Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan

1021. Takasué's daughter returns to Kiōto. Sarashina Diary begun.

notes

1

Translation by Arthur Waley in Japanese Poetry.

2

Her father Takasué was appointed Governor of Kazusa in 1017, and the authoress, who was then nine years old, was brought from Kiōto to the Province.

3

Prince Genji: The hero of Genji-monogatari, a novel by Murasaki-Shikibu.

4

Yakushi Buddha: "The Buddha of healing," or Sanscrit, Bhaisajyaguru-Vaiduryaprabhah.

5

Original, Nagatsuki, September.

6

Ancient ladies avoided men's eyes and always sat behind sudaré (finely split bamboo curtain) through which they could look out without being seen.

7

High personages, Governors of Provinces or other nobles, travelled with a great retinue, consisting of armed horsemen, foot-soldiers, and attendants of all sorts both high and low, together with the luggage necessary for prolonged existence in the wilderness. From Tokyo to Kiōto nowadays the journey is about twelve hours. It took about three months in the year 1017.

8

Futoi River is called the River Edo at present.

9

Matsusato, now called Matsudo.

10

Kagami's rapids, now perhaps Karameki-no-se.

11

Common gromwell, Lithospermum.

12

Takeshiba: Now called Shibaura, place-name in Tokyo near Shinagawa. Another manuscript reads: "This was the manor house of Takeshiba."

13

Misu: finer sort of sudaré used in court or in Shinto shrine. Cf. note 2, p. 4.

14

Seta Bridge is across the river from Lake Biwa, some seven or eight miles from Kioto.

15

In those days noblemen's and ladies' dresses were perfumed.

16

Dera or tera = temple.

17

The original text may also be understood as follows: "After that the guards of the watch-fire were allowed to live with their wives in the palace."

18

In the Isé-monogatari (a book of Narihira's poetical works) the Sumida River is said to be on the boundary between Musashi and Shimofusa. So the italicized words seem to be the authoress's mistake, or more probably an insertion by a later smatterer of literary knowledge who inherited the manuscript.

Narihira's poem is addressed to a sea-gull called Miyakodori, which literally means bird of the capital. Narihira had abandoned Kioto and was wandering towards the East. Just then his heart had been yearning after the Royal City and also after his wife, and that feeling must have been intensified by the name of the bird. (Cf. The Isé-monogatari, Section 9.)

Miyakodori! alas, that word
Fills my heart again with longing,
Even you I ask, O bird,
Does she still live, my beloved?

19

According to "Sagami-Fūdoki," or "The Natural Features of Sagami Province," this district was in ancient times inhabited by Koreans. The natives could not distinguish a Korean from a Chinese, hence the name of Chinese Field. A temple near Oiso still keeps the name of Kōraiji, or the Korean temple.

20

This seems to be the last line of a kind of song called Imayo, perhaps improvised by the singers; its meaning may be as follows: "You compare us with singers of the Western Provinces; we are inferior to those in the Royal City; we may justly be compared with those in Osaka."

21

Hakoné Mountain has now become a resort of tourists and a place of summer residence.

22

Fear of evil spirits which probably lived in the wild, and of robbers who certainly did.