Murasaki Shikibu was a Japanese novelist, poet and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court in the Heian period. She is best known as the author of The Tale of Genji.

The Murasaki Shikibu Diary is what we now call a blog or social networking site, so the lush descriptions of Murasaki Shikibu herself and her perceived relationships and character reviews give a good picture of the person she was, a brilliant woman and a black-hearted woman.