Murasaki Shikibu

Murasaki Shikibu (紫 式部 circa 973 – circa 1014 or 1025) was a Japanese novelist, poet, and servant of the imperial court during the Heian period. "Murasaki Shikibu" was not her real name; her actual name remains unknown, though some scholars have postulated that her given name might have been Takako. Her diary states that she was nicknamed "Murasaki" ("purple") at court, after a character in The Tale of Genji. "Shikibu" refers to her father's position in the Bureau of Ceremony (shikibu-shō). She either died in 1014, when records show that her father suddenly returned to Kyoto from his governor's mansion, or between 1025 and 1031, when she would have been in her mid fifties, which was quite old by Heian standards.

References

• Dalby, Liza. The Tale of Murasaki: A Novel (Anchor, 2001). ISBN 0385497954.
• Lady Murasaki, Arthur Waley (trans.). The Tale of Genji, published in 6 volumes from 1921-33.
• Shikibu, Murasaki; Tyler, Royall (trans.). The Tale of Genji (Viking, 2001.) ISBN 0670030201.