Is The tale of genji a realistic novel?

Question

Is The tale of genji a realistic novel?

Answer 1

It is just a fictional drama. Some reference might be existed those days  though. The writer made some metaphors possibly too.

Answer 2

It depends what you mean by realistic.

Is it based on a true story?  No.  It's fiction.

Answer 3

No it is fiction.

A novel I can recommend is The Tale of Murasaki by Liza Dalby. It is about the writer of the Genji tales. (also fiction)

Answer 4

Just an old Japanese literature.

Answer 5

Genji is not a tale, it is a Family name, my husband told me

it is a true story, anyway my husband is a Japanese.  Genji family had a family feud with the Heiji family, and went to

war for a long time.....

Answer 6

The story and most of the characters of The Tale of Genji (genji-monogatari) are fictional (although some of the emperors named were real emperors), however the setting, locations, events, customs, etc. were all based on real life Heian-era Japan.

anjee.kitty is referring to the Genji (Minamoto)/Heike (Taira) feud (also known as the Gempei Wars and chronicled in the Tale of Heike or heike-monogatari), which occurred a hundred years later.