The lady biologist of ancient Japan

 In my spare time, I am reading/re reading the Tale of Genji, and this has led to me looking into all sorts of side issues of that period of Japan, including the feminist ones (were all those ladies being exorcized not possessed but acting in a passive aggressive way because   it was the only way they could fight back the patriarchy?) I am also checking about epidemics back then (did Murasaki's husband die of smallpox?) and if some of the diseases described in the novel could be identified (Aoi died suddenly: post partum pulmonary emboli or toxemia seizure? Yugao's death was sudden, and since Genji was sick for months afterward, one suspects poison, Kashiwagi's lingering death started with weak numb legs, beriberi? )

The Tale of Genji is hard to follow just like War and Peace, with all the complicated characters and plots. But if one believes the author of the Sharashita diarySharashita diary, these tales were cherished by women who loved the stories in the same way that modern stay at home housewives loved the soap operas.

Ironically while the men were writing official and often stiff non fiction in Chinese, the women stuck inside were writing literature: not just the first novel (Genji) but satirical observations like the Pillow book, and other diaries and short stories. 

One of the tales back then, probably written by a lady in waiting. and is about the girl who loved insects. The tale suggests it was a story to warn young girls not to be eccentric but to follow the rules, and alas, the tale is unfinished.

But to modern eyes, it seems to be a story of a non conformist who today would be respected as a scientist.

so she doesn't blacken her teeth. She doesn't care for her hair and clothes  And she has the local boys collect insect etc. for her collection. And to make things worse, she spurns a man trying to court her.

In short, she resembles those eccentric Victorian ladies who collected stones, fossils, plants or helped their brother observe the stars, but didn't get much encouragement for their work.

so anyway modern women look at the story and see a pioneer of science but back then she was just seen as eccentric.

But her story inspired a modern film maker, Miyazaki, and she was one of the inspirations for Nausicca of the Valley of the Winds.

She loved insects and worms, while other princesses loved butterflies. But she was incredibly intelligent and perceptive (from our standpoint). She said "Beauty is only superficial. You have to see the real nature of things to understand them", and loved to watch caterpillars changing into pupas. \

When her parents tried to persuade her to give up her "hobbies", she replied, "To understand anything, you have to look into it deeply, and see it through from the beginning to the end. This caterpillar will become a butterfly someday. The silks you are wearing came from silkworms, too."

and that sense of wonder of nature, stubborness, and non conformity is what inspired Miyazaki 

Miyazaki wondered how this princess survived as an adult, and what her fate had been. We can see the traits of this princess in Nausicaä.

Manga version here, but the story evolved so it is not the same as the movie.

and if you are too lazy to read all the links,  Linfamy tells that story (with a lot of his satirical observations and hawking products) here: