is the title given to a collection of diary fragments written by the 11th-century Japanese Heian era lady-in-waiting and writer Murasaki Shikibu. It is written in kana, then a newly-developed writing system for vernacular Japanese, more common among women, who were generally unschooled in Chinese. Unlike modern diaries or journals, 10th-century Heian diaries tend to emphasize important events more than ordinary day-to-day life and do not follow a strict chronological order. The work includes vignettes, poems, and an epistolary section written in the form of a long letter.
The diary was probably written between 1008 and 1010 when Murasaki was in service at the imperial court. The largest portion details the birth of Empress Shōshi's (Akiko) children. Shorter vignettes describe interactions among imperial ladies-in-waiting and other court writers, such as Izumi Shikibu, Akazome Emon and Sei Shōnagon. Murasaki includes her observations and opinions throughout, bringing to the work a sense of life at the early 11th century Heian court, lacking in other literature or chronicles of the era.
A Japanese picture scroll, the , was produced during the Kamakura period (1185–1333), and the fragments of the diary serve as the basis for three important translations to English in the 20th century.
Background
At the peak of the Heian period, from the late 10th to early 11th century, as Japan sought to establish a unique national culture of its own it saw the genesis of early Japanese classical literature, which to a large part emerged from women's court literature.Henshall (1999), 24–25Bowring (2005), xii Through the rise and use of kana, aristocratic women court writers formed a foundation for classical court literature, according to Haruo Shirane. Kokin Wakashū's first imperial collection, published , set the foundation for court literature. Up to this point, Japanese literature was written in Chinese – traditionally the language of men in the public sphere. It was in the literature of the imperial court that the gradual shift toward the vernacular kana writing system was most evident, and where poetry became immensely popular. As Shirane explains: " became integral to the everyday life of the aristocracy, functioning as a form of elevated dialogue and the primary means of communication between the sexes, who usually were physically segregated from each other."
By the early 11th century new genres of women's court literature were appearing in the form of diaries and poetic stories. Women, relegated to the private sphere, quickly embraced the use of kana, unlike men who still conducted business in Chinese.Shirane (2008), 114 Women's writing showed a marked difference from men's, more personal and introspective in nature. Thus written Japanese was developed by women who used the language as a form of self-expression and, as Japanese literature scholar Richard Bowring says, by women who undertook the process of building "a flexible written style out of a language that had only previously existed in a spoken form".Bowring (2005), xviii
Emperor Ichijō's court, dominated by the powerful Fujiwara clan, was the seat of two rival imperial empresses, Teishi and Shōshi, each with ladies-in-waiting who were proficient writers producing works honoring their mistresses and the Fujiwara clan.Shirane (2008), 115 The three most noteworthy Heian-era diaries in the genre of – Murasaki's The Diary of Lady Murasaki, Sei Shōnagon's The Pillow Book and Izumi Shikibu's – came from the empresses' courts.Shirane (2008), 113 Murasaki's diary covers a discrete period, most likely from 1008 to 1010. Only short and fragmentary pieces of the diary survive and its importance lies, in part, in the revelations about the author, about whom most of the known biographical facts come from it and from her short poetry collection, the (or Poetic Memoirs).Shirane (1987), 215
Murasaki's given name is unknown. Women were often identified by their rank or that of a husband or another close male relative. "Murasaki" was given to her at court, from a character in The Tale of Genji; "Shikibu" denotes her father's rank at the Ministry of Ceremonial Affairs ().Tyler, Royall. "Murasaki Shikibu: Brief Life of a Legendary Novelist: c. 973 – c. 1014". (May, 2002) Harvard Magazine. Retrieved August 21, 2011 A member of a minor branch of the Fujiwara clan, her father was a scholar of Chinese literature who educated both his children in classical Chinese, although educating a female child was exceedingly uncommon.
Around 998 Murasaki married Fujiwara no Nobutaka ();Bowring (2005), xxxv she gave birth to a daughter in 999. Two years later her husband died. Scholars are unsure when she started writing the novel () The Tale of Genji, but she was certainly writing after she was widowed, perhaps in a state of grief. In her diary she describes her feelings after her husband's death: "I felt depressed and confused. For some years I had existed from day to day in listless fashion[...] doing little more than registering the passage of time[...] The thought of my continuing loneliness was quite unbearable".qtd in Mulhern (1991), 84; Murasaki Shikibu (Bowring translation, 2005), 33 On the strength of her reputation as an author, Murasaki entered service with Shōshi at court, almost certainly at the request of Shōshi's father, Fujiwara no Michinaga,Shirane (2008), 293 perhaps as an incentive to continue adding chapters to The Tale of Genji.Rohlich (1984), 540 She began writing her diary after entering imperial service.
Diary The diary consists of a number of vignettes containing lengthy description of Shōshi's (known as Akiko)'s eldest son Prince Atsuhira's birth, and an epistolary section.Keene (1999b), 40–41 Set at the imperial court in Kyoto, it opens with these words: "As autumn advances, the Tsuchimikado mansion looks unutterably beautiful. Every branch on every tree by the lake and each tuft of grass on the banks of the stream takes on its own particular color, which is then intensified by the evening light."Murasaki Shikibu (Bowring translation, 2005), 3
The opening vignettes are followed by short accounts of the events surrounding Shōshi's pregnancy. She begins with a description of the Empress's removal from the Imperial palace to her father's house, the various celebrations and rituals that took place during the pregnancy, and the eventual childbirth with its associated rites in celebration of the successful delivery of a male heir. These passages include specific readings of sutras and other Buddhist rituals associated with childbirth.Bowring (2005), xl–xliii
Several passages account Murasaki's dissatisfaction with court life.Keene (1999b), 44 She describes feelings of helplessness, her sense of inadequacy compared to higher-ranked Fujiwara clan relatives and courtiers, and the pervasive loneliness after her husband's death. In doing so, she adds a sense of self to the diary entries.Mason (1980), 30
The diary includes autobiographical snippets about Murasaki's life before she entered imperial service, such as a childhood anecdote about how she learned Chinese:
Some textual fragments may not have survived. Bowring believes the work is difficult to define, that piecing it together is puzzling. He sees four discrete sections, beginning with the dated descriptions of the birth, followed by two undated sections of introspective vignettes, and a final dated section in chronological order. This "strange arrangement", as he calls it, might be the result of stitching together a series of incomplete sources or fragments. The diary's text was used as a source for the – a laudatory work about Michinaga and the Fujiwara clan, written or compiled in the 11th century – with entire sections copied verbatim from Murasaki's work. Yet the textual differences between the two suggests the author had access to a different, perhaps more complete text of the diary than has survived.Bowring (2005), xl–xliv Bowring questions whether the current structure is original to Murasaki, and the degree to which it has been rearranged or rewritten since she authored it.Bowring (2005), xlix
Fujiwara dynasty
Unlike the imaginary courts of Murasaki's romantic novel The Tale of Genji, the descriptions in the diary of imperial court life are starkly realistic. The ideal "shining prince" Genji of her novel contrasts sharply with Michinaga and his crass nature;Keene (1999b), 42–44 he embarrasses his wife and daughter with his drunken behavior, and his flirtations toward Murasaki make her uncomfortable. She writes about waking in the morning to find him lurking in the garden outside her window, and the ensuing exchange of :
Whether the two were intimate is a question scholars have been unable to determine.
Although the diary's sections about the birth of Shōshi's son were meant as a tribute to Michinaga, he is revealed as overly controlling. The child's birth was of enormous importance to Michinaga, who nine years earlier brought his daughter to court as a concubine to Emperor Ichijō; Shōshi's quick ascendence to Empress and status as a mother to the heir consolidated her father's power.Bowring (2005), xv The child's birth and its lengthy descriptions, "marked the final tightening of Michinaga's velvet-gloved strangle-hold on imperial succession through his masterful manipulation of marriage politics."Rohlich (1984), 539
Michinaga dominated the child's father and attending priests throughout the birth ceremonies. After the birth, he visited twice daily, whereas the Emperor only made a single short imperial visit to his son.Bowring (2005), xxiv–xxv Murasaki chronicles each of Michinaga's ceremonial visits, as well as the lavish ceremony held 16 days after the birth.Mulhern (1991), 86 These include intricate descriptions of the ladies and their court attire:
Shōshi appears to have been serious and studious, a royal who expected decorum from her ladies-in-waiting – which often created difficulties at a fractious court. When she asked Murasaki for lessons in Chinese,Waley (1960), viii–ix she insisted they be conducted in secret. Murasaki explained that "because [Shōshi] evinced a desire to know more about such things, to keep it secret we carefully chose times when the other women would not be present, and, from the summer before last, I started giving her informal lessons on the two volumes of 'New Ballads'. I hid this fact from others, as did Her Majesty".
Court life Some of the diary's passages are unflinching in exposing the behavior at the imperial court, particularly that of drunken courtiers who seduced the ladies-in-waiting. As Keene describes it, the court was a place where the courtiers were "drunken men who make obscene jokes and paw at women". Murasaki complained about drunk courtiers and princes who behaved badly, such as the incident when at a banquet court poet Fujiwara no Kintō joined a group of women asking whether Murasaki was present – alluding to the character in The Tale of Genji. Murasaki retorted that none of the novel's characters lived at this tawdry and unpleasant court, so unlike the court in her novel. She left the banquet when "Counsellor Takai[...] started pulling at Lady Hyōbu's robes and singing dreadful songs, but His Excellency said nothing. I realized that it was bound to be a terribly drunken affair this evening, so[...] Lady Saishō and I decided to retire."Keene (1999b), 45; Murasaki Shikibu (Bowring translation, 2005), 32
There are anecdotes about drunken revelries and courtly scandals concerning women who, because of behavior or age, were forced to leave imperial service. Murasaki suggests that the court women were weak-willed, uneducated, and inexperienced with men.Ury (2003), 175–188