Digital art print of the original artwork. 
Media: Giclée print on archival paper.
Size: A5
 
The Murasaki Shikibu Museum is in Uji, a town about thirty minutes from Kyoto by train. It is dedicated to The Tale of Genji, widely regarded as the world’s first novel. The book was written by Murasaki Shikibu during the Heian period, between 794 and 1185, a time when literature and the arts flourished, but women lived with severe restrictions. Education was not intended for them, even as they were expected to excel in refinement.
Murasaki Shikibu was born in 978 AD and was widowed early. Her father, an educated man, allowed her to read and write alongside her brother. This was unusual. Later, while serving as a lady-in-waiting to Empress Akiko, she wrote The Tale of Genji, between 1000 and 1012 AD. The novel observes court life with an intimacy that suggests both closeness and exclusion.
Murasaki Shikibu was not her real name. No record of her given name exists. Women were rarely documented as individuals. “Murasaki” was taken from a character in her novel. “Shikibu” referred to her father’s official post. Even her identity was defined in relation to others. She also learned Chinese, a language considered the domain of men, but she chose to write her novel in Japanese script. This choice played a significant role in shaping the development of written Japanese, which until then relied heavily on Chinese.
The Tale of Genji follows the life of Prince Genji across four generations. Writing directly about the Imperial family was forbidden, so Shikibu set the story in an earlier period. The distance allowed her to write with freedom. The Emperor himself is said to have read the novel, recognising in its characters a reflection of court life that official records could not provide.
The museum focuses on the final ten chapters of the novel, which are set in Uji. One of the dioramas shows two women playing Go. It is a quiet scene. But it carries the weight of a larger truth: that a woman, writing from within strict confines, produced a work that outlived the world that tried to limit her.