"Genius" is one of those overused words, but few would argue that it is rightly applied to Murasaki Shikibu, whose book "The Tale of Genji" is not only the world's first novel, but is a work that has delighted and perhaps even guided countless millions of people in the 1,000 years since she wrote it.
Although it is hard to figure out what kind of a woman she was, or how come she was able to write such a masterpiece as "The Tale of Genji," historical records that have survived the intervening millennium do cast some light on her life, her talent and her background.
Murasaki Shikibu lived in the Imperial capital of Japan, then called Heian-kyo, now Kyoto, at the height of the unusually peaceful Heian Period (794-1185). At that time, the country was governed by aristocrats, mainly Fujiwara families, and an emperor who played a largely symbolic and spiritual role as head of the court.