Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan. Murasaki Shikibu

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       Murasaki Shikibu, Sugawara no Takasue no Musume, Izumi Shikibu

      Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan

      Published by Good Press, 2019

       [email protected]

      EAN 4057664649676

Table of Contents

       DIARIES OF COURT LADIES OF OLD JAPAN

       I

       THE SARASHINA DIARY

       THE DIARY OF MURASAKI SHIKIBU [1]

       THE DIARY OF IZUMI SHIKIBU

      COURT LADY'S FULL DRESS IN THE HEIAN PERIOD—(For explanation see List of Illustrations)

      TRANSLATORS' NOTE

      The poems in the text, slight and occasional as they are, depending often for their charm on plays upon words of two meanings, or on the suggestions conveyed to the Japanese mind by a single word, have presented problems of great difficulty to the translators, not perfectly overcome.

      Izumi Shikibu's Diary is written with extreme delicacy of treatment. English words and thought seem too downright a medium into which to render these evanescent, half-expressed sentences and poems—vague as the misty mountain scenery of her country, with no pronouns at all, and without verb inflections. The shy reserve of the lady's written record has induced the use of the third person as the best means of suggesting it.

      Of the "Sarashina Diary" there exist a few manuscript copies, and three or four publications of the text. Some of them are confused and unreadably incoherent. The present translation was done by comparing all the texts accessible, and is especially founded on the connected text by Mr. Sakine, professor of the Girls' Higher Normal School, Tokio, published by Meiji Shoin, Itchome Nishiki-cho, Kanda-ku, Tokio. As far as possible the exact meaning has been adhered to, and the words chosen to express it have been kept absolutely simple, without complexity of thought, for such is the vocabulary in which it was written. Sometimes the diarist uses the present tense, sometimes the text seems reminiscent. The words in square brackets have been inserted by the translators to complete the sense in English of sentences which literally rendered do not carry with them the suggestion of the Japanese text.

      CONTENTS

       INTRODUCTION BY AMY LOWELL

	I.	THE SARASHINA DIARY
	II.	THE DIARY OF MURASAKI SHIKIBU
	III.	THE DIARY OF IZUMI SHIKIBU

       APPENDIX

      ILLUSTRATIONS

      COURT LADY'S FULL DRESS IN THE HEIAN PERIOD Colored Frontispiece

      From Kokushi Daijiten, by kind permission of Mr. H. Yoshikawa. The figure was drawn for the purpose of showing the details of dress and therefore gives no indication of the grace and elegance of the costume as worn. It shows the red karaginu, or over-garment; the dark-green robe trimmed with folds, called the uchigi; the saishi, or head-ornament, in this case of gold but sometimes of silver; the unlined under-garment of thin silk; the red hakama, or divided skirt; and the train of white silk painted or stained in colors.

      "IT WAS ALL IN FLOWER AND YET NO TIDINGS FROM HER" KICHŌ: FRONT AND BACK VIEWS A NOBLEMAN'S HOUSE AND GROUNDS IN THE AZUMAYA STYLE: PLAN OF BUILDINGS AND GARDEN THREE KICHŌ PUT TOGETHER OLD PRINT OF A NOBLEMAN'S DWELLING IN THE AZUMAYA STYLE From an old book. COURT DRESS OF MILITARY OFFICIAL (in color)

      From Kokushi Daijiten, by kind permission of Mr. H. Yoshikawa. The figure shows the zui, or ornament of the head-strap holding the head-dress in place; also the method of rolling up the gauze flap of the head-dress. Tucked into the red state coat appear a half-spread fan and some folded sheets of paper, and at the back is seen a quiver made of lacquered wood. Underneath the red coat the hakama is shown. The shoes are of Chinese pattern.

      ROYAL DAIS AND KICHŌ, SUDARÉ, ETC. From old prints. A NOBLEMAN'S CARRIAGE SCREENED DAIS PREPARED FOR ROYALTY From a print in an old book. "HIS HIGHNESS CAME IN A HUMBLE PALANQUIN" "THE LADY GOT UP AND SAW THE MISTY SKY" "STRANGELY WET ARE THE SLEEVES OF THE ARM-PILLOW" "IN THE DAYTIME COURTIERS CAME TO SEE HIM"

      INTRODUCTION

      BY AMY LOWELL

      The Japanese have a convenient method of calling their historical periods by the names of the places which were the seats of government while they lasted. The first of these epochs of real importance is the Nara Period, which began A.D. 710 and endured until 794; all before that may be classed as archaic. Previous to the Nara Period, the Japanese had been a semi-nomadic race. As each successive Mikado came to the throne, he built himself a new palace, and founded a new capital; there had been more than sixty capitals before the Nara Period. Such shifting was not conducive to the development of literature and the arts, and it was not until a permanent government was established at Nara that these began to flourish. This is scarcely the place to trace the history of Japanese literature, but fully to understand these charming "Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan," it is necessary to know a little of the world they lived in, to be able to feel their atmosphere and recognize their allusions.

      We know a good deal about Japan to-day, but the Japan with which we are familiar only slightly resembles that of the Diaries. Centuries of feudalism, of "Dark Ages," have come between. We must go behind all this and begin again. We have all heard of the "Forty-seven Ronins" and the Nō Drama, of Shōguns, Daimios, and Samurais, and many of us live in daily communion with Japanese prints. It gives us pause to reflect that the earliest of these things is almost as many centuries ahead of the Ladies as it is behind us. "Shōgun" means simply "General," and of course there were always generals, but the power of the Shōguns, and the military feudalism of which the Daimios and their attendant Samurais were a part, did not really begin