Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan

The clear mirror is never tarnished:
Therefore look deep.

171

Mochi: it is still the custom in Japan to serve a cake made of beaten rice on New Year's Day, the great festival of the year. The sound of this beating is heard from house to house throughout the country, and gives everybody a holiday feeling. The ceremonies last three days.

172

These colour combinations were very subtle because the effect was produced by the play of one or perhaps two colours showing through one another.

173

One of the young women who had danced the Gosetchi.

174

Fujiwara Michitaka, the Prime Minister's brother.

175

This lady was one of the greatest poets Japan has ever produced. See her diary, which is the record of her liaison with a young prince.

176

A daughter of the famous court lady, poet, and historian Akazomé Emon, to whom the court history of the time is traditionally ascribed.

177

Seishonagon. A lady famous for her learning and wit and with a little reputation for daring. Pretty and vivacious, learned and witty, she was allowed liberties unrebuked – one may call her the New Woman of the day. She served in the court of the first Queen Sadako, daughter of the Prime Minister's brother. The two Queens were in rivalry. Seishonagon was the literary light of that court, as Murasaki Shikibu and Izumi Shikibu were of this.

178

Because one may be bewitched; ancient belief dating from long before her day.

179

A koto is called a horizontal harp, but it consists of a number of strings stretched the length of the instrument, the scale made by an arrangement of bridges placed under the strings, and played upon by four ivory keys worn on the four fingers of the right hand.

180

Her husband who was a scholar in Chinese literature. He died in 1001. It is now 1008.

181

Large and learned volumes by the Chinese scholar Seŭ-ma Ch'ien.

182

The Merciful Buddha of the West Paradise.

183

It is believed that this Buddha comes to welcome the departing soul of the believer mounted on a rainbow-coloured cloud.

184

The great Enryakuji on Mount Hiyé, northeast of Kioto.

185

A line from an old Chinese poem about Jofuku and Bunsei, seekers of the herb of eternal life. When they entered the boat they were young men, but were very old when they returned.

186

The Japanese New Year ceremonies extend over three days.

187

Both these little princes, grandsons of the Prime Minister, eventually came to the throne.

188

Toso: New Year's drink of spiced saké supposed to prolong life.

189

The names of these colours are translated in modern terms. The Japanese names of colours for dresses were all of colours in combination, which often were called after flowers or plants. These names could not convey the right idea. For instance, what is here translated old rose and white, would be in those days called cherry, intended to convey to the mind the thought of the cherry-tree in bloom.

190

Paper doors.

191

In the writings of the ladies of those days World (yononaka) is often used as a synonym of love-affair; i.e. their relations with men.

192

In those days noblemen's houses were surrounded with an embankment, instead of a wall.

193

Prince Tametaka, the third Prince of the Emperor Rezrei who reigned 968-969. The Prince died on June 13, 1002. He had been Izumi Shikibu's lover.

194

Tachibana: a kind of orange.

195