History Research Paper Lady Murasaki Essay Example

She was born about 973 in Kyoto.She is best known as the author of The Tale of Genji, which was written during 1008-1020. “Murasaki Shikibu” was not her real name, which is still unknown. Some scholars have guessed that her given name might be Fujiwara no Takako.

In her diary, she wrote that she was nicknamed “Murasaki” after a character in The Tale of Genji. “Shikibu” refers to her father’s position in Bureau of Ceremonies, Shikibu-sho. She was married to Fujiwara no Nobutaka in her early 20s and had one child, Daini no Sanmi. Murasaki died in 1025-1031, when she would have been in her mid-50s, which is fairly old by Heian standards.Lady Murasaki was an intelligent woman.

However, in Murasaki Shikibu Diary, which is one of her famous accomplishments, she insulted Sei Shonagon. Many people think that Lady Murasaki was a beautiful woman. Actually, she did not have a beautiful face and she was not skinny either, but she had long and black hair. The men during the Heian period thought women who had long and black hair were beautiful, so many men liked Lady Murasaki.

I think the way the men during Heian period ranked the women is very interesting, because nowadays men rank women by their faces and personalities.After Lady Murasaki was born in Kyoto around 973, she stayed there with her mother. During the Heian period, couples lived separately and children were raised by their mother and her family. Her father taught her male education, because he wanted a boy child. Lady Murasaki learned kanji and classical Chinese literature, while other women learned kana and poetry. Her father praised her ability

and intelligence, but lamented that she was born as a girl.

Also, she liked to read and write from when she was a child. I think the education Lady Murasaki got was important, in order to create The Tale of Genji.Lady Murasaki was born in a family of minor nobility and a member of the northern branch of Fujiwara Clan. Her father was Fujiwara no Tametoki and her mother is still unknown.

Her father was talented at waka, which is a genre of Japanese poem. She had a brother named Fujiwara no Nobunori, and he was also talented in waka. Lady Murasaki had a husband named Fujiwara no Nobutaka. There was a huge age difference between them because Lady Murasaki was Nobutaka’s second wife. Nobutaka had a son with his first wife named, Fujiwara no Takamitsu, and he was two years older than Lady Murasaki.Fujiwara no Kataiko, later known as Daini no Sanmi, was Lady Murasaki’s only daughter.

She was also good at literature. Among Lady Murasaki’s many accomplishments, The Tale of Genji was the most famous and important one. This novel made Lady Murasaki famous and helped the scholars to find out about the history of Japanese literature. The Tale of Genji is sometimes called the world’s first novel, the first modern novel, the first psychological novel, or the first novel to still be considered a classic. The Tale of Genji was interesting, because it was a new type of novel, which wrote about Lady Murasaki’s dream.I think The Tale of Genji is a good novel, because it is romantic and dramatic.

Especially, the chapters that describe the Murasaki’s feelings towards Hikaru Genji are

sweet and romantic. I think that is why many scholars still continue to research about it. The other famous accomplishments of Lady Murasaki are The Murasaki Shikibu Diary, and The Murasaki Shikibu Collections. The Murasaki Shikibu Diary, also known as Murasaki Shikibu Nikki, includes the daily life of Lady Murasaki. It covers the period from 1080-1010.The Murasaki Shikibu Collections, or Murasaki Shikibu-Shu, is a compilation of 128 poems written by Lady Murasaki, which was published after Lady Murasaki’s death.

The Murasaki Shikibu Collections contained a lot of dramatic poems. These accomplishments became famous and well-liked by people during Heian period. This is because Lady Murasaki became famous as the author of The Tale of Genji, and everyone wanted to read her writings. Nowadays, these accomplishments are still well known, and these are also helping scholars to find new details about old Japanese literature.I’m going to explain how people in modern-day Japan are affected by Lady Murasaki’s accomplishments in the later part of the paper. The story of The Tale of Genji is romantic and interesting.

It is a story that describes the romantic life of the main character, Hikaru Genji. Hikaru Genji was a very good looking and smart man. Hikaru Genji liked to have a lot of relationships with girls. He even loved his own stepmother, Lady Fujitsubo, and his niece, Murasaki as a woman.

The chapters that describe about Genji’s life are called “Genji’s Rise and Fall”.There is a chapter called “Kumogakure”, which is left blank to show the death of Hikaru Genji. The chapters that follow Genji’s death are called “The Transition”. The story continues even after the death of Hikaru Genji,

and these are called the “Uji Chapters”. These chapters describe the son of Genji’s daughter, Niou, and Genji’s nephew, Kaoru.

The tale ends abruptly, with Kaoru wondering if the lady he loves is being hidden away by Niou. I like the chapter that describes Genji’s death because, it was very interesting how Lady Murasaki didn’t write anything, in order to describe that she was shocked about Genji’s death.The story of The Tale of Genji was based on a poet called Minamoto no Toru. He was also a grandson of Emperor Saga.

Lady Murasaki liked him a lot, but she could not approach to him, since Lady Murasaki was just a servant of the imperial court. As a result, she decided to write The Tale of Genji. Lady Murasaki was happy, because in the story Minamoto no Toru, who was Hikaru Genji, fell in love with Lady Murasaki, which represents Murasaki. I think that, even though Lady Murasaki seemed happy, The Tale of Genji is just a story and it is not true.I also think that it is just escapism, which would probably make her even sadder, but as a result, Lady Murasaki became famous. Many scholars say that The Tale of Genji was written between 1008 and 1020, which is 12 years.

Some scholars say that Murasaki Shikibu only wrote Chapters 1-33, and that Chapters 35-54 were written by her daughter, Daini no Sanmi. Other scholars have doubted the authorship of Chapters 42-44. Many scholars say that when Lady Murasaki was lending copies of The Tale of Genji to her friends, they were changing the stories as they wanted to, because there were no copyrights

yet.As a result, if this guess was true, Lady Murasaki was not the only author of The Tale of Genji, and it was made with many people’s help. The importance of Lady Murasaki as an author is enormous.

There are several reasons why she became famous with her novel, The Tale of Genji. First of all, The Tale of Genji is sometimes considered the world’s first novel, so Lady Murasaki might have been the first author of a novel. Also, The Tale of Genji became a very important resource to research about the history of Japanese literature.I think if Lady Murasaki had not started to write The Tale of Genji, it would have been much harder for the scholars to research about Japanese literature. Lady Murasaki’s biggest rival was Sei Shonagon.

Sei Shonagon was also a Japanese female author. Her novel, Makura no Soshi, or The Pillow Book, became as famous as Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji, and they became rivals since then. The Pillow Book was basically a novel that talks about sex. Since The Pillow Book was completed earlier than The Tale of Genji, people during Heian period knew The Pillow Book better than The Tale of Genji at first.Murasaki Shikibu got jealous of that and insulted Sei Shonagon in her own diary called The Murasaki Shikibu Diary.

Lady Murasaki insulted how Sei Shonagon looked and her personality. I think both Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shonagon were equally interesting. This is because The Tale of Genji is a fictional story, and The Pillow Book is a story about the real life in the imperial court. Lady Murasaki’s accomplishments have enormously influenced the

modern day Japan. The most famous influence is The Tale of Genji.

Many modern day authors know about Lady Murasaki, and respect her as a great author.Some authors use the technique she used to write The Tale of Genji. I think this is because, many modern day authors think that Lady Murasaki was the first author of a novel in the world. Also, a scene from The Tale of Genji is on the 2000 yen bill.

Last year was the 1000th anniversary of the start of The Tale of Genji, and there was an exhibition about The Tale of Genji in Yokohama. I think these examples show that many people are impressed by and interested in Lady Murasaki. Comparing Lady Murasaki to Sei Shonagon, there are some differences and similarities.A major difference has to do with their novels. While Lady Murasaki’s The Tale of Genji was a fictional story, Sei Shonagon’s The Pillow Book was based on the real life. The Tale of Genji was about some imaginary characters that Lady Murasaki made, and The Pillow Book was about the people that really existed in the imperial court.

Another difference is the amount of information about them. While much information about Lady Murasaki’s life has remained, there is only a little information about Sei Shonagon. This shows the level of importance of each of them.A major similarity has to do with their social ranks. They both were court ladies, or ladies-in-waiting.

Lady Murasaki was a maid of honor of the imperial court during the Heian period, and Sei Shonagon was a court lady who served the Empress Teishi and Empress Sadako around the year 1000

during the middle Heian period. Another similarity is their physical appearance. They both had long and black hair, round face, and their height was about the same. In conclusion, I have many statements.

Lady Murasaki was born around 973 in Kyoto between Fujiwara no Tametoki and her mother.She got married with Fujiwara no Nobutaka when she was in early 20s, and raised a child named Daini no Sanmi. She was an intelligent women and made many accomplishments. The most famous accomplishment of Lady Murasaki was The Tale of Genji. The Tale of Genji described Hikaru Genji, who was smart and good looking, and his romantic life.

It took about 12 years to complete the story, which contained over 50 chapters at the end. I think this is quite a long time to finish writing a story, since in these days, we can finish writing stories in a shorter length of time due to the high technology we have.Lady Murasaki had a rival called Sei Shonagon, who was the author of The Pillow Book. Nowadays, Lady Murasaki has become famous and her accomplishments are still influencing modern-day Japan. Lady Murasaki, compared to Sei Shonagon, was different in many ways, but was similar in many ways as well, which I found rather surprising. I am glad that I decided to write a research paper on Lady Murasaki, because I have always wondered about her life and The Tale of Genji.

I learnt a lot about Lady Murasaki, and enjoyed working on this paper.