Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan

For me, it is fitting to speak of these things,For they recallThe romance of past days.

His poem:

I would not exist even for a momentIn a world where sorrowsFollow one another like the jointsIn the bamboo stalk.

He had been troubling himself to find out a fit place to conceal her, but he reflected, "She is not used to such a life and would be embarrassed by it. For my part, I should be much rebuked. It is simpler to go myself and bring her as my maid."

So on the eighteenth of the Finishing month on a moon-bright night he visited her. He said in the ordinary way, "Now, please come," and she thought it for a night only. When she got into the palanquin alone, "Take an attendant with you. If you are willing we will talk together tranquilly to-morrow and the day after to-morrow."

He had not spoken in this way before, and she, guessing his intention, took her maid with her. She was not carried to the same house as before. The room was beautifully adorned, and he said, "Live here privately; you may have several attendants." Now she was sure she had understood him and she thought it fortunate to come thus secretly. People would be astonished to find she had come here to live before they were aware. When day dawned she sent her servant to fetch her case of combs and other things. The Prince left the room, but the shutters were still closed. It was not frightful, but uncomfortable.

"I wish," said the Prince, "to arrange that you shall live in the North building. This room is near the Audience Room and has no charm in it" [i.e. some one might discover her]. So she shut herself up and listened in secret. In the daytime courtiers of the ex-Emperor [his father] came to see him. He said: "How is it with you here? Can you stay? I feared that you would find it disagreeable by my side"; and she answered, "I feared just the same thing." He laughed and said: "To tell the truth, take care of yourself while I am away; some impertinent fellows may come to catch a glimpse of you. In a few days I will have you live openly in the room where now is my housekeeper [nurse]. The room where I pass the day has no visitors."

After two or three days she was removed to the North side building.217 People were astonished and ran and told the Princess, who said: "Even without this event, I have not been treated as I ought to have been. She is of no high birth; it is too much." She was angry because he had told her nothing. His secrecy displeased her very much, and she was more inconsolable than ever. The Prince felt sorry for her and tried to be with her oftener. She said to him: "I am ill with hearing rumours and have come to hate seeing people. Why have you not told me this before? I would not have interfered: I cannot bear to be treated like a woman of no importance. I am ashamed to think that people are laughing at me." She said it weeping and weeping. He answered: "I brought her for my maid, and I thought that you would allow it; as you are angry with me the Lieutenant-General [her brother] hates me also. I brought her to dress my hair and she shall serve you also." The Princess was not softened by these words, but she was silenced.

Thus days passed and the lady became used to the court life. She dressed his hair and served in everything. As he did not allow her to retire to her private room, the visits of the Princess became more and more rare. The Princess lamented it infinitely. The year turned back and on the first day of the Social month all the courtiers came to perform the ceremony of congratulation before the Emperor. The Prince was among them. He was younger and fairer than any, and even this made her ashamed of herself. From the Princess's house her ladies went out to see the procession, yet they did not care so much to see the courtiers as to look at her. They were in great disorder looking about; it was an ugly sight.

After dark when the ceremony was over, His Highness came back and all the court nobles came with him to amuse themselves. It was very gay and a contrast to the solitary life of her old home. One day the Prince heard that even the lowest servants were speaking evil of her. He thought it was due to the behaviour of his wife, and being displeased seldom went to the Royal dwelling. She was sorry for the Princess, yet she did not know what to do. She remained there, thinking that she would do as she was bid.

The Princess's elder sister was married to the Crown Prince and just then was living with her parents. She wrote to the younger Princess: "How are you? I have heard something of what people are saying these days. Is it true? Even I feel disgraced. Come to us during the night."

The Princess could not console herself when she thought how much people who make talk about nothing were gossiping. She wrote back to her sister: "I have received your letter. I had been unhappy in the world [married life] and now am in a painful situation. For a time I will go back, and beholding the young Princess will comfort me. Please send some one to summon me. I cannot go away when I desire, for he will not permit it." She began to put her affairs in order, taking away those things which must not be seen by others. She said: "I am going there for a while, for if I stay here my husband will feel uncomfortable to come to me. It is painful for both of us." And they said: "People are talking and laughing about it a good deal. He went out himself to get her. She is dazzling to the eye; she lives in the court ladies' room over there. She goes to the Prince's hall three or four times a day. It is quite right that you should punish him – going away with few words!"

All hated the lady, and he was sorry for her. His Highness suspected what his wife was going to do, and he found his conjecture realized when the sons of his brother-in-law came to fetch her. A lady-in-waiting said to the housekeeper: "The princess has taken important things with her; she is going away." The housekeeper was in great anxiety and said to the Prince: "The Princess is going away. What will the Crown Prince think of it! Go to comfort her."

It was painful to her [the lady] to see these things going on. She was very sorry and pained, yet, as it was an unfit time to say anything, she kept silence. She wanted to get away from this disagreeable place, but thought that also not good. She thought she could never get rid of her trouble if she stayed. His Highness went towards the Princess, who met him as if nothing had happened. "Is it true," he said, "that you are going to your elder sister? Why have you not asked me for the palanquin?" She answered: "Something has happened. There is something which demands me and they have sent messengers for me." She said nothing more. The Princess's words, her letters, and those of her sister were written roughly, from supposition.

THE END

APPENDIX

A

OLD JAPANESE CALENDAR

The year was divided according to a Lunar Calendar, which was one month or so in advance of the present Solar Calendar.

NAMES OF THE MONTHS

First month; Social month; Spring-birth month.

Second month; Clothes-again-doubled month; Little-grass-growing month.

Third month; Ever-growing month; Flowery month; Dreaming month.

Fourth month; Deutzia month; First Summer month.

Fifth month; Rice-sprout month; Tachibana month.

Sixth month; Watery month (rice-fields filled with water).

Seventh month; Rice-ear month; Literary month (people composed poems on the star festival).

Eighth month; Rice-ear-swelling month; Mid-autumn.

Ninth month; Chrysanthemum month; Long-night month.

Tenth month; Gods-absent month; Thunderless month; Little Spring.

Eleventh month; Frost month.

Twelfth month; Last month; Spring-waiting month.

B

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EVENTS CONNECTED WITH THE DIARIES

974. Izumi Shikibu, the daughter of Masamune, Governor of the Province of Echizen, born.

977. Prince Tametaka (future lover of Izumi Shikibu) born.

978. Prince Atsumichi (future lover of Izumi Shikibu) born.

Murasaki Shikibu, daughter of Fujiwara Tametoki, born.

980. Prince Yasuhito (afterwards the Mikado Ichijo) born.

988. Akiko, Michinaga's first daughter, born.

990. Sadako, daughter of Michinaga's eldest brother Michitaka, comes to the Court, and later becomes Queen to Mikado Ichijo.

991. Sei-Shōnagon comes to Court as one of Queen Sadako's ladies.

994. Prince Atsumichi comes of age and marries the third daughter of Michitaka.

995. Izumi Shikibu marries Tachibana Michisada.

Prince Atsumichi divorces his first wife.

996. Prince Atsumichi marries again.

997. Murasaki Shikibu goes to Echizen with her father who has been made Governor of the Province.

Akiko joins the Court.

Izumi Shikibu's first daughter born.

998. Murasaki Shikibu returns to Kiōto.

999. Murasaki Shikibu marries Fujiwara Nobutaka.

1000. Akiko made second queen.

Murasaki Shikibu's daughter born.

1001. Pestilence.

Murasaki Shikibu's husband dies.

Conflagration of the Palace.

1002. Murasaki Shikibu probably began the writing of the "Genji Monogatari."

Sei-Shōnagon probably began the "Makura-no-Sōshi."

In June, Prince Tametaka (Izumi Shikibu's lover; her husband, from whom she was divorced, had died earlier) dies.

Izumi Shikibu begins a liaison with Prince Atsumichi.

1003. Izumi Shikibu goes to live at the South Palace.

1004. Izumi Shikibu leaves Prince Atsumichi's palace, and marries Fujiwara Yasumasa.

1005. Murasaki Shikibu joins the Court.

Conflagration of the Palace.

Izumi Shikibu goes to the Province of Tango, her husband having been appointed Governor.

1007. Akiko (second queen) gives birth to Prince Atsusada.

Murasaki Shikibu begins to keep her diary.

1008. Izumi Shikibu returns to become lady-in-waiting at the Court.

1009. Fujiwara Takasué's daughter (author of Sarashina Diary) born.

1017. Fujiwara Takasué appointed Province Governor, goes to his province with his daughter.

1021. Takasué's daughter returns to Kiōto. Sarashina Diary begun.

1

Translation by Arthur Waley in Japanese Poetry.

2

Her father Takasué was appointed Governor of Kazusa in 1017, and the authoress, who was then nine years old, was brought from Kiōto to the Province.

3

Prince Genji: The hero of Genji-monogatari, a novel by Murasaki-Shikibu.

4

Yakushi Buddha: "The Buddha of healing," or Sanscrit, Bhaisajyaguru-Vaiduryaprabhah.

5

Original, Nagatsuki, September.

6

Ancient ladies avoided men's eyes and always sat behind sudaré (finely split bamboo curtain) through which they could look out without being seen.

7

High personages, Governors of Provinces or other nobles, travelled with a great retinue, consisting of armed horsemen, foot-soldiers, and attendants of all sorts both high and low, together with the luggage necessary for prolonged existence in the wilderness. From Tokyo to Kiōto nowadays the journey is about twelve hours. It took about three months in the year 1017.

8

Futoi River is called the River Edo at present.

9

Matsusato, now called Matsudo.

10

Kagami's rapids, now perhaps Karameki-no-se.

11

Common gromwell, Lithospermum.

12

Takeshiba: Now called Shibaura, place-name in Tokyo near Shinagawa. Another manuscript reads: "This was the manor house of Takeshiba."

13

Misu: finer sort of sudaré used in court or in Shinto shrine. Cf. note 2, p. 4.

14

Seta Bridge is across the river from Lake Biwa, some seven or eight miles from Kioto.

15

In those days noblemen's and ladies' dresses were perfumed.

16

Dera or tera = temple.

17

The original text may also be understood as follows: "After that the guards of the watch-fire were allowed to live with their wives in the palace."

18

In the Isé-monogatari (a book of Narihira's poetical works) the Sumida River is said to be on the boundary between Musashi and Shimofusa. So the italicized words seem to be the authoress's mistake, or more probably an insertion by a later smatterer of literary knowledge who inherited the manuscript.

Narihira's poem is addressed to a sea-gull called Miyakodori, which literally means bird of the capital. Narihira had abandoned Kioto and was wandering towards the East. Just then his heart had been yearning after the Royal City and also after his wife, and that feeling must have been intensified by the name of the bird. (Cf. The Isé-monogatari, Section 9.)

Miyakodori! alas, that wordFills my heart again with longing,Even you I ask, O bird,Does she still live, my beloved?

19

According to "Sagami-Fūdoki," or "The Natural Features of Sagami Province," this district was in ancient times inhabited by Koreans. The natives could not distinguish a Korean from a Chinese, hence the name of Chinese Field. A temple near Oiso still keeps the name of Kōraiji, or the Korean temple.

20

This seems to be the last line of a kind of song called Imayo, perhaps improvised by the singers; its meaning may be as follows: "You compare us with singers of the Western Provinces; we are inferior to those in the Royal City; we may justly be compared with those in Osaka."

21

Hakoné Mountain has now become a resort of tourists and a place of summer residence.

22

Fear of evil spirits which probably lived in the wild, and of robbers who certainly did.

23

Aoi, or Futaba-aoi. At the great festival of the Kamo shrine in Kioto the processionists crowned their heads with the leaves of this plant, so it must have been well known.

24

Mount Fuji was then an active volcano.

25

The Princess was Sadako, daughter of King Sanjo, afterwards Queen of King Goshujaku [1037-104]).

26

Lacquered boxes, sometimes of great beauty, containing india ink and inkstone, brushes, rolls of paper.

27

Plum-trees bloom between the first and second months of the old calendar.

28

By pestilence. People were often attacked by contagious diseases in those days, and they, who did not know about the nature of infection, called it by the name of "world-humor" or "world-disease," attributing its cause to the ill-humor of some gods or spirits.

29

In those days windows were covered with silk and could not be seen through.

30

Fujiwara-no-Yukinari: One of the three famous calligraphers of that time.

31

Place where cremation was performed.

32

It is a Buddhist custom to go into retreat from time to time.

33

Some of these books are not known now.

34

A kind of screen used in upper-class houses: see illustration.

35

Her lamp was rather like an Italian one – a shallow cup for oil fixed to a tall metal stem, with a wick projecting to one side.

36

Sadharmpundarika Sutra, or Sutra of the Lotus, in Sanscrit.

37

In October it was the custom for all local gods to go for a conference to the residence of the oldest native god, in the Province of Idzumo; hence, Gods-absent month. This Province of Idzumo, full of the folklore of old Japan, has become well known to the world through the writings of Lafcadio Hearn.

38

According to the superstition of those days people believed that every house was presided over by an earth god, which occupied the hearth in Spring, the gate in Summer, the well in Autumn, and the garden in Winter. It was dangerous to meet him when he changed his abode. So on that day the dwellers went out from their houses.

39

Readers are urged to read the delightful essay of Lafcadio Hearn called "The Romance of the Milky Way" (Chogonka). Here it must suffice to relate the story of "Tanabata-himé" and the herdsman. Tanabata-tsume was the daughter of the god of the sky. She rejoiced to weave garments for her father and had no greater pleasure than that, until one day Hikiboshi, a young herdsman, leading an ox, passed by her door. Divining her love for him, her father gave his daughter the young herdsman for her husband, and all went well, until the young couple grew too fond of each other and the weaving was neglected. Thereupon the great god was displeased and "they were sentenced to live apart with the Celestial River between them," but in pity of their love they were permitted to meet one night a year, on the seventh day of the Seventh month. On that night the herdsman crosses the River of Heaven where Tanabata-tsume is waiting for him on the other side, but woe betide if the night is cloudy or rainy! Then the waters of the River of Heaven rise, and the lovers must wait full another year before the boat can cross.

Many of our beautiful poems have been written on this legend; sometimes it is Tanabata-himé who is waiting for her lord, sometimes it is Hikiboshi who speaks. The festival has been celebrated for 1100 years in Japan, and there is no country village which does not sing these songs on the seventh night of the Seventh month, and make offerings to the star gods of little poems tied to the freshly cut bamboo branches.

40

River of Heaven: Milky Way.

41

Name of an old song.

42

The continuous writing of the cursive Japanese characters is often compared to a meandering river. "Ink seems to have frozen up" means that her eyes are dim with tears, and no more she can write continuously and flowingly.

43

A mountain in a suburb of Kioto.

44

This conversation in the original is a play upon words which cannot be translated.

45

In an old chronicle of the times one reads that it was on February 8, 1032.

46

The country people of the Eastern Provinces beyond Tokyo were then called "Eastern barbarians."

47

Away from the Capital where the King resides is always down; towards the capital is always up.

48

This scene will be better understood by the reader if he remembers that her father was in the street in the midst of his train of attendants – an imposing cavalcade of bow-men, warriors, and attendants of all sorts, with palanquins and luggage, prepared to make a two or three months' journey through the wilderness to the Province of Hitachi, far in the East. She, as a Japanese lady could not go out to speak to him, but unconventionally she had drawn up the blind and "her eye met his."

49

To translate: As there are a thousand kinds of flowers in the autumn fields, so there are a thousand reasons for going to the fields.

50

The Toné River.

51

Name of mountain in eastern part of Japan.

52

In the eastern part of Kioto, now a famous spot.

53

The Isé shrine was first built in the year 5 B.C. See note on Isé shrine in Murasaki Shikibu Diary.

54

Mt. Hiyé: 2500 ft.

55

The custom of the Court obliged the court ladies to lead a life of almost no privacy – sleeping at night together in the presence of the Queen, and sharing their apartments with each other.

56

Some words are lost from this sentence.

57

Kazusa: Name of Province in the East.

58

Asakura is a place-name in Kyushu. There was a song entitled "Asakura" which seems to have been popular in those days and was sung in the Court.

59

Hakasé is LL.D., so she might have been daughter of a scholar.

60

Special house devoted to use of a King's wife.

61

The Princess, whom our lady served, was the daughter of King Goshijaku's Queen. The Queen died 1039. After this the Royal Consort Umetsubo won the King's favour.

62

Some words lost.

63

A thirteen-stringed musical instrument.

64

A pipe made of seven reeds having a very clear, piercing sound.

65

Famous period in Chinese history.

66

This gentleman's name is known.

67

He ruled from 970 to 984. It was now 1045.

68

Something seems to have occurred which may have been her marriage to a noble of lower rank or inferior family than her own, but one can only infer this, she does not tell it.

69

There is an old fable about parsley: A country person ate parsley and thought it very fine, so he went up to the Capital to present it to the King, but the King was not so much pleased, for he could not find it good. So "to gather parsley" means to endeavour to win others' favour by offering something we care for but others do not.

70

Goreizai, from 1046 to 1068.

71

This is called the Byōdōin and is one of the famous buildings now existing in Japan (see illustrations in Cram's Impressions of Japanese Architecture), built upon an exquisite design, and original in character. It had been the villa of the Prime Minister, but was made into a temple in 1051, when the riches of the interior decorations were more like the gorgeousness of Indian temples than the chaster decorations of Japan.

72

At Nara where the great Buddha, 160 feet high, was already standing.

73

In those days it was the custom for the person who wished to be favoured by the Inari god to crown his head with a twig of cedar. The Inari god was then the god of the rice-plant. He is now confused with the fox-god whose little shrines, flanked by small stone foxes, are seen everywhere.

74

A kind of leathern shield made of untanned deerskin worn hanging from the shoulder.

75

The World: i.e. her husband.

76

The following poems have been found impossible of literal translation on account of play of words.

77

As I slept fondly thinking of himHe appeared to my sight —Oh, I would I had not wakenedTo find it only a dream!

78

Her brother Sadayoshi was Governor of that Province.

79

Kaminari sama.

80

In 1057, as Governor of Shinano Province.

81

She was thirty-five years old and her husband forty-one years old when they were married. We may suppose that she was his second wife. This daughter must have been borne by the first wife. The cause of starting from his daughter's house is some superstitious idea, and not the coldness of their relation.

82

The rank of the person determined the colour of his clothes. Red was worn by nobles of the fifth degree.

83

The Japanese believed that "human fire" or spirit can be seen leaving the body of one who is soon to die.

84

Her husband died.

85

At death the Lord Buddha coming on a cloud appears to the faithful one and accompanies the soul to Heaven.

86

The point of this is in the name of the place, Obásuté, which may be translated, "Aunt Casting Away," or "Cast-Away-Aunt." It is a place famous for the beauty of its scenery in moonlight.

87

This diary seems to have been jotted down in disconnected paragraphs and the editors have preserved that form.