Murasaki Shikibu and The Tale of Genji: a female writer who
broke the chains Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times Murasaki
Shikibu (Lady Murasaki) is the most famous Japanese lady in
history and many artists have depicted her because of her wisdom
and knowledge. Not surprisingly, her prominence remains so
strong because very few ladies in Japanese history have come to
the fore because of conservative aspects of culture. Obviously,
this conservatism doesn’t solely apply to Japan because in
history it appears that female emancipation wasn’t on the radar
in the majority of cultures. Therefore, ukiyo-e artists in Japan
had little option but to focus on Murasaki Shikibu when it came
to depicting a powerful lady in Japanese history. It is known
that she was born in 973 but her death is disputed because some
people claim that she died in 1014 and others state 1025.
However, given the discrepancy then obviously much is down to
guess work and is open to many interpretations. The same applies
to her final years on this ea