Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan

122

See frontispiece.

123

Unemé: beautiful women, selected from various provinces for their beauty, especially to wait on the Royal table.

124

Mohitori: officials who had charge of wells, shoyu (Japanese sauce) and ice-houses.

125

Migusiagé: attendants whose hair was done up with hairpins.

126

King's housekeepers.

127

Cleaners.

128

Da: a gambling game now not known. It was played with dice.

129

(The following poem, then composed, is made with words of two meanings. It is impossible to arrange it in poetic form in English, but we present the two meanings in separate phrases, which the reader may combine for himself.)

130

A pleated divided skirt worn by both men and women.

131

In Kioto it used to be the custom to cover the earth of the gardens with very white fine sand.

132

A school created in 825 A.D. by the Prime Minister Fujiwara Fuyutsugu to educate the younger members of the Fujiwara family.

133

This "court fashion" of sending rolls of silk as presents from the Emperor or Empress prevails to-day, one thousand years later.

134

This person was the second son of the Prime Minister; therefore the Queen's brother or half-brother and uncle of the Crown Prince.

135

The island of Horai; Japanese Elysium, a crystal island of eternal youth and felicity, supposed to exist in mid-ocean. A miniature presentation of this island is used on festal occasions as the emblem of eternity, or unchangeableness.

136

The Prime Minister wished to arrange a marriage between his eldest son and the Prince's daughter. The authoress's cousin had adopted the Prince's son.

137

This incident has for some reason become very famous and artists have used it as a subject for pictures. One of these is now hanging in the Imperial Museum in Tokyo.

138

Poems were written on oblongs of crimson, yellow, gold, or other paper according to the feeling of the writer. Nowadays oblong poem papers can be bought anywhere, but they are generally white or gray with gold decoration.

139

The King's visit was made October 16, 1008.

140

It was de rigueur for ladies to conceal their faces with fans.

141

The left side is the more honourable position, but this time the King sat at the right side because perhaps they could not move the Queen's dais.

142

A special effect of brilliant shining produced by beating the silk.

143

A special effect of brilliant shining produced by beating the silk.

144

These garments were evidently made of very thin material, colours underneath being intended to modify the outer ones, hence the art of dressing became very subtle.

145

Doubtless this office was highly important and held in honour. In those days poison and inferior foods were to be guarded against. Throughout the journal it may be noticed that all directly serving the King and Queen in any way are persons of high rank.

146

In this curiously delicate operation the actual leaf or flower from which the colour was obtained was rubbed onto the silk to make the desired pattern.