The Diary of Lady Murasaki

by Murasaki Shikibu

  30 Both these creatures had magic powers that prevented boats and ships from sinking in wind or waves. The fantastical shapes were copied from Chinese example. Here, of course, we are only talking of boats poled in the shallow garden lake. Once the ceremonies are under way, the musicians will play on the lake.

  31 These were some of the many bugaku court dances performed on such occasions. The provenance of each dance was generally known and in this case all are of Chinese origin. In view of the fact that Michinaga’s diary records ‘Chinese and Korean, two dances each’, Murasaki may be mistaken here.

  32 This phrase is part of a poem that can be found in the ‘Celebration’ section of the Wakan rōeishū, an anthology of well-known Chinese and Japanese verses compiled by the very person who is reciting it here – Fujiwara no Kintō, whom we have previously met (see note 25). The poem reads: No limit to the delight at a time of celebration; For ten thousand ages and a thousand autumns the pleasure never ends.

  33 Why? Murasaki must have been hoping for some advancement for one of her close relatives, perhaps her ill-starred brother, and she had lost the opportunity to exert any influence she might have had.

  34 From her parents’ point of view, the birth certainly was ‘long-awaited’. Shōshi had entered the Palace in 999, at which point she had been eleven, but Emperor Ichijō (980–1011) already nineteen: she was now twenty-one.

  35 This particular room has been Murasaki’s up to this point and it is not clear why she has moved. As the following passage makes clear, however, she must have moved into the middle room at some stage. See ground-plan 2 (Appendix 1).

  36 This line is from a saibara or folk song. These were adopted at court and given a formal accompaniment in the Chinese manner. All the other songs mentioned in the diary from this point on are also saibara.

  37 For a clearer picture of what is going on at this point see ground-plan 7 (Appendix 1). The records translated in Appendix 2 are particularly detailed for this ceremony.

  38 It was the custom for the father or grandfather to offer little rice cakes to the child on such occasions, merely a ceremonial gesture.

  39 The men are sitting on the veranda facing inwards, while the women are sitting in the southern gallery facing outwards: see ground-plan 7 (Appendix 1). The blinds have been rolled up but the women are still hidden by curtains which were joined by seams loose enough to allow things to be passed through, or to act as peepholes. It is these that Akimitsu is now pulling apart to get a better view.

  40 This gentleman is Fujiwara no Sanesuke, author of the Shōyūki, a court diary written in Sino-Japanese that covers the years 982–1032, part of which is translated in Appendix 2. Sanesuke was a well-known critic of Michinaga’s opulence and he may be looking at the women’s robes with a jaundiced eye, marking up yet another instance of extravagance.

  41 This is the only reference in the diary to the name Murasaki. It is, of course, a nickname associated with the fictional heroine of the Tale of Genji and this little vignette probably records its genesis: it would not be surprising if a name first bestowed by the eminent Kintō were quickly to gain currency.

  42 The situation here is a little vague. The noble are sitting on the veranda, which is quite narrow, so there would be no space to walk behind them. When asked to take the cup, Assistant Master Fujiwara no Sanenari carefully avoids walking in front of his father, goes instead down the steps at the east end of the veranda, walks along the garden and comes up the centre steps. His father, who is drunk, bursts into tears on seeing how his son can observe the correct formalities in such a situation.

  43 The stories mentioned earlier that Her Majesty was having copied may or may not have been by Murasaki, but there can be little doubt that this particular reference is to the Tale of Genji. The fact that copies would have taken months of hard work to produce, that they could so easily go astray like this, and that many of them may simply have been drafts rather than the finished product makes it all the more incredible that her work, in particular, has survived.

  44 Mandarin ducks were supposed always to go around in inseparable pairs. This common metaphor for lovers originally came from Chinese literature but had by this time become firmly part of the Japanese poetic vocabulary. These poems should be seen as forming a conventional exchange between close friends – nothing more.

  45 The palace to which Her Majesty returns is not the main Imperial Palace but the much smaller mansion at Ichijō nearby. The Imperial Palace itself had been burned to the ground on Kankō 2 (1005).11.15 and, although rebuilding started a year later, it was not actually reoccupied until Kankō 8 (1011).8.11. For details of the Ichijō Palace see ground-plan 8 (Appendix 1).

  46 Lady Koshōshō’s father had retired from active life as early as 987 and she had been brought up by her mother. This lack of a male relative with the proper court connections would have been seen as a major impediment to making a good marriage.

  47 These books are the first three imperial anthologies of Japanese poetry: the Kokinshū was compiled c. 905, the Gosenshū c. 951, and the Shūishū c. 1005.

  48 Ōnakatomi no Yoshinobu (921?–991) and Kiyohara no Motosuke (908–990) both took part in the compilation of the Gosenshū. It is not clear here whether Murasaki thought of these men as ‘old’ or ‘new’.

  49 The Gosechi dances were always performed over a period of four days late in the eleventh month. This year there were, as usual, four dancers, the daughters of Fujiwara no Sanenari, Fujiwara no Kanetaka, Takashina no Naritō and Fujiwara no Nakakiyo. The ceremonies began on the second day of the Ox (in this case the twentieth) when the four dancers would formally enter the Palace, each with a retinue of some ten attendants. It is this formal entrance that is being described here. In the evening they would perform the Dais Rehearsals. On the following day a banquet was held for the Imperial Rehearsals. The third day saw a presentation by the young girls (about ten years old) who were in attendance on the dancers, and the Festivals of the First Fruits were held that evening. The main Gosechi dances were performed on the fourth day.

  50 It is not clear where this door is. If one assumes that Murasaki and the other ladies-in-waiting are sitting in the southern wing looking south, Michinaga must be standing just to their right. See ground-plan 8 (Appendix 1).

  51 Murasaki is here referring to the white cloaks dyed with indigo patterns that were connected with Shintō ritual and that were worn for the Gosechi ceremonies but only for the last two days of the event.

  52 We are now in the third day of the ceremonies and Murasaki is describing the Imperial Viewing of the Girl Attendants. The dancers themselves rested on this day, but one young girl, with an older woman in attendance, was chosen from each party to perform before the Emperor. In contrast to the two previous occasions, this presentation took place in the daytime.

  53 The First Consort was Fujiwara no Gishi (Yoshiko), Kinsue’s daughter, also known as Kokiden. Apparently Lady Sakyō used to be in her service, left for some reason, and has now returned as an attendant for Sanenari’s daughter. Sanenari was Gishi’s younger brother.

  54 Mt Hōrai was a symbol of longevity, used here no doubt as a specific reminder to Lady Sakyō that she was not getting any younger.

  55 The ceremonial white paper was attached to the headdress worn by the Gosechi dancers, and at the Imperial Viewing of the Girl Attendants the selection of a comb was a mark of special favour. Apparently, the younger the woman, the greater the curvature on the comb.

  56 The Banquet of the Flushed Faces took place on the fourth and last day of the festivities. Somewhere in the course of the previous passage Murasaki has moved on to describe events on the twenty-third.

  57 These were the penultimate gagaku rehearsals for the Special Festival at the Kamo Shrines, which was held on the last day of the Cock in the eleventh month (which fell this year on the twenty-eighth).

  58 The children of Michinaga’s second wife Meishi, called Takamatsu after a mansion that had belonged to her father, Minamoto n
o Takaakira. They had kept their distance until now because the Tsuchimikado mansion belonged to Michinaga’s first wife, Rinshi. Once Shōshi’s retinue returned to the palace at Ichijō, they were again allowed free rein. As they were young men rather than boys, Yorimune (16), Akinobu (15) and Yoshinobu (14), it is not surprising that Murasaki was somewhat put out.

  59 The lid is the one that they had sent to Lady Sakyō. Kinsue, who takes it upon himself to make a return gift, was Gishi’s father.

  60 A form of rebus writing whereby a poem was hidden in a sketch of reeds, rocks and water.

  61 Owari no Kanetoki was a famous dancer of kagura, religious dances. This may well have been his last Kamo Shrine dance, because Michinaga’s diary records that he was too ill to dance it the following year, 1009.

  62 There is a gap of about one month at this point. A number of important ceremonies were held during this period, but either Murasaki seems not to have found them worth recording, or the record has been lost. Perhaps she returned home soon after the Gosechi dances in the eleventh month and spent the whole month away from the Palace.

  63 This rite, known as tsuina, involved the casting of rice, beans and spells to usher out evil spirits. It was the last of the year’s ceremonies.

  64 Murasaki is here calling for her younger brother Nobunori, who was always such a disappointment to her. The fact that he fails to turn up is made doubly mortifying when Sukenari, his erstwhile rival for promotion, comes to the rescue.

  65 This incident is not mentioned in any other record, although the entries for the latter part of the twelfth month are missing from both Michinaga’s diary and the Shōyūki. It is possible that burglaries were so commonplace as to be considered unworthy of special notice. Security certainly seems to have been lax. It is also possible that Murasaki had misunderstood the situation. In view of the fact that the best robes were not stolen, we may be dealing with a prank played by some drunken young nobles. Murasaki uses the word hadakasugata here, which may mean ‘nude’ or may simply mean that the women have lost their outer robes: the matter is unclear.

  66 This ceremony was carried out for imperial princes and princesses three times during the New Year until they were about four or five years old. Specially made rice cakes were placed on the child’s head and spells were cast.

  67 This pattern consisted of flat diamond shapes in groups of four, and it was this geometric effect that struck Murasaki as being rather Chinese.

  68 It is at this point that most scholars place the beginning of the so-called ‘letter section’, in which Murasaki describes her contemporaries and indulges in some self-analysis, although the transition from description of event to description of character has already started a few paragraphs before.

  69 For a discussion of this household see the Introduction, pp. xxi–xxii.

  70 Murasaki may have been led on to the subject of Izumi Shikibu because she was Lady Chūjō’s aunt, but the main link here is the subject of interesting letters and their authors. Izumi Shikibu entered the service of Shōshi in the late spring of Kankō 6 (1009) and so must have been a companion of Murasaki’s for some time, although this passage is written in retrospect.

  71 Otherwise known as Akazome Emon, this is the wife of Oe no Masahira, who became Governor of Tanba in Kankō 7 (1010).3.30. She had served with Michinaga’s wife Rinshi even before her marriage and was the mother of Takachika, who, it will be remembered, read out the passage from the classics at Prince Atsuhira’s first bath. She is also reputed to be the author of the Eiga monogatari.

  72 Sei Shōnagon is the well-known author of the Pillow Book, who served Empress Teishi until her mistress died in childbirth in 1000. If she were still alive at this time, and there is no way of telling, she would have been about forty-five.

  73 The rhythm here suggests a direct quote from a poem, but no satisfactory source has been identified. Misfortune will come from looking too long and too often at the moon and hence identifying with it; this was said to promote nostalgia, grief and premature ageing.

  74 A reference to Poem 985 in the Kokinshū by Yoshimine no Munesada (Bishop Henjō): ‘While on his way to Nara he heard a woman playing a koto in a dilapidated house. He wrote this poem and sent it in: It seemed to be a dwelling where you might expect someone dejected to be living; and now I hear the sound of a koto that adds to the sadness of it all.’

  75 The Three Treasures without which the teachings would not survive were the Buddha himself, the Buddhist Law, and the community of monks who preserved that law. Slander of these three treasures was one of the gravest of offences.

  76 Murasaki’s brother was given the title Secretary at the Ministry of War earlier in the diary. When he changed is not known. It is possible that ‘Ministry of Ceremonial’ (Shikibu) is a simple mistake, which may have arisen because Murasaki’s father, who is mentioned later in this same passage, did at one stage hold this post.

  77 Po Chü-i (772–846) was a T’ang dynasty Chinese poet who had the distinction of being well-known and read in Japan during his own lifetime. In Murasaki’s time his work still formed the foundation of a courtier’s knowledge of Chinese poetry.

  78 Murasaki may be thinking of the fact that she was born a woman and so might well have to go through at least one further rebirth as a man. In Early Buddhism the female state was a major handicap to enlightenment, although by Murasaki’s time in Japan textual ‘proof’ was available, particularly in the Lotus Sūtra, that enlightenment was more or less attainable by women.

  79 Here there is a definite break. One theory has it that this passage actually predates the beginning of the present diary. See the Introduction (p.xlvi) for further discussion.

  80 Murasaki has just quoted a line from one of Po Chü-i’s New Ballads entitled ‘The Ocean Wide’, which is concerned with the search for a magic elixir from the fabled mountainous isle of Peng-lai (Jp.:Hōrai), which was mentioned earlier with reference to a pattern. Tadanobu immediately caps it with the next line from the poem.

  81 Both of these poems revolve round a pun on the word suki, which can mean either ‘tart’, in reference to the fruit, or ‘amorous’, in reference to a man or woman.

  82 The cry of the water rail was thought to sound like tapping on wood, hence the conventional association of this bird with the visit of a lover.

  83 At this point all extant manuscripts carry the following annotation, thought to be by the scholar and poet Fujiwara no Teika (1162–1241): ‘In Kankō 6 (1009).10.4 the Ichijō Palace burned down. On the 19th the Emperor moved to the Biwa mansion belonging to Minister of the Left Michinaga. On the 25th of the eleventh month the third prince was born, the Empress returning to the Palace on the 26th of the twelfth month.’ This means that the word ‘Palace’ here and in what follows is in fact Michinaga’s Biwa mansion. The court did not finally return to the palace at Ichijō until Kankō 7 (1010).11.28. We are now at the beginning of 1010. There are now two princes: Atsuhira and his younger brother Atsunaga, born Kankō 6 (1009).11.25. The annotation says ‘third prince’ because it is also counting the son born to the Emperor’s first consort, Teishi.

  84 An apposite quote from a poem attributed to Mibu no Tadamine: ‘If there were no small pines in the fields on the day of the Rat, then what could we pick as a sign of future fortunes?’ (Shūishū, Poem 23). It was the custom to go out into the fields and pick young shoots and pine seedlings on the first day of the Rat every year.

  85 Murasaki apparently thought that Kodayū’s colour sense was at fault but she is unsure as to why Genshikibu was being criticized. Genshikibu was not of a high enough rank to wear the ‘forbidden colours’ and so could not have worn a mantle in figured silk even if she had wished to.

  86 There is a lacuna at this point in the text and one can only guess at who is meant.

  87 The sōjō mode, with a scale of g a b d e, was the third of the six basic gagaku modes. The three songs are saibara, old folk songs incorporated into court music.

  88 Michinaga’s diary f
or this day reads: ‘Showers. In the evening the sky cleared and the moon was bright. While the music was being played the guards provided torches, but the flares in the garden were extinguished so that we could see the moon. When it was all over we went inside. Minister of the Right Akimitsu caught sight of the Emperor’s meal and tried to pick up a bowl and some food which was piled in between the ornamental cranes. He tipped the whole tray over. Everyone was most shocked. The cranes should not have been touched! What a blunderer! How stupid of him!’

  89 This was the name of a famous flute that Michinaga had been given just a few days previously by Retired Emperor Kazan. The significance of the name (‘two teeth’?) is not known, but prized instruments and utensils were often given nicknames that reflected some aspect of their origin.