murasaki shikibu

Murasaki Shikibu, the real-life author of "The Tale of Genji," uses her imagination and storytelling abilities to escape from loneliness, and later to entertain the empress and express the political and sexual intrigue she has experienced.

Bowring discusses the culture which forms the background to Shikibu's work, analyzes the text, and considers its reception during nine centuries of cultural change.

A collection of fifty-four images from the seventeenth century which illustrate the classic Japanese prose narrative, "The Tale of Genji".