nurse, he chances to catch a glimpse of the back of the head of a woman in the nearby house. This despite the fact that women of this social class were hardly ever even seen: if one called upon them, one would, if very lucky, be allowed to talk with them through a screen or a bamboo curtain. He does love his wife, but that doesn't preclude his becoming entranced by woman after woman after woman.
Married quite early on in the novel and at a fairly young age, he then commences on a series of romantic escapades: it would appear that life for men of this class revolved fairly exclusively upon the meeting of and conquest over the opposite sex. Written by a woman in the early 11th century, it details the life and loves of Genji, a member of the royal family who is so astonishingly good-looking that he appears to shine. A very long, really unique work of the life led by the upper-upper crust of aristocratic society in medieval Japan.
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