The Tale of Genji, Japanese Genji monogatari, is a masterpiece of Japanese literature by Murasaki Shikibu. Written at the start of the 11th century, it is generally considered the world’s first novel. At its most basic, The Tale of Genji is an absorbing introduction to the culture of the aristocracy in early Heian Japan—its forms of entertainment, its manner of dress, its daily life, and its moral code. The era is exquisitely re-created through the story of Genji, the handsome, sensitive, gifted courtier, an excellent lover and a worthy friend. Most of the story concerns the loves of Genji, and each of the women in his life is vividly delineated. Continue reading from Encyclopedia Britannica
Murasaki Shikibu was a Japanese novelist, poet and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court during the Heian period. She is best known as the author of The Tale of Genji, widely considered to be the world's first novel, written in Japanese between about 1000 and 1012. Murasaki Shikibu is a descriptive name; her personal name is unknown, but she may have been Fujiwara no Kaoruko, who was mentioned in a 1007 court diary as an imperial lady-in-waiting.
Heian women were traditionally excluded from learning Chinese, the written language of government, but Murasaki, raised in her erudite father's household, showed a precocious aptitude for the Chinese classics and managed to acquire fluency. She married in her mid-to late twenties and gave birth to a daughter before her husband died, two years after they were married. It is uncertain when she began to write The Tale of Genji, but it was probably while she was married or shortly after she was widowed. In about 1005, Murasaki was invited to serve as a lady-in-waiting to Empress Shōshi at the Imperial court by Fujiwara no Michinaga, probably because of her reputation as a writer. Continue reading from Google Arts & Culture
The book is written in a notoriously complex style with frequent poetic ambiguity and over 800 inserted poems, but it was an instant success and quickly gained its reputation as a timeless classic. It has been read, studied, alluded to, quoted extensively, and imitated in countless subsequent Japanese literary works and theatre ever since. Beautiful editions were made with painted illustrations besides the calligraphy, an art, of course, in itself. Indeed, the oldest scroll paintings (onnae) from Japan, and some would say the finest, are 19 illustrations (each 21.8 cms high) from an abridged edition of the Genji Monagatari believed to have been painted in the 1120s or 1130s CE. Continue reading from Ancient Encyclopedia
Toward the end of the eighth century, the Emperor and his court chose a new site for the capital in central Japan and built a city surrounded by beautiful mountains. The new city was called Heian-kyô, "the capital of tranquility." (It has become the modern city of Kyôto.) During the Heian period (794-1185), named after this city, the country really was at peace, and the aristocrats of the Imperial Court spent much of their time creating a classical culture that still lives today. The Japanese had imported many things from China in the few preceding centuries — Buddhism, Confucianism, poetry (and the language, Chinese, in which poems were recorded), art techniques, methods of organizing government, even the plan for the city of Heian-kyô itself. But as the Heian period progressed, the Japanese took less and less from China, concentrating instead on integrating what they had learned so that it fit their country, their values, and their attitudes. Just as the symmetrical grid arrangement of the streets of the new city gave way to an asymmetrical form, Chinese imports were altered and grew in particularly Japanese ways. The culture that flourished in the tenth and eleventh centuries was dominated by aesthetic concerns and produced art and literature that continues to influence Japanese society and the way Japanese perceive the world.
The aristocrats who lived in Kyôto considered poetry, music, and indeed all the arts to be the most important human accomplishments. They included aesthetic skills we rarely think of now, such as mixing incense to make the most beautiful fragrances. Lovers courted each other with poetry, often written in the form of waka or tanka, and affairs succeeded or failed according to the sensitivity of the poems and the beauty of the writer's handwriting (calligraphy). Men often gained favor at court more for their abilities in the arts than for their bureaucratic skills. The tales, romances, and diaries of women became the classics of the literature, and the favored poetic form of this age lasted for the next thousand years.
The Pillow Book by the court lady Sei Shônagon seems to take us right into the court, as she records her opinions about the small world around her and her experiences with the events of her day. The greatest work of fiction, The Tale of Genji, by the lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikibu, gives a clear and moving image of the ideals and sentiments of the age. It tells of the life of "the shining Genji," his loves and his troubles, and of the melancholy and sense of decline in the generation after his death.
By the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the courtiers' neglect of the more practical matters of government began to tell. The military rulers of the provinces became more and more powerful, until in 1185 power passed out of the hands of the Imperial Court and into the hands of the warriors, the samurai. But even the samurai of later ages owed a debt to the Heian aristocrats, inheriting and developing their Buddhism, their poetry, and their appreciation of beauty. Continue reading from Columbia University
