Murasaki Shikibu, known in English as Lady Murasaki, (973 or 978 – 1014 or 1031) was a Japanese poet and noblewoman best known as the author of the Tale of Genji. She was from the aristocratic Fujiwara clan and served as a lady-in-waiting to the Empress Shoshi.   The names of women of the time were not recorded or publicly known. Murasaki Shikibu is a nickname derived from Shikibu, the ministry where father served and Murasaki, likely a court nickname possibly associated with wisteria and the color violet.

Her family had a strong literary heritage in addition to its social prominence: her great-grandfather and grandfather on her father’s side were both notable poets, and her father was a respected scholar of Chinese classics and poetry. It was unusual for women of her time to be educated or learn Chinese, the language of official affairs, but she achieved a fluency in Chinese classics and language as a child, which, in addition to her writing skills, earned her the invitation to serve at court. She married and gave birth to a daughter shortly; her husband died two years after their marriage.  Scholars believe she started writing The Tale of Genji shortly after her marriage or her widowhood, and that she worked on the book for twelve years between 1000 and 1012. She retired from court life with the empress Shoshi to Lake Biwa, where she died in 1014.