![]() Murasaki Shikibu was daughter of Fujiwara no Tametoki 藤原為時 (around 949–around 1029), great-granddaughter of Middle Counselor (中納言 Chūnagon ) Fujiwara no Kanesuke 藤原兼輔 (877–933, Hyakunin Isshu 27), and mother of poetess Fujiwara no Kenshi ( Kataiko ) 藤原賢子 ( 999?–?), better known by sobriquet Daini no Sanmi 大弐三位 ( Hyakunin Isshu 58).Īlthough Shikibu’s father was a low-ranking official, who only reached the Lower Grade of Senior Fifth Rank (正五位下 shōgoi no ge ), she was was born into a family of considerable poetic pedigree. The Tale of Genji or Genji monogatari 源氏物語 that she wrote in the early 11th century is considered a seminal piece of classical Japanese literature, - its influence permeating everything from the sobriquet Murasaki Shikibu to arts and lives of the generations after her, all the way to this day. To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at Shikibu 紫式部 (around 973 – 1014 or 1025) is one of the most significant writers in the Japanese tradition. ![]() Talk to My Back by Yamada Murasaki is published by Drawn & Quarterly (£23). The result is a cross-cultural book about female self-worth – about where it comes from and why it sometimes disappears – that stands the test of time in the most remarkable way. But Murasaki leavens this by recalling, too, the quotidian pleasures and rituals of home: the jokes, the teasing, a delicious (“slurp”) bowl of noodles. Via her sketchy black-and-white drawings, so fluid and so eloquent, Murasaki captures her character’s every mood shift and internal contradiction, her guilt as well as her longing (more than once, other people tell Chiharu she should be “grateful” for her life – as if she didn’t know this herself). She was the first cartoonist to demonstrate that the expressive freedoms of alternative manga could be accessed by wives, mothers and sisters and, as Holmberg notes, the central relationship at the heart of Talk to My Back is not that of Chiharu with her husband, nor even with the daughters on whom she dotes - it’s with herself. Murasaki (1948-2009), who first published these stories in the influential magazine Garo, based much of her work on her own life – she was a single mother – and it shows on every page. Only by replicating her own captivity, it seems, can she ever hope to find freedom. However, the reader can’t help but notice that for Chiharu “emancipation” – this is the word Murasaki pointedly chooses – will ultimately lie in the dolls she takes to making, exquisite mannequins a local boutique will sell for thousands of yen. ![]() What should she do? Marriage has come to seem like a dream, one from which she hopes to wake up soon – and 250 pages into the book, she does indeed get a part-time job. ‘Discontent that simmers like a hot pan’: a page from Talk to My Back. Often lonely, there are days when she hardly recognises herself she seems little more than an outline of a person, a sensation Murasaki captures on the page via a delicate all-body halo and, sometimes, by drawing her without features on her face. She has two daughters (whom we watch growing up) and a husband (mostly absent) who treats her like a servant. Translated by the comics historian Ryan Holmberg (who has also written a hugely informative introduction), these stories comprise an extended portrait of a housewife, Chiharu Yamakawa. I’m so glad Drawn & Quarterly has seen fit to put them into an English edition for the first time. If her stories are pensive to the point of dreaminess, they’re also full of frustration, a discontent that simmers like a hot pan. At moments, it’s almost as if Murasaki has set out to fictionalise Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique. ![]() H ow to describe Talk to My Back, a classic collection of graphic stories by alt-manga’s feminist star, Yamada Murasaki? These tales of thwarted-ness and domestic ennui were written in the 80s, but Japan being what it is – only last month it was reported that when abortion pills are finally made available to women in the country, partner consent will still be required – their atmosphere often feels much closer to that of the 50s or early 60s.
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