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Updated 10-03-08
Fujiwara no Nagako
/Sanuki no Suke (1079-aft.1119)
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"I JUST HAD TO RECORD IT SO THAT IT WOULD LIVE ON IN PEOPLE'S
MINDS."
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Most of Fujiwara no Nagako's family served in various capacities at the Heian court; her father, Fujiwara Akitsune, was a court poet. When Nagako was 22 she began to serve as an attendant to Emperor Horikawa (1078-1107). By the end of the 1000s, the real power in Japan lay with the retired, rather than the reigning, emperors. So although Horikawa had the name of emperor, he had little influence and is known in history chiefly for his fondness for poetry and music.
Nagako's court name was Sanuki no Suke ("Sanuki" from a place that her father had governed, "Suke" for her position as one of the higher classes of attendants). Nagako served Horikawa until his death eight years later when he was 29 years old, and then wrote a memoir, Sanuki no Suke nikki, to console herself and to tell others about Horikawa.
The extant version of Sanuki no Suke nikki may be incomplete; a literary catalog of the 1200s spoke of the work having a third book. Of what we have, Book 1 describes Nagako's care of Horikawa in the month before his death, and Book 2 begins with Nagako's recall to court three months later, to serve Horikawa's 5-year-old son, Emperor Toba. These sections appear to have been written in about 1108.
Nagako remained in Toba's service until 1119, when she was dismissed; a contemporary male diarist noted a rumor that she was possessed by the spirit of Horikawa, but she may merely have been involved in one of the on-going palace intrigues.
What we have of the work reveals a person needing to share her memories of and affection for someone she has loved and lost, and whose memory she wants to keep alive. Nagako succeeds; her tribute tells us more of Horikawa than do the history books.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online;
Excerpts from a translation in print.
Information about secondary sources.
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1. Use your browser's search function to go to "Sanuki" for a brief passage from the start of Book 2 of Sanuki no Suke nikki, as Nagako prepared to return to court to serve Horikawa's son, Toba. The translation is by Jennifer Brewster, and is followed by Brewster's note on the passage.
2. A review by Branislav L. Slantchev of Brewster's 1977 translation, The Emperor Horikawa Diary (for other excerpts from Brewster, see below, under "In print").
3. The publisher's detailed description of Edith Sarra's 1999 study, Fictions of Femininity: Literary Inventions of Gender in Japanese Court Women's Memoirs, speaks of Nagako's work, here translated as The Memoir of the Sanuki Assistant Handmaid (for more information on Sarra's book, see "Secondary sources").
4. For historical background:
(a) A brief biography of Horikawa (r.1086-1107). At the same site, a biography of Toba (r.1107-1123); the first paragraph suggests the palace politics in Nagako's last years at court.
(b) The opening paragraphs of this essay "Social and Religious Turmoil in Late Heian Japan," describe the situation in which Nagako found herself.
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[This translation by Jennifer Brewster of Sanuki no Suke nikki has a thorough introduction and detailed notes:]
The Emperor Horikawa diary = Sanuki no Suke nikki / by Fujiwara
no Nagako; translated with an introd. by Jennifer Brewster. Honolulu:
University Press of Hawaii, c1977. (xi, 155 p.)
LC#: PL789.S2 Z52 1977; ISBN: 0824806050
Includes index. Bibliography: p. 147-151.
[Also published as Sanuki no Suke nikki: a translation of the
Emperor Horikawa diary / Jennifer Brewster. Canberra: Australian
National University Press, 1977. ISBN: 0708110428]
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"It is in an attempt to console myself that I am writing."
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[Nagako's memoir starts with her thoughts of the past:]
When I think back on my time in the service of my lord --- viewing the blossoms in spring and the leaves in autumn, drinking in the brightness of a moonlit night, attending the Emperor on a snowy morning --- I was never far from his side in the eight years I spent in his service. And there were no lack of pleasant moments when the Emperor was about. The religious observances in the morning, the sound of the Emperor playing the flute in the evening --- these are hard to forget.
It is in an attempt to console myself that I am writing down these various memories as they come to mind. [p.57]
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"Why is it that nobody pays it any attention?"
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[She describes the beginning of Horikawa's last illness, just one month before his death; abdication should have been considered because it was an ill omen for an emperor to die in office:]
It was on the twentieth day of the sixth month that the Emperor seemed to be feeling out of sorts. From time to time he would lie down.
"I should say that this is what people call an illness. Why is it that nobody pays it any attention?" he said.
He was evidently feeling sorry for himself, but now it is I who am sorry that --- even though such matters were not mine to arrange --- prayer ceremonies were not begun for his recovery, nor thought given to the possibility of an abdication --- this was left to the very end --- before the Emperor's illness became too serious. [p.58]
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"I shall watch over him like this."
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[Soon it became evident that there would be no recovery; shortly after this scene, Horikawa died:]
It was the time of year when it is unbearably hot, and I was nestled in between the sliding paper door and the recumbent form of the Emperor. As I watched over his sleeping features, I could do nothing but weep. How, indeed, had I come to attend him so intimately?
I thought vexedly. You can imagine my feelings as I turned over in my mind events that had taken place from the night I arrived at court up until today. I was at a loss to see the meaning of it all....
The sunken appearance of the Emperor's eyes on waking bore witness to the daily ebbing of his strength.
I shall watch over him like this, I thought, even though he
seems to be asleep, for he might be frightened if he were to
awake suddenly and think everyone was asleep. This way he will
see me in just the same position as before.
While I was watching over him, his eyes weakly sought mine, and
he asked, "Why are you not asleep?" I was overcome
with sorrow at the very realization that he must be able to read
my inmost thoughts. [p.61]
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"And here I was, the same old self, returning..."
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[Three months after Horikawa's death, Nagako was recalled to court to serve his 5-year-old son, the new emperor; she went reluctantly:]
As I was being forced into going, I set out, but I was very much aware that this was the last thing I wanted to do.
Once, when I had been passing by this gate on the way to the Koryuji, and had a fleeting glimpse of the Palace building beyond it, I had thought to myself, "This is the gate I used to pass through morning and evening. Then... Emperor Horikawa moved to the Horikawa Palace. I accompanied him out through this gate on that occasion. I passed through it never thinking that it was for the last time. Now, come what may, I shall probably never pass through it again in this lifetime."
And here I was, the same old self, returning to the Palace through this gate! I felt saddened and embittered. [p.99]
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"I don't know the way..., so you must show me."
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[Despite her reluctance she decided to do what she could to help the child-emperor:]
That night I again spent at the Emperor's side. As I gazed round the bedchamber, everything looked just as it had before....
Even while I was lying beside the Emperor, I kept remembering how I had lain beside the late Emperor just like this, on nights when I was in attendance and the Empress was not visiting....
It seemed to me that everything I looked at was exactly the same as before. All that was missing was the figure of Emperor Horikawa. How sad a realisation! As I gazed upon the sleeping form of the young Emperor, I was struck by how innocent and peaceful he looked, and how different his attitude was....
There had come a time when the world had undergone a change, and the fact that I alone remained, as a relic from the past, among all these people who had not known that other world, must surely be the workings of some karma from a previous life. I mused on these thoughts, and felt completely overwhelmed with grief.
I rose thankfully when dawn broke. The others were all saying excitedly, "Let's have a look at the parts of the Palace we haven't seen yet."
I knew that if I were to accompany them, countless memories of the past would be stirred up, and therefore I was just sitting vacantly doing nothing, when the young Emperor came and pulled my willy-nilly to my feet, urging, "Come on. Come on. I don't know the way to the Black Door, so you must show me." [pp.99-101]
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"...one might have expected such attentions from a mistress."
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[A few months later, she passed one of the palaces in which she had lived with Horikawa:]
On New Year's Eve I set out for the Palace. As I passed the Horikawa Palace, Second Avenue and Horikawa Road were quite deserted, with no trace of people scurrying to and fro about their business. The sight held me fascinated, and I recalled the old poem--
There is nobody to answer
"The master is not in,"
But the state of the dwelling
Tells its own tale.
Those who happen to read this may well be critical, and say, "It is unpleasant to find a mere lady-in-waiting giving herself such knowledgeable airs." However, even in the case of the discussions on the Buddhist sutras, this was the sort of topic the late Emperor had been wont to bring up for my edification during the course of our conversations on various matters.
I have just described things as I remember them. Nobody should be critical of that. This will all seem of no consequence to those who do not cherish the memory of the late Emperor. However, I felt so unworthy of, and so lost without, the tenderness of my late master the Emperor --- one might have expected such attentions from a mistress --- that I just had to record it so that it would live on in people's minds and never be forgotten. [p.112]
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"We read to each other all day."
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[At the end of the Nikki, Nagako describes how she decided to make her "record" public; we don't know what position her friend, Lady Hitachi, held:]
I pondered on how I would like to show this record to someone who shared my feelings about Emperor Horikawa, if there were such a person. Everyone remembered the late Emperor with affection, but if I were to show this to someone who did not think well of me, the contents might create a furor if noised abroad, and that would be unfortunate. Then again, it would be a shame to show it to someone who was well-disposed toward me, but had neither friends or influence.
I needed someone who fulfilled these three conditions, I decided, and concluded that Lady Hitachi was the one.... I sent a carriage to collect her, and, as I had anticipated, she was delighted to come, and was completely at ease.
We read to each other all day, and were still engrossed when
darkness fell. [p.114]
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[Edith Sarra's study of Heian women's memoirs includes a chapter "The problem of others in the Sanuki no suke nikki"; in it Sarra makes clear the distinction between the author and the persona presented in the work. The book's opening chapter gives useful background information. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Sarra, Edith. Fictions of femininity: literary inventions
of gender in Japanese court women's memoirs. Stanford, Calif.:
Stanford University Press, c1999. (xii, 328 p.)
LC#: PL741.2 .S26 1999; ISBN: 0804733783
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[Donald Keene's summaries and evaluations of Japanese diaries from the 800s to the mid-1800s includes a brief chapter,"The Sanuki no Suke Diary." Keene provides background information on Horikawa and his popularity and discusses the relationship between Nagako and the emperor. Quoted passages are from Brewster's translation. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Keene, Donald. Travelers of a hundred ages: The Japanese as
revealed through 1,000 years of diaries. New York: Holt, c1989.
(xi, 468 p.)
LC#: PL 741 .K44 1989; ISBN: 0805007512
Bibliography: p. 443-449. Includes index
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Updated 10-03-08