Murasaki Shikibu

Murasaki Shikibu was a Japanese novelist, poet, and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court during the Heian period. She is best known as the author of The Tale of Genji, which was written between 1000 and 1012 and is considered one of the world's first novels. While her personal name remains unknown, she may have been Fujiwara no Kaoruko, an imperial lady-in-waiting mentioned in a 1007 court diary.