The Tale of Genji, considered the world’s first great novel, describes the life of Japanese court society during the Heian period (794-1185) about 50 years before the lifetime of the author, Murasaki Shikibu (c. 973- 1030). Murasaki Shikibu is a nickname (adopted from a character in the novel) of the court lady who composed the work while serving as companion to Sh-oshi, (988-1074), the daughter of the powerful regent Fujiwara no Michinaga (966- 1027). During Murasaki Shikibu’s lifetime, chapters of The Tale of Genji circulated independently; it was unusual to have a copy of all the chapters for consecutive reading. The earliest existing fragments of a complete manuscript appear in an early mid-twelfth-century scroll, the Illustrated Genji Scroll, which was transcribed 150 years after the death of the author. The final ten chapters of the novel present a style and atmosphere that is so markedly different from the rest of the novel that some scholars have suggested that these chapters were in fact authored by another person, perhaps Sh-oshi, whom Murasaki tutored. Convincing arguments can be made either way, but for most scholars Murasaki is the accepted author. Murasaki Shikibu was the daughter of Fujiwara no Tametoki (d.
