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Murasaki Shikibu (紫式部, c. 973 – c. 1020) was a novelist, poet, and servant of the Imperial Court during the Heian period of Japan. She is well known as the author of The Tale of Genji, written around year 1003.
Murasaki Shikibu is a nickname; her real name is unknown.
Murasaki was born in Kyoto. She was born into the Fujiwara family. Her father, Fujiwara Tametoki, was not a very nice father and when Murasaki got older he confessed that he regretted she was not a boy.
In the year 997, Murasaki married her second cousin, Fujiwara Nobutake, at age 20. In 999, they had a daughter, Kenshi, who also became a poet. Fujiwara Nobutake died about 1001.
Murasaki started as a writer soon after her husband's unexpected death. She was recognized immediately, and she was asked to the imperial court as a tutor to Empress Shoshi ( Joto Mon'in, 988–1074), daughter of the statesman Fujiwara Michinaga (966–1027). Murasaki joined the court of Empress Shōshi in 1006, probably for her skills as an author.
Murasaki started writing her diary in 1008, and finished in 1010. Her diary describes her Chinese lessons with her brother Nobunori (980?–1011), daily life and how much she missed her husband after his death.
She died in Kyoto, around the year 1020.
The Tale of Genji is split into 54 different books, and is made up of 795 different poems. It is one of the earliest novels in Japanese, and is often thought of as the first novel in the world. It is a classic of Japanese literature. The masterpiece was about the court life of Prince Genji, and his wife, Aoi in 10th-century Japan. Prince Genji was the illegitimate son of an emperor, and the text is about his relationships in court. The Tale of Genji included many beautiful scroll paintings.
Late 16th-century (Azuchi–Momoyama period) depiction of Murasaki Shikibu, by Kanō Takanobu
A Tosa-school mid- to late 17th-century yamato-e of Heian courtiers by Tosa Mitsuoki, shows women dressed in jūnihitoes and with floor-length hair.
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In this 13th-century painting, from the Murasaki Shikibu Diary Emaki, drunk, disarranged, and disordered Heian courtiers are shown joking and flirting with court ladies.
Genji-Garden at Rozanji, a temple in Kyoto associated with her former mansion
Murasaki is depicted writing at Ishiyama-dera in this late 17th-century silk painting on the Harvard Genji Album frontispiece by Tosa Mitsuoki, housed at the Sackler Museum.
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13th-century (emakimono) illustration of The Diary of Lady Murasaki showing Empress Shōshi with the infant Emperor Go-Ichijō and ladies-in-waiting secluded behind a kichō.
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Late 17th-century or early 18th-century silk scroll painting of a scene from chapter 34 of The Tale of Genji showing men playing in the garden watched by a woman sitting behind a screen.
17th-century ink and gold paper fan showing Murasaki writing
The design of the 2000-yen note was created in Murasaki's honour.
In the The Tale of Genji, Murasaki described court life, as depicted in this exterior scene titled "Royal Outing", late 16th century by Tosa Mitsuyoshi.
Hiroshige ukiyo-e, (1852), shows an interior court scene from The Tale of Genji.
