In Japan, Murasaki is both the name of a color and the name of a famous person. The color is purple or rather the shades of purple that can be produced by a certain type of dye. The famous person should be better known worldwide except she is Asian.
Murasaki Shikibu, or Lady Murasaki (紫 式部), in the early years of the Heian period in Japan wrote what is considered the world's first novel or at least the first novel to be considered a classic and this novel isn't just a tale that describes events, but it is also the first psychological novel. The story, "The Tale of Genji", was written in the women's language (hiragana) which more closely approximated the spoken language of the time because learned and aristocratic men wrote in Japanese Chinese, or kambun.
The novel can be broken up into three parts and has 54 chapters in all. Genji or the shining prince dies during the novel and the narration (the Uji chapters) then follows his supposed son. In the novel, Murasaki is the girl whom Genji abducts, raises and eventually marries.
East Asia gave the world the first novel and that kind of creativity is notable during Asian Pacific Heritage Month.
An English edition of "The Tale of Genji" is available free online.
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