Who was this person?
A lady-in-waiting of the mid-Heian court and author of the long narrative The Tale of Genji. She served Shōshi, Fujiwara no Michinaga’s daughter and consort of Emperor Ichijō, and recorded court life in The Diary of Lady Murasaki. Her real name and exact dates are unknown (accounts differ).
| Name | Murasaki Shikibu (紫式部) |
|---|---|
| Born–died | 973 – 1014 |
| Period | Heian period |
| Also known as | Tō Shikibu (court name) |
| Main achievements |
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Born the daughter of the scholar Fujiwara no Tametoki (birth year debated). She lost her mother young and was raised by her father. Her real name is unknown.
Listening as her brother learned Chinese from their father, she memorized it first. Her father lamented, "What a pity she was not born a boy," as she later wrote in her diary.
Her father became governor of Echizen (Fukui), and she went with him to the snow country—an unforgettable experience for a girl raised in the capital.
Returning alone to the capital, she married the much older Fujiwara no Nobutaka. Their daughter Kenshi, later the poet Daini no Sanmi, was born the next year.
Her husband died in an epidemic after only about three years of marriage. In her grief she is said to have begun writing a tale, believed to be the start of The Tale of Genji.
Hearing of her tale, Fujiwara no Michinaga invited her to serve his daughter Shōshi, consort of Emperor Ichijō (some say 1005). She wrote that she hid her knowledge of Chinese, pretending she could not even write the character for "one".
Shōshi bore a prince and the court rejoiced, as she recorded in her diary. She noted that Fujiwara no Kintō called out at the banquet, "Is Young Murasaki here?"—proof that The Tale of Genji was already being read.
Around this time she completed her diary. Of Sei Shōnagon she wrote harshly that she "scatters Chinese characters with a self-satisfied air". Her eye on court life was sharp, and she recorded her own loneliness too.
After Emperor Ichijō's death she kept serving Shōshi, now empress dowager, acting as intermediary with nobles, as the diary of Fujiwara no Sanesuke suggests.
She is thought to have died around this time (debated). Her long tale of the Shining Genji and his descendants is still read worldwide a thousand years later.
A. A lady-in-waiting of the mid-Heian court and author of the long narrative The Tale of Genji. She served Shōshi, Fujiwara no Michinaga’s daughter and consort of Emperor Ichijō, and recorded court life in The Diary of Lady Murasaki. Her real name and exact dates are unknown (accounts differ).
A. Period: Heian period. Born in 973, died in 1014.
A. A long tale in 54 chapters about the loves and life of the nobleman Hikaru Genji and then his descendants. Her diary shows it was being read at court by 1008, and it is counted among the world’s oldest novels.
See also: Wikipedia (ja) / Wikipedia (en) / Wikipedia (fr) / Wikipedia (zh) / Wikidata
Follow this life (autoplay)Sei ShōnagonFujiwara no Michinaga
Sakanoue no TamuramaroSaichōKūkaiSugawara no MichizaneSei ShōnagonFujiwara no MichinagaFujiwara no YorimichiTaira no Kiyomori
People of the Heian period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.