Murasaki Shikibu
Around the year 1000, an aristocratic Japanese woman wrote The Tale of Genji which some consider to be the first novel ever written. It is groundbreaking as the first example of a work of fiction which explored the inner thoughts and motivations of characters. The author’s exact name is unknown, but this she is generally known as Murasaki Shikibu and she is believed to have been a member of the Fujiwara clan. The Tale of Genji is set at the Heian court where Murasaki served as a lady in waiting to Empress Soshi.
The teenage Empress Soshi was a great fan of literature and she served as a patron to numerous female writers. At the time, Chinese was the intellectual language of Japan. Murasaki and other Heian female authors wrote in kana, a written form of Japanese. These popular works were instrumental in the development of formal written Japanese.
Although she is best known for The Tale of Genji, Murasaki also wrote The Diary of Lady Murasaki and Poetic Memoirs, a collection of 128 poems.