The Sarashina Diary

A Woman's Life in Eleventh-Century Japan (Reader's Edition)

Sugawara no Takasue no Musume, Sonja Arntzen, Moriyuki Itō, Sonja Arntzen, Moriyuki Itō

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9780231546829
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

A thousand years ago, a young Japanese girl embarked on a journey from deep in the countryside of eastern Japan to the capital. Forty years later, with the long account of that journey as a foundation, the mature woman skillfully created an autobiography that incorporates many moments of heightened awareness from her long life. Married at age thirty-three, she identified herself as a reader and writer more than as a wife and mother; enthralled by fiction, she bore witness to the dangers of romantic fantasy as well as the enduring consolation of self-expression.

This reader's edition streamlines Sonja Arntzen and Moriyuki It?'s acclaimed translation of the Sarashina Diary for general readers and classroom use. This translation captures the lyrical richness of the original text while revealing its subtle structure and ironic meaning, highlighting the author's deep concern for Buddhist belief and practice and the juxtaposition of poetic passages and narrative prose. The translators' commentary offers insight into the author's family and world, as well as the style, structure, and textual history of her work.

 

Appendix 1

FAMILY AND SOCIAL CONNECTIONS

The following two charts summarize rather than duplicate the family relationships and connections diagrammed in Akiyama Ken, Sarashina nikki, Shinchō Nihon koten shūsei (Tokyo: Shinchōsha, 1980), 191–93. For example, not all siblings and not all marriage relationships are included in the Sugawara family tree (figure A1.1). Rather, our intention is to show only those people cited in the diary or those needed to illustrate the web of personal, political, and literary connections in which the author lived. Lighter lines connect those related by blood, and darker lines with solid circles indicate marriages. Adoption is shown by a dashed line. The names by which people are referred to in the diary are in quotation marks. Information that either clarifies relationships or, especially in figure A1.2, shows literary connections is in italics. The number in parentheses after the names of emperors indicates their order of ascension to the throne.

The connections between the Fujiwara family and the imperial family are shown together because the relationships between the Fujiwara clan, particularly the family’s most powerful northern line (beginning with Fujiwara no Kaneie in figure A1.2), and the imperial family were so closely intertwined. This figure reveals the rivalry among the male siblings of the northern line, which was played out in each successive generation. Michinaga and Michitaka competed fiercely over which of their daughters would be the “winning” consort to provide the closest family connection to the succeeding emperor. Michinaga won, first by marrying daughters to two successive emperors, Ichijō and Sanjō, and then by becoming the grandfather of Emperors GoIchijō and GoSuzaku. In the next generation, Yorimichi and Norimichi competed in the same way with their offspring. Because Yorimichi did not have any daughters to marry to Emperor GoSuzaku, he strategically adopted Genshi, the great-granddaughter of Michitaka (a loser in his own generation), and her two daughters, in order to stay in the all-important game of marriage politics. Quite by chance, he thus provided an opportunity for Takasue no Musume to serve in the household of Genshi’s daughter, the infant Princess Yūshi. Note that the author’s Fujiwara mother and the author herself are positioned in the opposite far corners of figure A1.2, which graphically represents their distant and tenuous connection to the centers of power.

FIGURE A1.1   The Sugawara family tree.

FIGURE A1.2   Connections between the Fujiwara clan and the imperial family.

 

Appendix 2

MAPS

FIGURE A2.1   The trip from Kazusa to the capital.

FIGURE A2.2   The greater capital area.

FIGURE A2.3   Detail of the capital, showing the location of the Sugawara residence in 1020.

Appendix 3

LIST OF PLACE NAMES MENTIONED IN THE SARASHINA DIARY

These places names are provided with their equivalents in terms of present-day locations. Those of uncertain or unknown location are so marked.

Atsumi Mountain	location uncertain
Awazu	area of Ōtsu City
C...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Statement
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface to the Reader’s Edition
• Introduction
• Sarashina Diary
• Appendix 1. Family and Social Connections
• Appendix 2. Maps
• Appendix 3. List of Place Names Mentioned in the Sarashina Diary
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Series List