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Sugawara no Takasue
no musume (1008-aft.1064)
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"IN THIS COMMONPLACE WORLD OF OURS, I EXPECTED TO STAND
OUT AS AN EXCEPTION."
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This author's name means "daughter of Sugawara no Takasue"; she was born in Kyoto but raised in the east when her father was an assistant governor. In Sarashina nikki she tells her story from age 12 to about age 52. Until she was about 30, she tells us, she did little but read tales like Murasaki Shikibu's Genji monogatari; then for about five years she was at court as an attendant to a princess. When she was about 36, she married and had several children. Once married, she was free to travel, and her pleasure in making pilgrimages and seeing natural landscape seems to have taken the place of her earlier escape into tales. When she was about 49, her husband died, and she started to take more seriously the Buddhism she had until then treated lightly. The meaning of the title traditionally assigned, Sarashina nikki, isn't clear: Sarashina is the name of a province referred to in one of the poems (and the subject of a legend of an old woman abandoned by her relatives), but the word itself is not used in the memoir.
In addition to Sarashina nikki, Sugawara no Takasue
no musume is credited with having written two monogatari.
The two tales were attributed to her by Fujiwara Teika (1162-1241),
a major literary figure and one usually reliable in his attributions.
Recent studies support Teika's attribution, but even today some
believe that she wrote only one or the other of the works. The
problem for scholars is that the two tales, Yoru(or
Yowa) no Nezame and Hamamatsu Chunagon monogatari, are
quite different from one another.
The more interesting (to a modern reader) of the two attributed
works, Yowa no Nezame (Wakefulness at night), originally
consisted of four parts, but the second and fourth are lost,
so less than one-half survives, although contemporary criticism
gives a good notion of most of the plot. Nezame is unusual
because of its focus on character. It contains relatively little
action; it deals almost exclusively with the characters' thoughts
and feelings.
The tale tells of the life of Nezame, daughter of a retired prince: she is made pregnant by her sister's fiance, Chunagon (literally, Middle Counselor), and has his child in secrecy. The first half of the extant work tells something of Nezame's thoughts but deals mostly with those of Chunagon and members of her family. The second half of the work focuses more fully on Nezame. Here, the Emperor tries to seduce Nezame; he is unsuccessful, but Chunagon remains suspicious. Nezame cares what Chunagon thinks, but her greatest concern is for her "honor": people have assumed that she was at least indiscreet in having children by an unknown man, and now they will believe the worst of her --- that she had given in to the Emperor, or even that, as rumor had it, her own sister's death was in some way caused by her.
Hamamatsu Chunagon monogatari (Tale of the Hamamatsu counselor; Hamamatsu is a section of Osaka) originally had six chapters; the first has been lost, but we know much of what it contained. The hero, Chunagon (not the same character as in Nezame) goes to China in search of the reincarnation of his dead father; he finds him, but he also finds and falls in love with a consort of the Chinese emperor. She has Chunagon's child, whom the hero takes back to Japan and raises. In Japan, he searches for and finds the mother and a sister of the Chinese consort; needless to say, he has a romance with the sister. If Nezame has been criticized by some for its narrow plot, Hamamatsu surely makes up for that.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from translations in print:
Sarashina nikki
Yowa no nezame monogatari
Hamamatsu Chunagon monogatariInformation about secondary sources.
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1. A link to "The Sarashina diary" translated by Annie Shepley Omori and Kochi Doi in 1920. You can also link to Amy Lowell's introduction to Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan, of which Sarashina nikki is one; some of Lowell's facts have been made outdated by newer research, and the tone is occasionally patronizing, but her insights are worthwhile. The link to the appendix will give you a useful chronology of the period.
2. Passages from Sarashina nikki, by other translators:
(a) On two pages, given with the Japanese script, the opening lines, translated by Azuma no Tabi.
(b) Another version of the opening, translated by Kenneth L. Richards.
(c) Use your browser's search funnction to go to "Sarashina" for lines on the narrator's eagerness to read all of Genji monogatari, translated by Richard Bowring.
(d) From the Wikipedia entry on Sarashina nikki, a line from the narrator's account of her 1020 trip to Kyoto, describing her first impression of Mount Fiji; the translation is by Ivan Morris.
(e) With an accunt of the narrator's reactions to the landscapes through which she travels, lines and a paraphrase, both from Morris.
(f) In a later section on her travels, the narrator describes, in Morris' translation, her return to the capital, "Even as I wander on my journey."
(g) After an introduction, Morris' translation of the opening lines and then of the narrator's reaction to the gift of the whole Genji and her dreams of the future, which, looking back, she sees as "futile conceits!"
(h) With Fujiwara Teika's 1200 calligraphy, one of the poems written in 1042, during the narrator's term at court, "Like me, the waterfowl spends its night in wretchedness"; the translation is by Robert H. Brower.
(i) Three poems written in 1050-51: two on missing friends from court, the third on traveling through the Bay of Sumiyoshi; the romanized original is also given.
(j) In an essay on Morris' translation of the Nikki, the opening and a passage near the end of the book in which the narrator mourns wandering "through life without realizing any of my hopes or accumulating any merit."
(k) Two-thirds of the way down the page, the narrator's final poem, translated by Sonja Arntzen, "The mugwort grows more and more rank."
3. The Wikipedia entries on Yoru no Nezame and on Hamamatsu Chunagon monogatari; each entry summarizes the story and gives an illustration (for Nezame, part of a 1100s scroll, Nezame monogatari emaki).
4. Essays:
(a) "Sarashina nikki: Memoir as Fiction" (2008), by Kane Naylor, describes how the author uses the techniques of the monogatari genre to warn her readers against the romantic fantasies that the genre itself could inspire.
(b) "Heian Noblewomen's Pilgrimage: The Language of Gendered Discontent and Construction of the Self," (2001), by Young-Ah Chung, discusses the ways in which Sarashina nikki and Michitsuna no haha's Kagero nikki reveal their authors' uses of acts of pilgrimage to find spaces in which they can control some aspect of their lives; quoted passages are given in the author's translation.
5. Research abstracts:
(a) A 2007 thesis abstract by Chiemo Daicho, "Representations of Family Relationships in Women's Prose Fiction: The Case of Medieval Japan," which looks at Sarashina nikki and Hamamatsu Chunagon monogatari.
(b) At the bottom of the page, an abstract of a 2006 article by Pana Barova, "The Book of Margery Kempe and Sarashina Nikki: A Comparative Study," which suggests similarity in the two works' narrative perspective.
(c) Half way down the page, a 2002 conference paper abstract by Ito Moriyuki, "On Education in the Chinese Classics and the Works of Murasaki Shikibu and Sugawara Takasue's Daughter," which inquires about the knowledge of China shown in Hamamatsu Chunagon monogatari.
6. For part of a c.1200 Japanese woman's view of Yowa no Nezame and Hamamatsu Chunagon, go to "Nezame" at the Shunzei kyo no musume page of this "Other Women's Voices" site (for information on the source of the passages, see below, under "Secondary sources").
7. Reviews (for excerpts from the translation, see "In print"; for information on the other books' treatment of Sarashina nikki, see "Secondary sources"):
(a) Branislav L. Slantchev on Morris' 1971 translation, As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams: Recollections of a Woman in Eleventh-century Japan.
(b) Timothy J. Van Compernolle on the 2001 essay collection, The Father-daughter Plot: Japanese Literary Women and the Law of the Father.
(c) Mark Morris on Donald Keene's 1993 history, Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century.
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[Ivan Morris' is the standard translation of Sarashina nikki; besides a useful introduction, Morris gives a chronology, notes, and --- a nice touch --- an index to the notes. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Sugawara no Takasue no Musume. As I crossed a bridge of dreams:
recollections of a woman in eleventh-century Japan / translated
with an introduction by Ivan Morris (Penguin classics). London;
New York: Penguin Books, 1975, c1971. (xi, 153 p.: ill., maps)
LC#: PL789.S8 S2513 1975; ISBN: 0140442820
Includes bibliographical references and index
[Also published: (1) London, Oxford University Press; [New York,
Dial Press] 1971. ISBN: 0192125532. (2) New York : Harper &
Row, 1973. ISBN: 06092892]
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"Please let me read them all."
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[The opening:]
I was brought up in a part of the country so remote that it lies beyond the end of the great East Road. What an uncouth creature I must have been in those days! Yet even shut away in the provinces I somehow came to hear that the world contained things known as Tales, and from that moment my greatest desire was to read them for myself. To idle away the time, my sister, my stepmother, and others in the household would tell me stories from the Tales, including episodes about Genji, the Shining Prince; but, since they had to depend on their memories, they could not possibly tell me all I wanted to know and their stories only made me more curious than ever.
In my impatience I got a statue of the Healing Buddha built in my own size. When no one was watching, I would perform my ablutions and, stealing into the altar room, would prostrate myself and pray fervently, "Oh, please arrange things so that we may go to the Capital, where there are so many Tales, and please let me read them all." [p.31]
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"I had often imagined...."
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[The family returned to Kyoto when the narrator was 12, and she read tales and cared for her aging father. Years later, she entered court service, a move which could help the family's social position. The reality of court life differed from that described in her beloved tales:]
My first period of service lasted exactly one night. When I went to the Palace, I wore a dark crimsom robe of glossed silk over eight thin under-robes of dark red. Having been totally absorbed in Tales, I knew scarcely anyone except the people I used to visit in order to borrow books. Besides, I was so used to staying with my old-fashioned parents at home, gazing hour after hour at the Autumn moon or the Spring blossoms, that when I arrived at Court I was in a sort of daze and hardly knew what I was doing. So at dawn the following day I returned home.
During my cloistered years I had often imagined that life in the Palace would offer all sorts of pleasures which I never encountered in my monotonous routine at home. As it turned out, my first experience at Court suggested that I would feel extremely awkward and unhappy in these new surroundings. Yet what could I do about it.
In the Twelfth Month I went to Court once more. I was given a room of my own, and this time I stayed in service for several days. When I was summoned to the Princess's apartments for night duty, I had to lie next to women I did not know and I could not sleep a wink. Overcome with nervousness and embarrassment, I wept secretly until dawn; then I returned to my room and spent all day in loving, anxious thoughts about Father, who was growing old and feeble and who depended on me so completely. [pp.75-76]
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"...fellow divers by the sea."
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[Yet a few years later, the women at court had become her friends:]
Once when I was serving in the beautiful and serene Palace of the little Princess I spent the entire day chatting with a couple of close friends. After I returned home on the following day, I found myself missing them badly, so to while away the time, I composed this poem,
She who dives into the waves
Is bound to wet her sleeves.
Yet fondly I recall our days
As fellow divers by the sea.
[p.101]
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"I was able to do exactly as I wished."
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[The narrator's marriage gave her a freedom she had never known and which she used to travel. Once, she planned to leave Kyoto on a pilgrimage just before a major festival:]
My brother was outraged. "This is a ceremony that you can witness only once in an Imperial reign," he said. "People are coming all the way from the country to see it. When there are so many days in the year, it is madness to choose precisely this one to leave the Capital. You'll be a laughing-stock for generations to come."
My husband, however, told me I should do exactly as I wished,
and I was impressed by his understanding.
[p.90]
[And later:]
Now that I was able to do exactly as I wished, I went on one distant pilgrimage after another. Some were delightful, some difficult, but I found great solace in them all, being confident that they would bring me future benefit.
No longer having any sorrows of my own, I concentrated on providing the best possible upbringing for my children and waited impatiently for them to grow up. I also prayed for my husband's future, and I was confident that my prayers would be answered. [p.99]
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"...that sad, dreamlike time."
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[When she was 49 and failing health was limiting her pilgrimages, the narrator's husband died. The children she had cared for --- hers, her sister's, her husband's --- grew up and no longer needed her. Near the end of the nikki, she thinks back on the death of her husband:]
Many years have passed, but whenever I think of that sad, dreamlike time my heart is thrown into turmoil and my eyes darken, so that even now I cannot clearly remember all that happened.
My family went to live elsewhere, and I stayed forlornly by myself in the old house. [p.110]
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[This collection contains the print version of the nikki translation online: Annie Shepley Omori's and Kochi Doi's translation is interesting in that it is a more literal rendering; as such, it shows the difficulty of assigning speeches to the right speaker and deciding to whom a pronoun refers:]
Diaries of court ladies of old Japan. Translated by Annie
Shepley Omori and Kochi Doi. With an introd. by Amy Lowell. New
York, AMS Press, [1970] (xxxii, 200 p. illus.)
LC#: PL782.E8 O4 1970; ISBN: 0404048196
Reprint of the 1920 ed. The Sarashina diary.--The diary of Murasaki
Shikibu.--The diary of Izumi Shikibu.
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[Kenneth L. Richard has translated all of the extant Yoru no nezame. The introduction discusses Hamamatsu Chunagon monogatari as well as Nezame, and the notes are helpful. An "index" gives the book's poems in romanized Japanese:]
Richard, Kenneth L. Developments in late Heian prose fiction:
The tale of Nezame. [Seattle] 1973. ( iv, 491 leaves)
LC#: PL789.S8 Y618 R51973 A
Thesis--University of Washington. Bibliography: leaves 486-490.
Photocopy. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International,
1982
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"Of all stories about relations between men and women...."
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[The opening, which gives the tale its title and the heroine her name (literally, "sleepless"):]
Of all stories about relations between men and women, rarely has one brought with it such sleepless nights for its lovers as that which I am about to tell. Although their bond was deep, it brought much pain. [p.52]
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"Since she was presumably beneath his class...."
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[Chunagon, brother of an empress and engaged to Nezame's elder sister, visited a place of pilgrimage where he caught a brief glimpse of a 15-year-old girl whom he assumed to be the daughter of the governor of the area. Overwhelmed by her beauty:]
...Chunagon, who usually behaved quite calmly, could not control his feelings this time. He even ventured to think that since she was presumably beneath his class he could afford to be slightly impertinent, for would the fragrant summer breeze often lead him to a night such as this was to be? Quietly he stole in....
At that instant she felt someone's presence and turned around to look. Chunagon, still taking her for the Governor's daughter, pulled her into an inner room. Stupefied and panic-stricken, she was unable to come to her senses. [p.64]
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"Learn to live by not hearing the cries they cast at you."
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[Even after their night together, neither Chunagon nor the young girl, Nezame, knew who the other was. Although still thinking of her, Chunagon married her sister, and soon came to live in her father's house, but without ever seeing Nezame. Her older cousin and companion was the only one who soon realized who the night visitor had been --- and that Nezame was pregnant. She gives both pieces of information to the unworldly Nezame:]
"If he should as much as hear your voice , you would be put to even greater embarrassment than is now the case. You seem to be with child by him....
"It'll do no good to be sorry now, for all that is not of this world. Be consoled that that this is to be your lot only in this life; accept it candidly. If it proves too much, think of how strange all the others are....
Learn to live by not hearing the cries they cast at you." [p.85]
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"...now recalling faintly...."
-----------------------------------
[Although Nezame never left her room, Chunagon came to know of her presence and her situation. After several failed attempts to see her, he finally got into her room for a few minutes. This passage is the first that speaks of her feeling toward Chunagon:]
As he turned to leave, Nezame watched him to soothe her inexpressible grief; no less handsome than he had been on that night, she thought, now recalling faintly a moment when they had clung closely together, their bodies running with sweat and tears. [p.114]
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"When will Oigimi pardon me...?
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[Eventually a girl was born (who would one day marry an emperor) and was taken to be raised by Chunagon's family as his child by an unknown woman. This enraged Nezame's still childless sister, who had come to believe the rumors that Nezame was the mother. Near the end of the book's first half, Nezame, now healthy and reasonably happy living in seclusion with her father:]
She thought of her sister: "When will Oigimi pardon me as well? We have always loved each other since childhood and though the winds of change may blow, still I shall never cease to think of her with love." [p.195]
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[Carol Hochstedler has translated the second half of the extant Yoru no nezame; her introduction places "Part 3" into what is known of the whole and provides a genealogy of the characters. Hochstedler calls the hero "Naidaijin," his rank in the tale's later part:]
The tale of Nezame: part three of Yowa no Nezame Monogatari
/ translated by Carol Hochstedler (Cornell University East Asia
papers; no. 22). Ithaca, N.Y.: China-Japan Program, Cornell University,
c1979. (269 p.: geneal. table)
LC#: PL789.S8 Y6213 1979
Bibliography: p. 267-269.
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"My own life has hardly turned out as I expected."
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[In the missing second part of the book, Nezame has another child by Chunagon, marries a widower who soon dies, and hears of her sister dying under mysterious circumstances. At the start of Part 3, Nezame compares what "the world" thinks of her --- at best a licentious woman, at worst the murderer of her sister --- with her girlhood plans for herself:]
Never, she thought, from her youngest days, had she had an opportunity to experience the pleasure of being regarded as a charming, attractive woman. Every worldly encounter was doomed to carry for her only a sense of shame and regret.
"When I first came to understand what was valued in this world, I felt quite pleased with myself. I would be inferior to no one. I imagined myself a lady of great dignity, one who invariably left a deep impression in the minds of others. In this commonplace world of ours, I expected to stand out as an exception.
"But whatever good fortune is---it must come unexpectedly from the realms beyond one's control. Certainly my own life has hardly turned out as I expected. From the very outset I have been regarded as shallow and fickle, imprudent and unwise. In the end my life will be counted a total loss." [p.78-79]
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"If only some business would take him away...."
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[Loyalty to the memory of her dead husband, by continuing to care for his daughters, seemed at first the only to retain her sense of self:]
The only memories she could recall with pleasure were those
of her life with her husband. She realized that the only way
to maintain her dignity was to set her heart on carrying out
his wishes. [p.137]
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[But then, when Chunagon, whom she finally admitted to loving, neglected her for long periods, Nezame was offended but came to understand the irony of her situation:]
Then she realized that she finally had her wish. When her husband had stayed with her constantly, never looking at another woman, she had found him too tedious.
"If only some business would take him away," she had thought at times, "so that I might be free to enjoy myself and pursue my interests."
But his attention had never wavered from her. He had stayed
by her side every minute. [p.212]
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"It seems to be my destiny...."
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[At the end of Book 3, finally living openly with Chunagon, Nezame hoped for peace of mind; his jealousy prevented that, and her need to care for their children prevented her from following the Buddhist path of withdrawal from the world:]
"Why must he treat me this way?" her heart cried out, and in the wake of that cry rushed a torrent of thoughts: "My relationship with him was my initiation, one I could not avoid, to the stony path that lies between a man and a woman. Then were born the children, whom I could not abandon. Solely for my love for them I unwisely exchanged many secret words with him....
"Only one whose heart is no longer in this world shall come to know peace. So long as a person loves this life there will be disappointments.... It seems to be my destiny for all to end in heartache. I turn my thoughts now toward the world that is to come.
"Yet how sad that here too, I cannot follow my resolve.
My children are a tie which binds me more closely to this life."
[pp.238-239]
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[Thomas Rohlich has translated the extant Hamamatsu Chunagon monogatari. Rohlich's introduction provides information on the background and on the missing first chapter; he also quotes the views expressed in the Mumyozoshi (see under "Secondary sources" below):]
A tale of eleventh century Japan: Hamamatsu Chunagon monogatari
/ introduction and translation by Thomas H. Rohlich (Princeton
library of Asian translations). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
Press, 1983. (247 p.)
LC#: PL789.S8 H313 1983; ISBN: 0691053774.
Includes bibliography and index.
--------------------------------
"She was now satisfied."
--------------------------------
[A woman whom Chunagon had left behind when he went to China had his child and then became a Buddhist nun. When he returned to Japan, they continued to meet, in order to support one another in their religious devotions. Here, the thoughts of both are given:]
But even if she were not a nun, he wondered, could they live as an ordinary couple? Probably not. There would undoubtedly be times when she would resent his overly modest ways. And were they less diligent in their prayers they might lose sight of their hopes for the future world. Their present relationship... was such that neither he nor she had any obvious cause for bitterness, and the more they prayed together the greater this devotion grew.
His willingness to talk with her of society or personal matters
any time she wanted made her feel as if she truly had someone
to rely on. For years, her nursemaids had cared for her, but
the comfort they gave her had its limits, and sleeping alone
was very lonely. She was now satisfied with her station in this
life and her hopes for the next.
[p.128]
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"Putting aside all thought of Paradise...."
---------------------------------------------------
[But Chunagon could not forget the Emperor's consort whom he had loved in China; to be with her again, he was willing to abandon his Buddhist goal of Nirvana:]
The only way he could ever be near her again would be for one of them to be born again....
Putting aside all thought of Paradise he prayed that they might see each other again, even if it meant being reborn in this world. He begged to meet her once again..., to learn what she really thought of him.
It was distressing to find his prayers being devoted exclusively to his wish to see her. Had he ever imagined he would abandon himself to sinful ways and lament so?... How people would laugh and make a fool of him were they to hear how futile was his resolve. [p.160]
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"I must be reborn as a woman."
----------------------------------------
[Chunagon's prayer was answered, though not quite as he had hoped. He saw the Chinese consort in a dream: she told him that she would be reborn as a woman. (No woman could achieve Nirvana without first being reborn as a man, so his prayers --- and her love for him --- had condemned her to continued reincarnation.) The"girl you now grieve for" refers to the consort's sister, abducted and impregnated by a prince:]
"Because of your prayers that we be together in the same land even if it meant rebirth, my life ended earlier than expected and I am now in heaven for a brief time. Because I too long for you, I am soon to be lodged in the womb of the girl you now grieve for. I followed the example of the Medicine King [Buddha] religiously, but both you and I were fettered by a strange, unyielding passion. I must be reborn as a woman."
He then awoke, his eyes drowned in tears.... "My wish had been that I might be reborn with her. I never wanted one so luminous and beautiful as she, the very light of this world, to change." [pp.217-218]
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[For a c.1200 Japanese woman's view of Yoru no Nezame and Hamamatsu Chunagon, see Michele Marra's translation of Shunzei kyo mo musume's Mumyozoshi, pp. 295-305 (the material on Hamamatsu is also given in Rohlich's introduction). The periodical is in many university libraries, so the pages are available via interlibrary loan:]
Marra, Michele, tr. Mumyozoshi. Monumenta Nipponica,
39: 2-4 (1984), 115-145, 281-305, 409-434.
LC#: DS821.A1 M6; ISSN: 0027-0741
--------------------
[Edith Sarra's essay in this collection looks at Nezame's role in the latter half of the extant work (especially in her conflict with the dowager empress) and at her relationships with her daughters and with other women. Sarra sees Nezame as an example of widowed women empowered (at least temporarily) by their position as heads of households. The essay's notes provide a valuable review of Japanese-language critical studies:]
Sarra, Edith. Yoru no nezame and the fictional limits of late-Heian
aristocratic motherhood. Rethinking Gender in the Postgender
Era: Proceedings of the Association for Japanese Literary Studies:
PAJLS, v.11 (Summer 2010), 233-58.
LC#: PL700 .P757; ISSN: 1531-5533
Includes bibliographical references
--------------------
[Two of the three works analyzed in Charo B. D'Etcheverry's study
are Hamamatsu Chunagon monogatari and Yoru no Nezame.
D'Etcheverry analyzes these works (and the contemporary Sagoroma
monogatari) to see how they use and respond to Murasaki Shikibu's
Genji monogatari, looking at Hamamatsu Chunagon for
its emphasis on the importance of family, at Nezame for
its theme of exile. All quotations from the texts are given in
the author's own translation. An appendix provides detailed plot
summaries of the three works; the general reader would probably
be wise to read these first. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
D'Etcheverry, Charo B. Love after the tale of genji: rewriting
the world of the shining prince (Harvard East Asian monographs
286). Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center: distributed
by Harvard University Press, 2007. (xiv, 220 p.)
LC#: PL747.25.C7D48 2007; ISBN: 9780674025073
Includes bibliographical references (p. [177]-207) and index
-------------------
[John R. Wallace's study includes a substantial chapter, "The Sarashina Memoir --- Writing Solutions," which analyzes the narrative structure of Sarashina nikki to illustrate the dissonance between the protagonist's desire for the life shown in the old tales and the narrator's (sometimes partial) devotion to Buddhism. Wallace sees the work as describing a "journey of desire, discovery, and recovery" (p.193). The book's introduction and first chapter provide useful background on the writing of the period and the role of women in and out of the court; the notes summarize earlier Japanese-language studies. All quoted passages are given in Wallace's own translation. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Wallace, John R. Objects of discourse: memoirs by women of
Heian Japan (Michigan monograph series in Japanese studies; no.
54). Ann Arbor, MI: Center for Japanese Studies, the University
of Michigan, 2005. (xi, 325 p.: ill.)
LC#: PL741.2 .W35 2005; ISBN: 1929280343
Includes bibliographical references (p. 296-308) and index
-------------------
[Much of Esperanza Ramirez-Christensen's essay in this collection,
"Self- Representation and the Patriarchy in the Heian Female
Memoirs," discusses how the narrator of Sarashina nikki
perceives herself and her relationship to her father. Translations
of text passages are Ramirez-Christensen's own. The essay ends
with a useful bibliography.(See
the book's table of contents online.):]
The father-daughter plot: Japanese literary women and the
law of the father / edited by Rebecca L. Copeland and Esperanza
Ramirez-Christensen. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Press,
c2001. (xi, 384 p.: ill.)
LC#: PL721.F37 F38 2001; ISBN: 0824821726, 0824824385
Includes bibliographical references and index
------------------
[Edith Sarra's study of Heian women's memoirs includes two chapters on Sarashina nikki; in her discussion 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
-------------------
[Donald Keene's summaries and evaluations of Japanese diaries
from the 800s to the mid-1800s includes a chapter,"The Sarashina
Diary." Keene finds that "the portrait of a young woman
who lived entirely in her books is curiously appealing"
(p.56). He also gives the original and his translation of one
of the poems from the work. (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
------------------
[Keene's later work, a history, discusses Yoru no Nezame and Hamamatsu Chunagon monogatari in the chapter on "Courtly Fiction after The Tale of Genji" (and treats Sarashina nikki in the chapter on "Heian Diaries"); the book also gives an good overview of the literature of the period. (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.
-------------------
[Ivan Morris' 1964 study is probably still the best single
introduction to the Japanese court culture of the 900s and 1000s:]
Morris, Ivan I. The world of the shining prince: court life
in ancient Japan; with a new introduction by Barbara Ruch (Kodansha
globe). New York: Kodansha International, 1994. (xxvii, 336 p.:
ill.)
LC#: DS824 .M6 1994; ISBN: 1568360290.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [321]-324) and index.
[Also published: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England; New York,
N.Y., U.S.A.: Penguin Books, 1969, c1964 (1985 printing) ISBN:
0140550836]
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Updated 02-03-12