The Tale of Genji written by Murasaki Shikibu, in 1010, during Japan’s Heian Period (794-1185) is said to be Japan’s oldest novel and perhaps even the world’s oldest novel, if a novel is defined as narrative prose of significant length.
It has been since its very origin a tale for Japan’s high society, written for women by a woman. For a thousand years The Tale of Genji was required reading for Japanese aristocratic women, and was inaccessible to the general Japanese public for much of this time.
According to academics: “it remained an aristocratic text, its manuscripts the property of aristocrats and aristocrats its principal interpreters.”
That said, from the 17th century onwards it became more widely available after an edition was printed using movable type, a technology, which first arrived in Japan in 1593, and subsequently in woodblock printed editions.
And due to its restricted availability, the refinement it portrays and its association with the highest and most sophisticated levels of Japanese society, it became an aspirational read for emerging upwardly mobile Japanese families in Japan’s Edo period (1603-1868) and their daughters, as well as an important tool in women’s education. Home teachers, often women used the text to teach girls reading and as part of their overall education.
According to the Japan expert and former Editor of The New York Review of Books, Ian Buruma, The Tale of Genji, which is replete with rather promiscuous characters, is a novel all “about the art of seduction.” And this has led, at times, to concerns being raised about the appropriateness of its content. In 1880s Japan, for instance, many worried that its lusty and emotional content might damage Meiji era (1868-1912) young women.
This, however, didn’t put future generations of Japanese women off from wanting to read it. Hisako Yoshizawa (1918-2019) is one such interesting example. She is more famous for writing and publishing life style books and broadcasting on how to live a good life, but at the end of the Second World War durning nightly air raids, wearing her silk nightgown and a steel helmet, Yoshizawa, reportedly, liked to read The Tale of Genji to while the noisy dangerous nights away.
All this has helped make this 11th century tale by a Japanese noblewoman, an international publishing sensation, with translations, spin-offs and adaptations for manga, anime, film and theatre.
Such authors as Mitsuyo Kakuta have followed a long tradition of Japan’s leading authors from each generation in updating and publishing a new version of this seductive novel about the life of “Shinning Genji”.
This multi-generational trend has helped keep the rather long and esoteric tale, which in its original version consists of 54 scrolls or chapters; around a million words; about 430 different characters; 800 poems; as well as 8 or so love interests, fresh, and relevant to contemporary readers – while helping to expand its readership.
