Deep Dive on Historic Women: Murasaki Shikibu

I shared a news article on my FB page a day or so ago about the discovery that the novel, Tale of Genji, has 4 newly discovered chapters to add to its length. Already 50 chapters long, this 54 chapter version is the longest ever found. This book is important, not only because it is considered our world's first full-length novel, but also because it is considered the greatest work of Japanese literature.

However, as awesome as the book detailing the exploits of Genji Hikaru is, it pales in comparison to the life of its author. Murasaki Shikibu was her pen name, and there is some evidence to suggest that her given name was Fujiwara no Kaoruko, since it's known from her journals that she became an imperial lady-in-waiting for the emperor's consort, Shoshi, after the death of her husband and that she was from a distant branch of the Fujiwara line. Raised mostly by her father after her mother's untimely death, she learned many of the so-called "manly" studies of the time. She excelled in Chinese literature and moved around the country with her father, which at the time was unheard of for a young aristocratic woman. 

Also unheard of was her romantic life. While most of Murasaki's peers were getting married in their early teens, it is known that Murasaki herself didn't marry until her twenties and that her nuptials only lasted two years, at that. It is believed that she began writing the Tale of Genji at this time. 

This picture is one I created for Murasaki. While we don't know what 

she would have looked like, we do know how nobility looked in the 

Heian Era. This is close to how they would have looked. I have lowered the

eyebrows from where they would have been drawn to make it look a 

little closer to our current day standards of beauty. Any mistakes are my

own and no one else's.

Afterward, Murasaki chose to remain her own woman and not remarry and was eventually called to become a Chinese tutor to the young Empress and, of course, to become her resident writer. She may have also received the job due to a brief affair she may have had with the consort Shoshi's father, Michinaga, a statesman of some renown at the time, although this connection is tenuous at best. She is known to have exchanged poetry with Michinaga though, which at the time was considered an essential part of seduction at the time. 

There is some discussion about when she died, some saying that she died 1014, but some say that she was seen attending official ceremonies with Shoshi for another 10 years after that.

I have decided to read Liza Dalby's novel, The Tale of Murasaki: a novel and then follow it up with more of the dry research about her life as well as an official reading of the Tale of Genji, eventually.

Have you read any of these books? Would any of you be interested in reading Liza Dalby's novel and discussing it, bookclub style? Let me know and if there is enough interest, I'll create an FB page for it.