Soon after her husband’s death, Murasaki was sent to become a lady-in-waiting for Empress Akiko, most likely because of her writing talents. It was during this time when she started her remarkable story, The Tale of Genji. One legend says that Murasaki was sent to a temple to write a story for the empress. Looking at the moon, she was suddenly inspired, and wrote all through the night. Eventually this story became Murasaki’s famous story. However, the truth of this legend is hard to tell. Needless to say, historians do know that Murasaki wrote mainly for the empress, so The Tale of Genji was probably written for the empress as well.