Murasaki Shikibu (紫式部 c. 973–c. 1014 or 1025) was a Japanese novelist, poet, and a maid of honor of the imperial court during the Heian period. She was born about 973 in Kyoto, Japan. "Murasaki Shikibu" was not her real name; her actual name is unknown, though some scholars have postulated that her given name might have been Takako (for Fujiwara Takako). Her diary states that she was nicknamed "Murasaki" ("purple wisteria blossom") at court, after a character in The Tale of Genji. "Shikibu" refers to her father's position in the Bureau of Ceremony (shikibu-shō). She was born in a family of minor nobility and a member of the northern branch of the Fujiwara clan. She either died in 1014, when records show that her father suddenly returned to Kyoto from his governor's mansion, or between 1025 and 1031, when she would have been in her mid-50s, fairly old by Heian standards.

Trivia

Sei Shōnagon - court rival and fellow contemporary diarist
Ono no Takamura - an earlier Japanese poet whose grave is situated across from Lady Murasaki's