Kippo: Millennium of 'Tale of Genji'
A preparatory committee has been launched in Kyoto to promote events for celebrating the millennium of the famed 'Tale of Genji'in 2008. The literary masterpiece, said to be the oldest full-length novel in the world, was written early in the 11th century by Murasaki Shikibu, one of Japan's foremost women writers. The committee's establishment was proposed last November by eight eminent intellectuals, including Sen Genshitsu, the master of the Urasenke Tea School, novelist/nun Jakucho Setouchi, philosopher Takeshi Umehara and Donald Keene, professor emeritus at Columbia University. The committee, chaired by Junichi Murata, head of the Kyoto Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is to announce a basic concept of the anniversary by the end of March. Anniversary events will include the enactment of a 'Classics Day', holding of an international cultural forum, promotion of foreign tourists' visit to Kyoto, issuance of commemorative postage stamps and promotion of the circulation of 2,000 yen notes depicting a scene from the novel...more...
