kyoto Archives - Page 10 of 10 - Unseen Japan

Portrait-Icon of Murasaki Shikibu (Murasaki Shikibu zu), 17th century, by Tosa Mitsuoki. Murasaki Shikibu appears poised to begin writing her tale, pausing as if in mid-thought. Her head tilts away from her desk, while her trancelike stare is directed slightly upward, toward the calligraphy sheets in the upper portion of the painting. The inscriptions list the four stages of Tendai Buddhist contemplation (shimon) that Murasaki was said to have mastered, along with two of her waka (thirty-one-syllable poems) that speak to life’s impermanence (mujōkan).

Murasaki Shikibu: The First Lady of Japanese Literature

How a grieving widow came to write two classics of world literature: a sprawling novel, and an 11th-century Twitter account.