The Tale of Genji for First-Time Readers: Murasaki Shikibu's Heian Court Story and the Shining Prince

The Tale of Genji (Genji Monogatari) is a classic of Japanese literature said to have been written by Murasaki Shikibu, a noblewoman, poet and lady-in-waiting, at the height of Japan's Heian period in the early eleventh century; it follows the life and loves of Hikaru Genji, the "Shining Genji", son of an emperor, and then the next generation after him. Long, subtle and psychologically rich, it has many elements of a modern novel and is often described as one of the earliest novels in the world.

The author

Murasaki Shikibu was a lady-in-waiting at the imperial court during the years when the powerful Fujiwara clan dominated politics. Her real name is unknown; "Murasaki" may come from a character in her own tale. She was well educated, unusually for a woman of her time even reading Chinese, the language of official learning, and she also kept a diary of court life. The story may have been written chapter by chapter and passed around among aristocratic women at court.

Written in women's script

The tale is written mostly in hiragana, the Japanese phonetic script, in a style associated with women's writing of the period, rather than in the Chinese that men used for official documents. This makes it an important milestone in the history of writing in Japanese. It was apparently complete in its present form by 1021, when the author of the Sarashina Diary wrote of her joy at getting a full copy with over fifty chapters.

The story in brief

The first part follows Genji from birth. His mother, a low-ranking consort loved by the emperor, dies when he is three, and for political reasons he is removed from the line of succession and made a commoner with the surname Minamoto. Handsome, gifted and charming, Genji has many romances. He longs for Lady Fujitsubo, a consort of his father who resembles his lost mother, and later takes in a young girl, Murasaki, who grows up to become the great love of his life.

After a period of exile, Genji returns to the capital and rises to great power and wealth. But after forty his life slowly darkens: a new marriage brings unhappiness, and those he loves fall ill or die. The final ten chapters, known as the "Uji chapters", move on after Genji's death to the rivalry between two young men, Kaoru and Niou, in love with the same women. The tale ends abruptly, and scholars still debate whether that ending was intended.

A world without names

One surprise for new readers is that almost none of the characters are given an explicit name in the original text. They are called by their rank, by an honorific, or by their relationship to others, and these labels change as their positions change. The names readers use today, like "Murasaki" or "Fujitsubo", mostly come from poems or places linked to the characters. This, together with the many poems woven into the prose, can make the book feel challenging at first.

Who really wrote it?

There is long-running debate over how much of Genji Murasaki herself wrote. The poet Yosano Akiko, who made the first modern Japanese translation, believed that Murasaki wrote only the first part and that the later chapters were by her daughter; other scholars have doubted certain chapters too. Unless new documents are found, the question may never be settled.

Reading it today

The tale has been translated many times. Arthur Waley made the first complete English translation in the 1920s and 1930s, followed by Edward Seidensticker and Royall Tyler. Many first-time readers start with a modern translation, a summary or a manga version, then return to the full text. Its quiet attention to feelings, seasons and the passing of time still speaks to readers a thousand years later.

Learn with Genji: Japanese words

Japanese	Meaning	Example
物語 (monogatari)	tale, story	源氏物語を読む。
光る (hikaru)	to shine	光る君と呼ばれた。
宮廷 (kyūtei)	imperial court	宮廷の暮らし。
和歌 (waka)	classical Japanese poem	和歌を詠む。
もののあはれ (mono no aware)	gentle sadness at passing things	もののあはれを感じる。

Try this: Write three English sentences about a story you love that is "bittersweet", then learn the word 物語.