Abstract

Murasaki Shikibu is from the Fujiwara clan of poets, lawyers and government officials. Her thought is grounded in a combination of Japanese animist Shinto, Japanese versions of Mayahana Buddhism (Tendai and Shigon), as well as Confucianism and its Daoist foundations. Murasaki’s great philosophical epic novel, Genji Monagatori (Tale of Genji), her diary, (Murasaki Shikibu Nikki) and her Poetic Memoirs (Murasaki Shikibu shū) discuss metaphysical issues such as the nature of being, women’s souls, women’s rights, the nature of love, and other topics too detailed to present here. Murasaki is Japan’s first-known female philosopher. Her serially-published epic has been translated into many languages and has never been out of print.