Chapter II: The Diary of Murasaki Shikibu1 (3)

[17] Which would otherwise have attacked the Queen. Some of the ladies-in-waiting undertook this duty. There is a difference of opinion between the translators as to whether this was done with the intention of deceiving the evil spirits into attacking the wrong person (by introducing into her neighbourhood other women surrounded with screens and attendants) or by transmitting the supposed evil spirits out of the Queen into her ladies by a sort of mesmerization.

[18] Fudo: a terrible-looking Buddhist idol who was thought to have the power to subdue all evil spirits.

[19] For good luck.

[20] So that she might be ordained as a priestess and insured a good reception in the next world, only done when the sick person is in great danger.

[21] This was contrary to etiquette and shows the extreme excitement of the moment. Ladies and gentlemen of the court remained in separate rooms on social occasions.

[22] Kurodo = secretary (in charge of court manuscripts).

[23] Everybody was still wearing white, colour of purification.

[24] See frontispiece.

[25] Every Japanese family does this to-day, for almost all gardens have artificial brooks or ponds.

[26] Imperial shrine at Isé: the oldest shrine, built 5 B.C., dedicated to the Heaven Shining Goddess, ancestor of the Imperial family. This shrine is rebuilt every twenty years on the same model. It is the most sacred spot in Japan, and all serious events pertaining to the Empire or Imperial Household are announced there to the Goddess-Ancestor by Imperial Messenger.

[27] Nusa: rolls of silk or paper offered by a worshipper.

[28] Because a birth in a house was defilement, while a messenger to or from a god was holy.

[29] Saishi: a kind of gold ornament with five radiating points worn on the forehead and tied on around the head. (See frontispiece.)

[30] This was to frighten away evil spirits.

[31] Rice-scattering; for good luck.

[32] Here occurs an untranslatable sentence. Literally it would seem to be: _It seems hair growing in good monochromatic picture_. That might mean that the Queen seemed like a beauty in a picture drawn with ink and brush (see some illustrations in this book).

[33] Purple and scarlet.

[34] Karaginu: a short garment with long sleeves and worn of a different colour from the uchigi. (See frontispiece.)

[35] Uchigi: long unconfined flowing robe put on over the dress. It was made of elegant material and lined with another colour and was the distinctive and beautiful part of the court dress of that day. Under it were worn two or more other silk robes of different colours, one often intended to show through and modify the colour of the other. They were fastened in front by a belt like the present-day kimono, and over them was hung at the back the long and elaborate train of heavy white silk on which the last word of elegance in embroidery or painting was placed. In the presence of Royalty the ladies knelt in rows one behind the other, and doubtless these trains made a great display spread out before those sitting behind. (See frontispiece.)

[36] See frontispiece.

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

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

[39] Migusiagé: attendants whose hair was done up with hairpins.

[40] King's housekeepers.

[41] Cleaners.

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

[43] (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.)

Japanese words with their meanings:

Mezurashiki hikari = uncommon light.

Sashi sou = { added.
{ pour more saké into.

Sakazuki wa = { waxing moon.
{ a cup.

Chiyomo = four a tousand ages.

{ circulate, O moon never waning!
Megurame = circulate { circulate the cup to all persons
{ countless times.

Poem.

First meaning:

_We pray that the waxing moon_ [i. e, the young Prince] _may never wane, but shine for a thousand ages without change!_

Second meaning:

_May this cup_ [of joy] _be full as soon as emptied and circulate freely to all!_

[44] A pleated divided skirt worn by both men and women.

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

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

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

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

[49] 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.

[50] 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.

[51] 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.

[52] 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.

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

[54] It was _de rigueur_ for ladies to conceal their faces with fans.

[55] 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.

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

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

[58] 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.

[59] 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.

[60] 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.

[61] 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.

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

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

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

[65] 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.

[66] Mochi: a cake made of beaten rice flour paste.

[67] 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.

[68] 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.

[69] The hero of Genji Monogatari.

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

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

[72] Kokiden: residence of the first Queen.

[73] The World; i.e. matrimonial affairs.

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

[75] These men were famous calligraphers.

[76] 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.

[77] 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.

[78] Her father was Keeper of the Seal. Her aunt was one of the queens.

[79] See signs of the zodiac, of Old Japan.

[80] The name of a detached hall in the Imperial Palace.

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

[82] 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.

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

[84] 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._
_The clear mirror is never tarnished:_
_Therefore look deep._

[85] 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.

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

[87] One of the young women who had danced the Gosetchi.

[88] Fujiwara Michitaka, the Prime Minister's brother.

[89] 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.

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

[91] 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.

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

[93] 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.

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

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

[96] The Merciful Buddha of the West Paradise.

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

[98] The great Enryakuji on Mount Hiyé, northeast of Kioto.

[99] 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.

[100] The Japanese New Year ceremonies extend over three days.

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

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

[103] 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.

[104] Paper doors.