Murasaki Shikibu

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 Gen…