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Updated 08-24-08
Ben no Naishi (c.1228-aft.1266)
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"LEAVES OF WORDS TO BE TRANSMITTED... TO LATER GENERATIONS."
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"Ben no Naishi" is a court title rather than a personal name (Murasaki Shikibu's nikki speaks of a woman with that title in the 1000s, and another who lived in the 1300s would become the subject of a kabuki play). A naishi was a woman courtier; "Ben" refers to a woman's role as controller of a royal household.
We know that the woman who wrote Ben no Naishi nikki in the 1200s was the daughter of Fujiwara Nobuzane, a leading portrait painter and a court poet. She was at court in 1243, in the service of the new-born crown prince who would become Emperor Go-Fukakusa. Three years later, the 26-year-old Emperor Go-Saga abdicated in favor of his son Go-Fukakusa, who would reign until 1259, when he was forced by his father to abdicate in favor of another of Go-Saga's son.
By the time that Go-Fukakusa assumed the throne in 1246, Ben
no Naishi's sister had also joined the court, as Shosho no Naishi.
Ben (and apparently Shosho) remained with Go-Fukakusa until his
abdication. We know little about Ben's life after 1259, except
that at some point she had a daughter who would serve the consort
of Go-Fukakusa's successor, and that Ben contributed poems to
royal anthologies in 1265, perhaps at the request of that same
successor. One writer of the 1300s said that Ben took Buddhist
vows after Shosho's death in 1265.
Ben no Naishi nikki is a journal of court activities and
of Ben's and Shosho's responses to them. It may have originally
covered Go-Fukakusa's full reign, but only the portion from 1246
to 1252 is extant, and because of damage to the manuscript, only
about 70% of that is legible enough to have been translated.
The individual sections may have been written as the events occurred,
but the work's organization suggests that Ben edited it at some
later time.
Life had changed considerably for the imperial court after
the establishment of the military government at the eastern city
of Kamakura in 1183. Although the emperors retained their titles
and retinue, there was no question as to who ruled Japan. When
in 1221, a few years before Ben no Naishi's birth, the current
emperor, Gotoba, failed in an attempt to regain power from the
military, the imperial revenue and authority decreased even further.
What Ben no Naishi nikki reveals is the efforts by courtiers
--- male and female --- to live as much as possible as their
predecessors had in the 900s and 1000s, the days of genuine imperial
splendor.
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. The first 15 sections of Ben no Naishi nikki (of a total of 122), translated by S.Yumiko Hulvey (with the notes given at the end). See especially Section 15, in which the 18-year-old Ben "found it amusing to think that even their scolding words to the gate guard were likely to become precedents" (for excerpts from later sections, see below, under "In print").
2. A 2000 conference presentation by Hulvey, "A Brief History of Time: Revisited," which describes Ben no Naishi nikki and discusses the concept of time it reveals, using the work's first 15 sections as illustration. (The "Nakatomi" Hulvey speaks of were the ancestors of the Fujiwara, Ben no Naishi's family.)
3. The publisher's description of Hulvey's 2005 partial translation of Ben no Naishi nikki, Sacred Rites in Moonlight; elsewhere, a brief review of the book.
4. A review by Mark Morris of Donald Keene's 1993 history, Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century (for information on Keene's treatment of Ben no Naishi nikki, see "Secondary sources").
5. For historical background:
(a) At Wikipedia, brief biographies of Go-Saga and of Go-Fukakusa.
(b) A timeline of the Kamakura period of Japanese history; note the descriptions of the events of 1221 (which brought tightened military control) and of 1228 to 1266 (Ben no Naishi's lifetime).
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In print
[Of the 175 extant sections of Ben no Naishi nikki, S. Yumiko Hulvey has translated the 122 that are fully legible, which cover the years 1246 to 1250. The introduction gives two brief excerpts from damaged later sections, as well as six poems that Ben wrote in 1259 and 1265. In the text the originals of the poems are also given in romanized Japanese (helpful for understanding the notes' explanations of Ben's wordplay). Hulvey's detailed introduction includes a review of women's nikki, especially useful for the lesser known works of the Kamakura period. Appendices include a "biographic list" and a bibliographic essay which describes earlier critical studies. (See the book's table of contents online; it lists the descriptive headings of the 122 sections.):]
Ben no Naishi. Sacred rites in moonlight / introduced, translated,
and annotated by S. Yumiko Hulvey (Cornell East Asia series;
122). Ithaca, N.Y.: East Asia Program Cornell University, c2005.
(xv, 324 p.: ill., maps, geneal. tables)
LC#: PL792.B45 Z46313 2005; ISBN:1885445407, 1885445229
Includes bibliographical references (p. 285-295) and indexes.
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" Moved to pity...."
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[In 1246, Ben's sister Shosho was on duty at an office
near the edge of the main palace compound; there she could see
the work of commoners. This passage is rare among the nikki
of the period for its awareness of the existence of the lower
classes:]
Gate guards, stable hands, and others had been assigned to the
various offices, to carry things and perform miscellaneous tasks.
One of them, a man shouldering a basket loaded with goods, begged
in tears to be excused. "I have someplace I must go,"
he said. Moved to pity, Shosho no Naishi composed this:
Shouldering a bamboo basket
the man seems
to lament being separated
from his children
in a world full of worries. [from
Section 18; p. 110]
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"The accommodations were makeshift."
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[Although the emperor's court was living in reduced circumstances
under the rule of the military at Kamakura, the courtiers tried
to maintain the traditions set in wealthier days. Much of the
main palace compound was uninhabitable; other parts, like the
Council of State compound, were in disrepair. Some of the nyobo
named in this passage were courtiers of higher rank than Ben,
so she could enjoy watching them act like "women of the
past":]
There was a royal progress to the Council of State compound around
dawn.... Although it was so cold the snow seemed to be frozen,
the accommodations were makeshift, and the wind brought in flurries
of snow through the spaces between the Sung screens, which was
quite charming.... Rooms for the nyobo, women of the upper
ranks, had been divided into four sections each, and with two
or three to a cubicle, it was unbearably crowded.
The Table Room was next to His Majesty's Apartment. There higher-ranking
nyobo sat in rows with their trailing sleeves close together.
Short Sung screens were set up along one bay , and it was amusing
when nyobo crawled like women of the past to avoid being
seen by senior nobles when going to His Majesty's Apartment.
Since something like rough straw matting covered the floor, the
skirts of their bombacine robes all got dirty.
The storm raged violently, knocking down all the dividing screens
until one could see all the way to the connecting corridors.
There was so much light that Ben no Naishi composed this poem:
The dividing screens
have been blown down
by the tidings of the wind
letting in still more
the brightness of flushed faces. [from
Section 20: pp.111-12]
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"... made him stumble... as he prepared to ascend the throne."
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[Ben describes part of the enthronement ceremony for the 3-year-old
Go-Fukakusa. His stumble may have been seen as inauspicious,
but Ben prefers to think about the "the splendid things
that occurred." By the time she probably edited her
nikki, the young emperor had already been forced to abdicate:]
The Banquet was held on the Day of the Dragon. Unfortunately,
His Majesty's trouser's made him stumble on the high stone steps
as he prepared to ascend the throne, and the fan slipped from
in front of his face.
Enough cannot be said about the splendid things that occurred
that night. Ben no Naishi:
The royal progress
today resembles
the path preserved
in high antiquity
above the clouds. [Section
25: pp.114-15]
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"The wind which blows beneath... seems to change."
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[In 1247 the incumbent regent, the popular 24-year-old Sanetsune,
was dismissed because his father had been involved in a power
struggle among the Kamakura military leaders. The decree was
issued by the retired emperor Go-Saga, but all knew that it came
ultimately from the military. (Mt. Kasuga was the site of Sanetsune's
family shrine):]
On the nineteenth, there was a meeting of senior nobles in connection
with the change of regents....
At the moment [head chamberlain-controller] Akimoto came to inform
His Majesty of the retired sovereign's decree, the moon clouded
over wand without any reason, Ben no Naishi was saddened. Her
poem:
Can anyone think of this
as a moon on a clear night?
There seems to be haze
clouding over a part of the sky
on this spring night.
Shosho no Naishi, witnessing the report to His Majesty from the
Upper Hot Water Room, tore off the edge of the bound attendance
register, made of recycled paper, and wrote this poem on it:
What must I have been thinking
when I said the pines
on Mt. Kasuga are evergreen?
There are times
when the color changes.
Ben no Naishi's reply, when she saw her poem:
Although the color
of the pines on Mt. Kasuga
is still evergreen,
the wind which blows
beneath there seems to change. [from
Section 34: pp.118-19]
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"Waves approach from the raging sea."
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[Two months later, the women courtiers are still thinking
of Sanetsune, under house arrest since his dismissal, and so
"in harbor" rather than moving freely:]
On the twenty-third, there was the Seasonal Reading of the Sutra....
Seeing his Lordship the [new] regent present His Majesty with
little balls attached to a branch of maple, Lady Chunagon no
Suke said, "This reminds me of last year when the former
regent presented His Majesty with a boat with ten little balls
inside it." She murmured two lines of a poem:
I long for the boat
in the harbor.
Ben no Naishi added three lines to complete the poem:
At the mouth of the river,
waves approach
from the raging sea.
Somebody said, "I wish that someone would treat the two
verses as one poem and compose a reply." Ben no Naishi:
In what way
could the rough waves
have caused
the floating boat
to remain in harbor? [from
Section 42: p.122]
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"He looked extremely handsome."
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[Later that year, a good-looking 28-year-old catches the young
Ben's eye:]
On the first day of the sixth month, the Tsuchimikado middle
counselor Akichika was scheduled to be on night duty.... Ben
no Naishi looked through the half-blinds she was sitting behind
and saw that he looked extremely handsome in his dazzling, carefully
chosen informal robe. Some of the women said that it would be
hard to find a person of his caliber in this world....
...[E]ven after he had signed his name in the attendance register,
still he did not leave. He stood near the sounding boards looking
as if each detail his eye rested on was a source of fond memories....
The next day when Ben no Naishi asked about Akichita, someone
said, "He renounced the world at Ryozen at dawn this morning."
She felt as if she were hearing a story from the distant past.
She felt her sadness was limitless and composed this:
I can indeed imagine him
on the precipitous mountain path
walking in the cool wind,
his mind refreshed,
after renouncing the world. [from
Section 51; p.127]
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"I am as lacking in sensitivity as a bird."
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[A week later, Ben still thinks of Akichika, now probably
on his way to a Buddhist pilgrimage site. But the words of another
make her consider her own mortality (a later writer would say
that Ben herself eventually took Buddhist vows):]
On the eighth, Ben no Naishi remembered that had Akichika not
renounced the world, he would have been here today for daytime
duty. it was sad to think he was probably somewhere on the road
to Kumano. She whispered this poem to Lady Dainagon:
I wonder how many days
it has been since he left
in his travel robes;
it is sad to speculate
on how things might have been.
When the controller Tokitsuga was talking to them..., he said,
"It is sad indeed about the Tsuchimikado middle counselor.
No one possessing sensibility failed to praise him. Those who
are not aware of life's evanescence are like beasts in the guise
of human beings." Greatly saddened, Ben no Naishi composed
this poem:
When I hear this
a chill runs through my body,
even though I am
as lacking in sensitivity
as a bird. [Section
52; pp.127-28]
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"Leaves of Chinese words that are not of Yamato."
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[We know that Ben knew Chinese (at one point she describes
writing a Chinese poem for Go-Fukakusa). Here it isn't clear
whether she is expressing a preference for writing in Japanese
(the language "of Yamato") or just wondering if her
fellow courtiers would really be interested in listening to Chinese
poetry:]
There was a ceremony honoring Confucius and his ten disciples
on the eleventh.... Someone said, "I would have liked to
watch eminent scholars amuse themselves by composing Chinese
poetry. I wonder why they could not have performed the ceremony
in the Courtiers Hall or some other nearby place? If they had,
then we could have gone to hear the lectures." Ben no Naishi:
If there were a path
would we have journeyed
there to listen?
Leaves of Chinese words
that are not of Yamato. [Section
57: p.130]
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" I, alas,... have yet to experience any such emotion."
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[In 1249 Ben, now about 21 years old, mourns (at least poetically)
that she is still not in love:]
The provisional major counselor brought over a small book of
this white paper that had been presented to His Majesty by Lady
Dainagon no Nii.... It contained a group of interesting love
poems written in an exquisite hand. When Shosho no Naishi saw
it, she composed this poem:
Is she inviting us
to drench our sleeves
as we look
at the poems
in which they reveal their love?
Ben no Naishi:
Many people have left records
commemorating their love,
but I, alas, sad to say,
have yet to experience
any such emotion. [Section
80: p.145]
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"She could not believe it was happening."
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[Later that year the palace in which the 6-year-old Go-Fukakusa
and his retinue were living was destroyed by a fire for which
there seems to have been little preparation. It was night but
the emperor was at writing practice, attended by some of the
women:]
...[M]iddle captain Kintada came on duty looking very flustered.
He said, "It's terrible. A fire has been reported in the
Royal Dowager's Apartment."
She [Ben no Naishi] was astounded; dumb struck. She could not
believe it was happening....
Shosho no Naishi had been lying down to rest..., but she was
aroused by the sound of Ben no Naishi pounding on the door. After
Ben no Naishi informed Shosho no Naishi of the fire, Ben no Naishi
hurried to His Majesty, only to find his apartments deserted
and full of smoke. As she wandered about wondering if everyone
had gone off somewhere with him, she heard a voice calling....
She approached cautiously, wondering if it were a ghost....
[The unseen voice was that of another woman courtier, Koto, asking
what she should do with a piece of the royal regalia she was
guarding:]
Ben no Naishi answered, "I know neither where to take it
nor what to do."
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"The men galloped around on horseback."
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[Eventually all got out safely, Ben carrying the "Sacred
Jewels" and helping Koto with the "Sacred Sword."
In the confusion, no one else knew the location of the (apparently
very important) "Sacred Sword":]
Koto no Naishi and Ben no Naishi had ascended into Lady Nii's
carriage carrying the Sacred Sword.
"The Sacred Sword is not inside the palanquin. Did anyone
bring it out?" people clamored. Someone said it had been
brought, and someone else said, "Has anyone seen it?"....
Then the men galloped around on horseback, asking, "Which
carriage are Koto and Ben in? Which one is it?"
Ben no Naishi was wondering what on earth was going on, when
she heard someone say, "Do you have the Sacred Sword? Have
you got it? We have asked about it until we are hoarse. Somebody
said you had it. Is that right?" No wonder they were worried....
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"Brace up, do not lament."
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[The destruction of the palace was seen as a omen of evil.
Ben, though, is encouraged by the fact that there had been palace
fires even in the 900s, which she viewed as the glory years of
the empire:]
The mounted major counselors stood guard at the gate with bow
and arrow at the ready; it was unbelievable, quite like a dream.
When some people said that there were repeated fires even in
the august reigns of Engi and Tenryaku, Ben no Naishi composed
this poem:
Although the palace
has burned down,
let us rebuild it once again.
Brace up, do not lament
in the lingering smoke. [from
Section 81; pp.145-47]
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"I was criticized with undisguised might."
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[After the fire, Go-Fukakusa and his courtiers were housed
in another city palace. When his father, Go-Saga, sent him a
poem praising the plum blossoms growing at the new palace, Ben
wrote two poems in response, but she did two things a courtier
apparently should not have done: she used one of Go-Saga's lines
and she adapted another. The chancellor, Go-Saga's father-in-law,
made his displeasure known. Ben was unabashed:]
When the chancellor heard about these poems, he said, "It
was inauspicious to use the same phrase found in the splendid
poem 'iro mo ka mo' [Go-Saga's poem]. Furthermore, the reply
should not have used a variant, 'imo kokonoe' of the superior
phrase 'kokonoe ni naru,' which was a most fitting line. Both
of these poems are inappropriate."
When Ben no Naishi heard his criticism, rather than be embarrassed,
she was amused. Ben no Naishi:
Colors of the plum blossoms
without any fragrance
clustered in manifold layers---
I was criticized
with undisguised might. [from
Section 83; p.148]
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"I saw the letter carrier."
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[That winter, when a male courtier sent a courier to the women
courtiers a poem asking for their sympathy because snow drifts
had isolated him in the mountains, he received quite different
responses from the two sisters: Shosho sympathizes; Ben points
out that since his letter in fact did get delivered, the drifts
could not have been so bad. (the "Nine-fold Palace"
was where they and Go-Fukakusa were staying):]
Shosho no Naishi:
Snow also piles up
within the Nine-fold Palace,
when I see the traveler's
letter from the path,
I am indeed sympathetic.
Ben no Naishi:
I cannot imagine
that white snow in the mountains
has piled up as much
as in the Nine-fold Palace,
for I saw the letter carrier. [from
Section 103; p.160]
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"...the protective spirit of my parent."
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[The Kami Observances were a period of purification and abstinence
(and a period of boredom for the now 7-year-old Go-Fukakusa).
This passage shows Ben's willingness to play the fool (and shows
the nervousness of the emperor's armed guards). Her father, Nobuzane,
had taken Buddhist vows two years before; here he sends her a
token that will help her avoid future harm:]
Around the time of the Kami Observances when there were only
a few people at court, His Majesty grew bored and said to Ben
no Naishi, "Put on a demon mask and scare people."
She stood at the entrance to the Large Room with her long divided
skirt tied up to her chest and her burgundy chemise draped over
her head. She startled the oban guards who came armed
with bows at the ready, so she became frightened and fell into
the courtyard stream. This evoked laughter from the onlookers,
who called out, "You cowardly demon!"
The next day, she received an abstinence charm from home stating
that she had reason to guard herself. Moved by her parent's concern,
Ben no Naishi wrote:
Birchwood bows
poised in readiness,
yet guarding my life
was the protective spirit of my parent. [Section
120; p.170]
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"Leaves of words...are like the autumn-colored leaves."
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[After a pleasant 1250 visit of Go-Fukakusa and his entourage
to his parents' palace, the women talk about passing on stories
of the interesting things they have seen and done. In their poems,
Shosho looks forward; Ben seems to compare their words to the
transient autumn leaves. This is the last entry in the undamaged
portion of the nikki; the brackets in the last line indicate
the first of many lacunae in the surviving text:]
Someone said such things as, "There will be plenty of tales
to tell when we get old."
Shosho no Naishi:
I want to transmit tales
to later generations
of the happiness
with which we made
the royal progress today.
Hearing this, Ben no Naishi:
Leaves of words
to be transmitted as tales
to later generations
are like the autumn-colored leaves
in the [garden] today. [from
Section 122; pp.172-73]
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"My heart has been dyed by the flowers of springtime."
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[Ben remained in Go-Fukakusa's service until his forced abdication
in 1259. Two of Ben's poems of that year were included in a c.1313
imperial anthology. The first:]
In the spring of the first year of Shogen [the year of the abdication]...
Ben no Naishi saw flowers near the South hall and composed this
poem:
O cherry blossoms
in the abode of clouds,
do not forget me,
for my heart has been dyed
by the flowers of springtime.
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"Do not forget."
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[And the second 1259 poem (the "clear mirror"
refers to the emperor):]
When the abdication... was approaching,... Ben no Naishi composed
this poem when His Majesty visited the Naishidokoro [the offices
of the women courtiers where the royal regalia was guarded]:
Though the world may change
do not forget
the reflection of one
who placed her trust
in the clear mirror. [p.15]
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Secondary sources
[Donald Keene's summaries and evaluations of Japanese diaries
from the 800s to the mid-1800s includes a brief chapter,"The
Diary of Lady Ben." Keene provides the views of Japanese
scholars on Ben no Naishi nikki as well as his own: he
finds it "entertaining but superficial" (p.146), but
a work that adds "welcome variety to Japanese diary literature"
(p.148). (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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[In his later work Donald Keene speaks again of the Nikki (pp.838-39), describing his favorite incidents and praising the work's "prevailingly cheerful tone"; in comparing it to other women's writing, Keene finds that "the humor is welcome because it is so rare." (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Keene, Donald. Seeds in the heart: Japanese literature from
earliest times to the late sixteenth century. New York: Henry
Holt & Co., 1993. (xiv, 1265 p.).
LC#: PL726.115 .K44 1993; ISBN 0805019995
Includes bibliographical references and index.
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Updated 08-24-08