Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan

147

Light blue and some kinds of yellow are colours relegated to the elderly in Japan. Babies and young people are dressed in bright colours and showy patterns. The old wear plain stuffs and pale or dull colours.

148

This dance was performed by court nobles at the coronation of the present Emperor at Kioto, 1915.

149

Artificial hills in Japanese gardens are intended to bring mountain scenery to mind, whether large or small. They are sometimes of considerable size.

150

Reigned 970 to 984. This lady may have been his mistress or had interesting reminiscences to relate.

151

The feuds of the Fujiwara family. Fujiwara Fuhito had four sons who became the founders of the four great Fujiwara families – Minami, Kyo, Kita, and Shiki. They were all aspiring to the King's favour and at enmity with each other, the present Prime Minister Michinaga far outstripping the others in power.

152

Mochi: a cake made of beaten rice flour paste.

153

These dainty white wooden boxes of food arranged in a way pleasing to the eye are still a feature of Japanese life. They are distributed, with varying contents, at weddings and funerals, sold at railway stations, and carried on picnics.

154

At banquets a great cup was used which could contain one or two quarts of liquor. When this was circulated among the guests each was expected to empty the cup, and it was the pride of the drinker to toss it off in one draught.

155

The hero of Genji Monogatari.

156

The Queen desired a literary Court to rival that of the first Queen. See note on p. 131.

157

A special kind of wild duck called oshidori which is always seen in couples.

158

Kokiden: residence of the first Queen.

159

The World; i.e. matrimonial affairs.

160

Three anthologies, of Ancient and Modern Poems, Later Selections of Poems, and Miscellaneous Poems, respectively.

161

These men were famous calligraphers.

162

This famous dance, whose origin is given below, was performed at the present Emperor's coronation at Kioto in 1915, by five daughters of ancient noble families selected for their beauty. It is said that these young ladies immediately thereafter received a great many offers of marriage.

Gosetchi was a great holiday succeeded by two days of feasting. The dancing girls (of the diary) were all daughters of persons of high rank, three being daughters of courtiers and two daughters of province governors. Tradition says that when King Tenmu was at his palace of Yoshino, heavenly maidens came down and danced before him fluttering the long celestial sleeves of their feathery dresses five times. This was the origin of the dance.

163

Each dancer was attended by helpers who were sometimes persons of degree. Their duties were to arrange trains and costumes in the postures of the dance.

164

Her father was Keeper of the Seal. Her aunt was one of the queens.

165

See signs of the zodiac, of Old Japan.

166

The name of a detached hall in the Imperial Palace.

167

Like the knights' tents in the tournaments each girl's apartment was distinguished by special devices of cloths or banners hung before it.

168

Horai: an island of eternal life and felicity supposed to exist in the eastern ocean. Horai symbolizes changelessness, and it must have been intended as a hint at the impropriety of Sakyō's changed position.

169

Festival of the ancient gods, for which preparation was made the day before by fasting.

170

This incident was very well known and is mentioned in several of the writings of the period. The mirror is the symbol of the soul of a Japanese woman. With the mirror Sakyō sent a poem:

Alas! the waving moss deceived your vision.