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Home Poetry Nook Articles Reviews Shero of The Month How To... Cookbook 'Zine Challenge Shero Links Submit Mailing List Guestbook Tell A Friend Forum Staff FAQ	Shero Of The Month - September 2005 Murasaki Shikibu - Sam Guys get a lot of credit for doing things first: first president, first person on the moon, first to discover the cure for Polio, etc. However, they weren't first in everything, (as some would have you believe). Women are just as pioneering as men are. A great example of this is the author of the first known novel; Murasaki Shikibu. Murasaki Shikibu lived in Japan in the Heian period. She was born around 973 AD into the Fujiwara family. Her father was a governor and a scholar. Murasaki was incredibly bright. She studied with her brothers and learned Chinese, the latter of which was not a common thing to be taught at the time. Murasaki was married to a distant relative when she was in her twenties. They had one daughter together. Her husband died in 1001 and Murasaki was brought to court as an attendant to Empress Shoshi. (Other sources have her name listed as "Akiko.") She began to keep a diary of her life at court. The diary covers two years of her life and gives us a picture of what court life was like at the time. Court was where Murasaki began to write the novel that has made her famous; [b]The Tale of Genji[/b]. The novel is loosely based on her experiences at court. The epic story is about Prince Genji and the politics of court at that time. The novel was popular very soon after its release. Murasaki left court to live at a convent around the age of fifty. The last known account of her is from 1014, so we can only assume that she died around that time. Murasaki Shikibu is this month's Shero in History because of her enormous contribution to the literary world, as well as for making important insights to court life in Japan.
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Shero Of The Month - September 2005

Murasaki Shikibu

Guys get a lot of credit for doing things first: first president, first person on the moon, first to discover the cure for Polio, etc. However, they weren't first in everything, (as some would have you believe). Women are just as pioneering as men are. A great example of this is the author of the first known novel; Murasaki Shikibu.

Murasaki Shikibu lived in Japan in the Heian period. She was born around 973 AD into the Fujiwara family. Her father was a governor and a scholar. Murasaki was incredibly bright. She studied with her brothers and learned Chinese, the latter of which was not a common thing to be taught at the time.

Murasaki was married to a distant relative when she was in her twenties. They had one daughter together. Her husband died in 1001 and Murasaki was brought to court as an attendant to Empress Shoshi. (Other sources have her name listed as "Akiko.") She began to keep a diary of her life at court. The diary covers two years of her life and gives us a picture of what court life was like at the time.

Court was where Murasaki began to write the novel that has made her famous; [b]The Tale of Genji[/b]. The novel is loosely based on her experiences at court. The epic story is about Prince Genji and the politics of court at that time. The novel was popular very soon after its release.

Murasaki left court to live at a convent around the age of fifty. The last known account of her is from 1014, so we can only assume that she died around that time.

Murasaki Shikibu is this month's Shero in History because of her enormous contribution to the literary world, as well as for making important insights to court life in Japan.