The book is often described as the world’s first novel and a touchstone of Japanese literature. But some of its themes, including its take on gender and power, have echoed over centuries. References ...

There have been several major English translations of Murasaki Shikibu’s 11th-century classic. Motoko Rich, The Times’s Tokyo bureau chief, discusses how she approached them. By Motoko Rich For ...

In mid-April, I flew to Japan because I’d become obsessed with an 11th-­century Japanese novel called The Tale of Genji. I also had a frantic longing to escape my country. At its best, literature is a ...