# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/murasaki-shikibu
# Generated: 2026-09-02T07:03:38.285Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/murasaki-shikibu"
name: "Murasaki Shikibu"
slug: "murasaki-shikibu"
description: "She wrote what many consider the world's first novel — a sprawling court romance composed in Japanese around the year 1000, when women of her class were barred from learning the written language of power."
tagline: "Japanese novelist and poet (c.973–c.1014)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Murasaki-Shikibu-composing-Genji-Monogatari.png?width=1200"
gender: "female"
country:
  name: "Japan"
  isoCode: "JP"
category:
  name: "Writers"
  slug: "writers"
profileType:
  name: "Writer / Author"
  slug: "writer"
birthDate: "970"
deathDate: "1100"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           78.07
  momentum:             0.6
  historical:           25.129284
  currentAttention:     10.60714285714286
  sourceConfidence:     65
  profileCompleteness:  75
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  42
  category: 107
tags:
  - name: "Writers"
    slug: "writers"
  - name: "Writer / Author"
    slug: "writer-author"
  - name: "Fiction"
    slug: "fiction"
  - name: "Poetry"
    slug: "poetry"
  - name: "Literature"
    slug: "literature"
  - name: "Philosophy"
    slug: "philosophy"
  - name: "Japan"
    slug: "japan"
  - name: "Asia"
    slug: "asia"
platforms:
  - platform:  "IMDB"
    url:       "https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0613556/"
    handle:    "nm0613556"
sources:
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    title: "Wikipedia"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Wikidata"
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    title: "Pantheon 2.0"
    type:  "DATABASE"
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    title: "Murasaki Shikibu"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "موراساكي شيكيبو"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "موراساكي شيكيبو"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "موراساكى شيكيبو"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Murasaki Shikibu"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://az.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murasaki_%C5%9Eikibu"
    title: "Murasaki Şikibu"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Murasaki Shikibu"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Мурасаки Сикибу"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Murasaki Shikibu"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://be_x_old.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D1%83%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BA%D1%96_%D0%A1%D1%8B%D0%BA%D1%96%D0%B1%D1%83"
    title: "Мурасакі Сыкібу"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Мурасаки Шикибу"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "মুরাসাকি শিকিবু"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://br.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murasaki_Shikibu"
    title: "Murasaki Shikibu"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murasaki_Shikibu"
    title: "Murasaki Shikibu"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Murasaki Shikibu"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Murasaki Shikibu"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "ᎽᎳᏌᎩ ᏍᏱᎩᏊ"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ckb.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D9%88%DB%8E%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%A7%DA%A9%DB%8C_%D8%B4%DB%8C%DA%A9%DB%8C%D8%A8%D9%88%DB%8E"
    title: "موێراساکی شیکیبوێ"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://co.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murasaki_Shikibu"
    title: "Murasaki Shikibu"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murasaki_%C5%A0ikibu"
    title: "Murasaki Šikibu"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Murasaki Shikibu"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
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    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
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    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
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    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://ja.wikiquote.org/wiki/%E7%B4%AB%E5%BC%8F%E9%83%A8"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Born into an erudite household around 973, Murasaki learned Chinese despite the prohibition, showing a precocious fluency her father's world valued but her gender wasn't meant to access. She married in her twenties, bore a daughter, and was widowed after two years — likely the period when she began drafting The Tale of Genji. Around 1005, her literary reputation brought an invitation to serve Empress Shōshi at the Imperial court, where she continued writing and wove scenes from palace life into her work. After five or six years she withdrew with the empress to Lake Biwa. Within a decade of Genji's completion it had spread through the provinces; within a century it was canonical, the subject of scholarly commentary and the spark for centuries of Japanese illustration.