Murasaki was probably born in Kamigyoku, but she spent most of her early life in her father's house in Heian-kyo. He was also uncle to two, father-in-law to one, and grandfather of two others. Fujiwara no Michinaga, Murasaki's contemporary, had two sisters marry emperors. The system could result in complicated family ties between the regent and the emperor. The head of the Fujiwara family then took the title of regent-exercising the true governing power-and the process would repeat itself. After the marriage produced a child, the emperor would be induced to resign and the young child would be proclaimed the new emperor. After 967, political power was wielded by the heads of the Fujiwara family, who controlled the emperorship by marrying their daughters to the current incumbent. The Japanese emperor, although honored as the descendant of the Sun Goddess, was nonetheless mostly a powerless symbol. The aristocratic society in which Murasaki Shikibu flourished was centered on the imperial court at Heian-kyo (present-day Kyoto) from 794 to 1185. She also had several sisters and half-sisters who made political marriages to the advantage of the family. Lady Murasaki had at least two brothers who served the Heian court in different capacities: Fujiwara no Nobunori as a secretary, Josun as a priest. Though her mother's name is unknown (it was considered disgraceful for women of good breeding to allow their personal names to be discovered), her father was Fujiwara no Tametoki, a junior member of the Fujiwara clan that dominated the imperial offices from about 967 until the 12th century. Murasaki, the term for a plant used to produce a purple dye, is the name of Genji's second wife-the most important female character in the novel. Murasaki Shikibu may not in fact be the author's name. Very little is actually known about the author of The Tale of Genji. It is a happy combination of what can seem 'modern' and immediate to the reader from a far-distant land and century, and what must necessarily seem alien and exotic." "In other respects the two are far apart," Seidensticker continues, "and the Genji reveals its Japanese origins. Seidensticker in the introduction to his translation of The Tale of Genji, "and have called it the first great novel in the literature of the world." Reviewers assert that in complexity and psychological power it rivals Marcel Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu ( Remembrance of Things Past). "Very good critics have commented upon the astonishing 'modernity' of the tale," writes Edward G. Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji is widely considered the greatest masterpiece that Japanese literature has ever produced. The first known novel in Asian literature-perhaps the first novel in world literature-was produced by a woman who spent most of her life in the highly refined and isolated atmosphere of Heian Japan's imperial court. 1005–06) compiled her Diary and composed poems (c. Traditionally thought to have begun work on her novel The Tale of Genji sometime after the death of her husband Nobutaka of the plague (1001) entered imperial service as a lady-in-waiting to the Empress Shoshi (c. 998 children: a daughter, Masako or Kenshi (sources differ as to her name), known later as Daini no Sanmi (999–after 1078). Born around 973 (some sources cite 970, 974, or 975) in Rozanji, Kamigyo-ku, Japan died around 1015 (some sources cite 1014 or 1025), in Japan daughter of Fujiwara no Tametoki (a court official) and an unknown mother married Fujiwara no Nobutaka (a court official), c. Pronunciation: Moo-rah-SAH-kee Shee-KEE-boo.
Japanese novelist and poet whose greatest accomplishment, The Tale of Genji, is both the world's oldest known novel and an insightful portrait of the life of the imperial court of Heian Japan-the country's "golden age." Name variations: Lady Murasaki.
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