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Sanuki No Suke Nikki Jennifer Brewster In Japan the Heian period (a.d . 794 to 1185) Sanuki no Suke Nikki was characterised by a great volume of published works of literature written by women—an The Emperor Horikawa Diary event brought about by the coincidence of the development of a Japanese script at a time when women were enjoying a freedom unparalleled till the present and when the country was at peace. One of the most popular forms adopted was the nikki, a diary form which women turned into a masterful combination of poetry and prose. Sanuki no Suke Nikki tells of the life of the court attendant Lady Sanuki during the reign of the young Emperor Horikawa, who died at the early age of 29, and subsequently of her life for a brief period serving his son, who became Emperor at the age of four. It is a moving story of Lady Sanuki’s devotion to the Emperor, her faithful attendance him during his last illness and the grief of the whole court after his death. It tells in retrospect of Lady Sanuki’s many happy hours at court with Emperor Horikawa and of court ceremonies and festivals. This is the first English translation of an important work which provides insight into the court life of the period. Jennifer Brewster In Japan the Heian period (a.d . 794 to 1185) Sanuki no Suke Nikki was characterised by a great volume of published works of literature written by women—an The Emperor Horikawa Diary event brought about by the coincidence of the development of a Japanese script at a time when women were enjoying a freedom unparalleled till the present and when the country was at peace. One of the most popular forms adopted was the nikki, a diary form which women turned into a masterful combination of poetry and prose. Sanuki no Suke Nikki tells of the life of the court attendant Lady Sanuki during the reign of the young Emperor Horikawa, who died at the early age of 29, and subsequently of her life for a brief period serving his son, who became Emperor at the age of four. It is a moving story of Lady Sanuki’s devotion to the Emperor, her faithful attendance him during his last illness and the grief of the whole court after his death. It tells in retrospect of Lady Sanuki’s many happy hours at court with Emperor Horikawa and of court ceremonies and festivals. This is the first English translation of an important work which provides insight into the court life of the period. Jennifer Brewster is a graduate of the Australian National University and continued her interest in classical Japanese as a postgraduate. Sanuki no Suke Nikki is the outcome of research she undertook for her Ph.D. thesis. Designed by ANU Graphic Design Adrian Young msia Printed in Australia This book was published by ANU Press between 1965–1991. This republication is part of the digitisation project being carried out by Scholarly Information Services/Library and ANU Press. This project aims to make past scholarly works published by The Australian National University available to a global audience under its open-access policy. Samiki no Suke Nikki Sanuki no Suke Nikki A translation of The Emperor Horikawa Diary Jennifer Brewster Australian National University Press Canberra 1977 First published in Australia 1977 Printed in Australia for the Australian National University Press, Canberra, at Griffin Press Limited, Netley, South Australia © Jennifer Brewster, 1977 This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism, or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be made to the publisher. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry [Sanuki no Suke Nikki. English.] The Emperor Horikawa diary. Bibliography. ISBN 0 7081 1042 8. 1. Japan—Courts and courtiers. I. Brewster, Jennifer, tr. II. Title: The Emperor Horikawa diary. 952.01 for Christopher, David and Helen PREFACE Sanuki no Suke Nikki is a journal in two books, written by Fujiwara no Nagako, an Assistant Attendant in the Palace Attendants’ Office during the reigns of Emperor Horikawa (1086-1107) and of his son, Emperor Toba (1107-1123). The first book describes the deteriorating state of health of Emperor Horikawa, and his death on the nineteenth day of the seventh month, 1107. The second book begins with the recall of the authoress to court in the tenth month of 1107, and the last definite date given is the last day of 1108. While recording the various ceremonies concerned with the accession of Emperor Toba, this book’s primary concern is with Horikawa’s character, and of aspects of his relationship with the authoress. Sanuki no Suke Nikki is a late Heian example of the genre of diaries with literary merit, or nikki bungaku, a genre already well- known through translations of Kagerd Nikki, Izumi Shikibu Nikki and Sarashina Nikki. Nevertheless, while continuing in the literary tradition of such works, Sanuki no Suke Nikki does not equal them in literary merit. Rather it is as an historical source that its value lies, especially in that it stems from the early insei period, when the imperial family was trying to re-organise its internal structure in order to hold its own among the other powerful families of the day. While Emperor Horikawa, the central figure of Sanuki no Suke Nikki, left little mark in Japanese history, the favourable picture of him that emerges in this diary may help to explain why this early period of insei was not troubled by the intra- and inter­ family feuds that were a feature of the later period. In its depiction of court life, customs and religious attitudes, Sanuki no Suke Nikki has considerable value also as a social document for the period. vii Sanuki no Suke Nikki seems to have enjoyed an initial popularity in the Kamakura period, but thereafter slipped into oblivion, and was virtually ignored until the decade before World War II, when it was rediscovered by Tamai Kösuke who, after establishing the authorship of the work in an article published in 1929, went on to produce the first annotated text in 1936. There has been a resurgence of interest in the work in recent years, probably because its portrayal of the emperor as a benevolent yet very human figure reflects to some degree present universal trends towards a recasting of monarchal roles. This translation is based on an earlier doctoral thesis, which used as its basic text Tamai Kösuke’s annotated text, published by the Asahi Shimbunsha in 1964 in the Nihon koten zensho series, and based primarily on the Gnnsho ruijü manuscript. Extensive revisions have, however, been made in the light of Ishii Fumio’s annotated text published by the Shogakukan in 1971 in vol. XVIII of the Nihon koten hungaku zenshu series. This text is based primarily on the Kinshidö manuscript from the Ise Shrine Collection, but takes into account recent scholarship on the work, in particular that of Katagiri Yö’ichi, Imaköji Kakuzui and Mitani Sachiko. There remain, nevertheless, several passages the meaning of which is still obscure. In all but one instance a translation has been attempted, in order to maintain the flow of the work, but such passages have been noted. viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I should like to thank Professor Joyce Akroyd of the University of Queensland and Dr R. L. Backus of the University of California at Santa Barbara for introducing me to this work; Professor E. S. Crawcour and Dr R. H. P. Mason for their kind direction and encouragement; Professor M. Hiramatsu of Keiö University and Professor Y. Uehara for their helpful comments on the translation; Miss Sachiko Mitani, of the Söai Gakuen at Osaka, for material and advice; and all those in the Faculty of Asian Studies and the Australian National University Library who, in innumerable ways, have offered their assistance. I should also like to thank my husband, without whose constant encouragement this work would never have been completed. Finally, thanks are due the Publications Committee of the Faculty of Asian Studies, Australian National University, for assistance in the publication of this work. Canberra 1976. J.B. CONTENTS Preface vii Acknowledgments ix Introduction i N otes 43 Sanuki no Suke Nikki 55 BOOK ONE 57 BOOK TWO 8i N otes ii5 Bibliography- 147 Index 153 INTRODUCTION Sanuki no Suke Nikki in its present form consists of two books. Book One opens with a prologue written in the fifth month of an unspecified year, in which the authoress, Fujiwara no Nagako, explains that her aim in writing is to try to alleviate, by putting her memories to paper, her sorrow over the death of Emperor Horikawa, whom she had served for eight years. She then moves straight into her narrative, describing the early symptoms of Horikawa’s illness, which started on the twentieth day of the sixth month 1107. This first book concentrates on the worsen­ ing condition of the Emperor, the Buddhist ceremonies held for his recovery, the two visits paid him by the Empress, and the appearance of an evil spirit. Tension mounts with the administration of the Buddhist vows by the Master of the Buddhist Law, Kensen, and the reading of the sutras by the Emperor’s uncle, the Holy Teacher Jökai. The climax comes with the death of the Emperor on the nineteenth day of the seventh month, at the age of only twenty-nine, and the complete breakdown of his attendants. The book ends rather abruptly with the removal of the Sacred Sword and Jewel to the palace of the Crown Prince.
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