The Diary of Lady Murasaki Read Online Free PDF Page A

exactly what shade they originally signified. On extremely formal occasions women often wore as many as five layers of these lined robes ( kasaneuchigi ), each with its own lining. Another meaning of the word kasane , then, is the combination produced by a whole series of layers that had sleeves of slightly differing lengths. It is this kind of combination which is the object of some criticism on p. 65. It would also seem from the descriptions in this diary that women were in the habit of adding false hems or cuffs on to the sleeves of their mantles and even their jackets in order to accentuate the main point of appreciation.
    WOMEN ’ S TITLES
    Most reference books, both Japanese and English, reproduce the definitions and regulations as laid down in the Yōrō Code of 718, but by Murasaki’s time much of this had lost its relevance, so that these lists are only of limited use when trying to reconstruct the system as it operated in the eleventh century; details must come from a study ofcontemporary historical and literary sources. 2 The most important thing to keep in mind when reading the diary is that there are two distinct groups of women involved. In the Palace the dominant administrative unit for serving the Emperor for his personal needs was the Handmaid’s Office ( Naishi no tsukasa ), a sub-office of the Women’s Quarters ( Kōkyū ), with a full complement of attendants and maids. But as the importance of empresses and consorts increased in direct relation to the waxing of Fujiwara power, private households began to rival that of the Emperor. As Empress, Shōshi had a household staffed according to the regulations, but she also had a considerable entourage of women who did not have official court positions and who must have been paid for entirely from Fujiwara resources. Most of the women mentioned by Murasaki are of this type, as she was herself, and she clearly distinguished between the two groups. At one point, indeed, she suggests that she does not even know some of the ‘palace women’ by sight, let alone by name.
    Exact details of these private households are hard to come by and probably differed from family to family, but the following outline may not be far from the mark in the case of Shōshi.
    (i) three top posts: Envoy ( senji ), Mistress of the Wardrobe ( mikushigedono ) and Handmaid ( naishi )
    (ii) ladies-in-waiting ( nyōbō ), usually divided into Attendants ( jijū ) and Maids ( nyokurōdo )
    (iii) servants and menials ( nyōkan ).
    Although all these terms stem from official titles, they signify rather different posts in the context of private households. There seems to have been, for example, only one naishi , Miya no Naishi, in this private system. All other women with this title in the diary are Palace women seconded to the service of Shōshi. From the description of the return to the Palace, it would seem that a number of posts were held by morethan one woman. Miya no Senji was the Envoy, Lady Dainagon and Lady Saishō may both have been Mistress of the Wardrobe, and Miya no Naishi was a Handmaid. Lady Koshōshō was probably an Attendant, as we can presume was Murasaki herself.
    The Author
    Perhaps it is surprising that biographical details of a court lady-inwaiting born in Japan in the latter part of the tenth century are available at all, but this was no ordinary woman. Lady Murasaki is, of course, known as the author of the Genji monogatari , a work of fiction which is by common consent one of Japan’s greatest gifts to world culture. Nevertheless, sources for an account of her life are still somewhat meagre: the ‘diary’, a collection of short poems, and a few uncertain references in other historical records of the time. These sources have been thoroughly mined, one might say overmined, by generations of Japanese scholars in the attempt to flesh out the life and personality of this remarkable woman; and as the ‘diary’ covers only two years of her life, albeit two eventful