The Diary of Lady Murasaki

The Diary of Lady Murasaki (紫式部日記 Murasaki Shikibu Nikki) records the daily life of the Heian era lady-in-waiting and writer, Murasaki Shikibu, author of The Tale of Genji. Most likely written between 1008 and 1010, the largest portion of the diary consists of descriptive passages of the birth of Empress Shōshi's (Akiko) children, with smaller vignettes describing the author's life at the Imperial court and relations with other ladies-in-waiting and court writers such as Izumi Shikibu, Akazome Emon and Sei Shōnagon. The work was written in kana, a then newly developed writing system that brought vernacular Japanese from a spoken language to a written language. Unlike modern diaries or journals the form of diary is to give much greater weight to some events than to others. The work includes short vignettes, poetry in the form of waka, and an epistolary section.

In the 13th century (during the Kamakura period), an unknown artist painted handscroll of Murasaki Shikibu Nikki Emaki.