In the Third Month, the ceremony of the fiftieth day was taking place. The child was elegant and charmingly different from other children. Looking at the face of child, Genji shed tears for Kashiwagi, who had not lived to see his own son. He wept for the boy who had to bear the burden of such a secret in his future. Genji felt sorry for himself too who held in his hands a son not his own, at his old age.

Yugiri frequently visited the widow of Kashiwagi, the Second Princess, to keep his word to his closest friend. Gradually he became impressed by her calmness. In the Fourth Month, reproaching her cold attitude, Yugiri gave her the intertwined branches of an oak (a symbol of Kashiwagi) and a maple with a poem: "By grace of the tree god let the branch so close to the branch that withered be close to the branch that lives". But she kept on seeing him formally from behind a curtain. His affectionate approach was an annoyance to her.