Lady murasaki shikibu biography channel

For its Sunday soap opera, this year, NHK has chosen to focus on the author of The Tale of Genji.

Hikaru kimi e (Dear Radiance for the foreign market) is NHK’s latest taiga drama (historical TV drama).

Putting aside for once the world of fighting samurai exemplified by last year’s work on Tokugawa Ieyasu (add link), Japan’s public broadcaster has struck out into almost unknown territory by exploring the glittering world of the Heian nobility and the life of Murasaki Shikibu, a writer and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial Court who is best known as the author of The Tale of Genji, widely considered to be one of the world’s oldest novels.

The drama centres around the strong bond between Murasaki Shikibu and Fujiwara no Michinaga, a statesman belonging to the powerful Fujiwara clan, which controlled the political scene in those years.

Michinaga is also said to be the model for Hikaru Genji, the main character of The Tale of Genji.

Zoom Japan talked with NHK p