Murasaki Shikibu

A writer and poet in the Heian Period. The exact circumstances of her life are unknown. She has written works such as “The Tale of Genji”, “Lady Murasaki Collection” and “The Diary of Lady Murasaki”. Her poems are also selected for the “Later Collection of Gleanings of Japanese Poems” as well as subsequent poem anthologies.

She was born to Fujiwara no Tametoki, a scholar in Han studies and a poet. With her lineage on her father’s side renowned for being academics (Her paternal great-grandfather, Fujiwara no Kanesuke, was not only active as a poet but also penned chronicles and other works like both volumes of “The Chronicles of Prince Shōtoku”, (and was known by the moniker of ’The Riverside Middle Counselor’), it would be obvious how she would be raised to be acquainted with books and texts.

Married to Fujiwara no Nobutaka – who was significantly older than her – in her twenties, she bore him a son, before he dies three years into their marriage. Kaoruko (Shikibu), who was thus widowed at a young age, started writing a story during the Autumn of that same year; namely ― her opus “The Tale of Genji”, which spans 54 volumes in total.