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MURASAKI SHIKIBU FIRST MODERN NOVELIST

FULL NAME: Murasaki Shikibu

BORN: C. 978, HEIAN-KYŌ, JAPAN

DIED: C. 1014, POSSIBLY BIWA, JAPAN

NATIONALITY: JAPANESE

LADY MURASAKI

Murasaki Shikibu, also known as “Lady Murasaki,” was an 11th-century poet and novelist in Japan. She wrote during Japan’s “Heian” period, a golden age of peace, harmony, and the arts. Heian women did not typically learn written Chinese (the language of government in Japan), but Murasaki was anything but typical. She excelled and quickly became a prolific writer of poems and novels in Japanese and is believed to be the world’s first novelist. Her novel, The Tale of Genji, was written in 1007. Many consider it the greatest work of Japanese literature and the oldest full novel in the world. Among other works, she also wrote a volume of poetry entitled The Diary of Lady Murasaki.

Murasaki was married and had a daughter, but her husband died within two years of their marriage. It is believed that because of her incredible writing talent and intelligence, she was brought to live at the royal court. There, she became a lady-in-waiting to Empress Akiko. Murasaki kept a diary about her views on life at court. She used these observations for her novel about daily life among upper class society. The Tale of Genji was immediately successful. It has since been translated into several languages and illustrated editions. To this day, it continues to be studied as the main source of knowledge about life in ancient Japanese society.

FABULOUS FIRSTS
	WRITER OF THE WORLD’S FIRST NOVEL