Art Fair Tokyo 2017: The Tales of Genji & Panji

The Tale of Genji is set during the end of the 9th century until the early of 10th century. It is written by Murasaki Shikibu, a Japanese woman and claimed as the world's first novel. The narrative itself resolves on the fragility of live, and incorporate a mixed writing style elements from Chinese history, narrative poetry and contemporary Japanese prose. Aside of recorded as the first novel in the world, The Tale of Genji is also known as the first novel with romance genre. Similarly, The Tale of Panji from Java excelled as fiction with historical background. It is admitted as a mix between epic, adventure tales and romance. Rather than acknowledged as myth from local history, The characters in Hikayat Panji were referencing the historical background behind the downfall of Majapahit Kingdom. This showcase attempt to correlate the Japanese Tale of Genji with the Java's Tale of Panji, for they are both emerged in the Asian hemisphere and turned out to be the masterpiece from their times.