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Murasaki Shikibu (紫 式部, (英語:Lady Murasaki)) (c. 973 or 978 – c. 1014 or 1031) 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'', written in Japanese between about 1000 and 1012. Murasaki Shikibu is a nickname; her real name is unknown, but she may have been Fujiwara Takako, 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, probably because of her reputation as a writer. She continued to write during her service, adding scenes from court life to her work. After five or six years, she left court and retired with Shōshi to the Lake Biwa region. Scholars differ on the year of her death; although most agree on 1014, others have suggested she was alive in 1031. Murasaki wrote ''The Diary of Lady Murasaki'', a volume of poetry, and ''The Tale of Genji''. Within a decade of its completion, ''Genji'' was distributed throughout the provinces; within a century it was recognized as a classic of Japanese literature and had become a subject of scholarly criticism. Early in the 20th century her work was translated; a six-volume English translation was completed in 1933. Scholars continue to recognize the importance of her work, which reflects Heian court society at its peak. Since the 13th century her works have been illustrated by Japanese artists and well-known ukiyo-e woodblock masters. ==Early life== Murasaki Shikibu was born c. 973〔Bowring believes her date of birth most likely to have been 973; Mulhern places it somewhere between 970 and 978, and Waley claims it was 978. See Bowring (2004), 4; Mulhern (1994), 257; Waley (1960), vii.〕 in Heian-kyō, Japan, into the northern Fujiwara clan descending from Fujiwara no Yoshifusa, the first 9th-century Fujiwara regent.〔Shirane (2008b), 293〕 The Fujiwara clan dominated court politics until the end of the 11th century through strategic marriages of Fujiwara daughters into the imperial family and the use of regencies. In the late 10th century and early 11th century, Fujiwara no Michinaga arranged his four daughters into marriages with emperors, giving him unprecedented power.〔 Murasaki's great-grandfather, Fujiwara no Kanesuke, had been in the top tier of the aristocracy, but her branch of the family gradually lost power and by the time of Murasaki's birth was at the middle to lower ranks of the Heian aristocracy—the level of provincial governors.〔Shirane (1987), 215〕 The lower ranks of the nobility were typically posted away from court to undesirable positions in the provinces, exiled from the centralized power and court in Kyoto.〔 Despite the loss of status, the family had a reputation among the literati through Murasaki's paternal great-grandfather and grandfather, both of whom were well-known poets. Her great-grandfather, Fujiwara no Kanesuke, had fifty-six poems included in thirteen of the Twenty-one Imperial Anthologies,〔Chokusen Sakusha Burui 勅撰作者部類〕 the ''Collections of Thirty-six Poets'' and the ''Yamato Monogatari'' (''Tales of Yamato'').〔Mulhern (1994), 257–258〕 Her great-grandfather and grandfather both had been friendly with Ki no Tsurayuki, who became notable for popularizing verse written in Japanese.〔Bowring (2004), 4〕 Her father, Fujiwara no Tametoki, attended the State Academy ()〔Inge (1990), 9〕 and became a well-respected scholar of Chinese classics and poetry; his own verse was anthologized.〔Mulhern (1991), 79〕 He entered public service around 968 as a minor official and was given a governorship in 996. He stayed in service until about 1018.〔〔Adolphson (2007), 111〕 Murasaki's mother was descended from the same branch of northern Fujiwara as Tametoki. The couple had three children, a son and two daughters.〔 The names of women were not recorded in the Heian era. Murasaki's real name is not known; as was customary for women of the period, she went by a nickname, Murasaki Shikibu. Women took nicknames associated with a male relative: "Shikibu" refers to (), the Ministry of Ceremonials where her father was a functionary; "Murasaki" may be derived from the color violet associated with wisteria, the meaning of the word ''fuji'', although it is more likely that "Murasaki" was a court nickname. Michinaga mentions the names of a few ladies-in-waiting in a 1007 diary entry; one, Fujiwara Takako (Kyōshi), may be Murasaki's real name.〔〔Seven women were named in the entry, with the actual names of four women known. Of the remaining three women, one was not a Fujiwara, one held a high rank and therefore had to be older, leaving the possibility that the third, Fujiwara Takako, was Murasaki. See Tsunoda (1963), 1–27〕 In Heian-era Japan, husbands and wives kept separate households; children were raised with their mothers, although the patrilineal system was still followed.〔Ueno (2009), 254〕 Murasaki was unconventional because she lived in her father's household, most likely on Teramachi Street in Kyoto, with her younger brother Nobunori. Their mother died, perhaps in childbirth, when the children were quite young. Murasaki had at least three half-siblings raised with their mothers; she was very close to one sister who died in her twenties.〔Shirane (1987), 218〕〔Puette (1983), 50–51〕〔Green, Michelle. ("Kyoto Celebrates a 1000-Year Love Affair" ). (December 31, 2008). ''The New York Times''. Retrieved August 9, 2011〕 Murasaki was born at a period when Japan was becoming more isolated, after missions to China had ended and a stronger national culture was emerging.〔Bowring (1996), xii〕 In the 9th and 10th centuries, Japanese gradually became a written language through the development of kana, a syllabary based on abbreviations of Chinese characters. In Murasaki's lifetime men continued to write in Chinese, the language of government, but kana became the written language of noblewomen, setting the foundation for unique forms of Japanese literature.〔Reischauer (1999), 29–29〕 Chinese was taught to Murasaki's brother as preparation for a career in government, and during her childhood, living in her father's household, she learned and became proficient in classical Chinese.〔 In her diary she wrote, "When my brother ... was a young boy learning the Chinese classics, I was in the habit of listening to him and I became unusually proficient at understanding those passages that he found too difficult to understand and memorize. Father, a most learned man, was always regretting the fact: 'Just my luck,' he would say, 'What a pity she was not born a man!〔qtd in Bowring (2004), 11–12〕 With her brother she studied Chinese literature, and she probably also received instruction in more traditional subjects such as music, calligraphy and Japanese poetry.〔 Murasaki's education was unorthodox. Louis Perez explains in ''The History of Japan'' that "Women ... were thought to be incapable of real intelligence and therefore were not educated in Chinese."〔Perez (1998), 21〕 Murasaki was aware that others saw her as "pretentious, awkward, difficult to approach, prickly, too fond of her tales, haughty, prone to versifying, disdainful, cantankerous and scornful".〔qtd in Inge (1990), 9〕 Asian literature scholar Thomas Inge believes she had "a forceful personality that seldom won her friends."〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Murasaki Shikibu」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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