The daughter of a provincial governor, Murasaki Shikibu (978–1030), known as Lady Murasaki, became the most famous writer of early Japanese literature. Her masterpiece The Tale of Genji (c. 1000) is often called the world’s first great novel and remains, for many, Japan’s finest work of fiction.

“Foolish are they indeed who trust to fortune!” she wrote. “A night of endless dreams, inconsequent and wild, is this my life; none more worth telling than the rest.”

Set in the refined world of the Heian court, her 11th-century narrative follows the romantic life of Prince Genji, the “Shining Prince.” Written for oral presentation, the story moves like music, lit by changing seasons and the delicate turn of each poem.

The novel is twice as long as War and Peace and unfolds across 54 chapters with more than 400 characters. Woven through the prose are 795 lyrical poems of 31 syllables, exchanged like letters of the heart. In modern English translation, The Tale of Genji stretches beyond 1,000 pages.

“There is more here than meets the eye,” she observed. In addition to Genji, Murasaki wrote poetry and a sharp, insightful journal that captured courtly life with wit and quiet honesty.

She also understood the pull of storytelling itself. “Indeed, she had seen enough of the world to know that in few people is discretion stronger than the desire to tell a good story.”

Lady Murasaki’s pages reveal that when feelings move too deeply to stay hidden, it can become art — a story that carries our heart across time.