According to medieval legend,^[105] Murasaki Shikibu’s initial conception of the tale sprang from personal distress over the exile of Minamoto no Takaakira (914–982) to Kyushu in 969. She therefore wrote the “Suma” and “Akashi” chapters first, in a creative rush, and added the others one by one only later. Takaakira’s exile may not really have inspired her that directly, since she was not even born until the early 970s. However, the pathos of exile was so familiar to her from Chinese literature that allusions to the exile of the great Tang poet Bo Juyi (772–846) pervade “Suma.” Beside Takaakira, she also knew several other examples, including Ariwara no Yukihira (818–893), who preceded her hero at Suma; Fujiwara no Korechika (974–1010), a contemporary of hers; and above all the great statesman and scholar of Chinese Sugawara no Michizane (845–903), whose unmerited exile to Kyushu, where he died, had enormous repercussions. The “Suma” narrative alludes to it poignantly.

If the sorrows of exile aroused Murasaki Shikibu’s personal and imaginative sympathy, and if she wished to bring her hero back from them to unheard-of honor, then the will of the Sumiyoshi deity furthered her purpose, and the associated Hikohohodemi myth gave her the pattern of her story. Her genius transmuted it into something wholly new.