G452 The Gossamer Years: The Diary of a Noblewoman of Heian Japan
Title of the book: The Gossamer Years; The Diary of a Noblewoman of Heian Japan Author: Michitsuna no haha Publisher: Tuttle Publishing Date: 1964/ written from around 954 up to 975 ISBN: 978-0-8048-1123-1 Summary: Kagero Nikki, translated here as The Gossamer Years, belongs to the same period as the celebrated Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikuibu. This remarkably frank autobiographical diary and personal confession attempts to describe a difficult relationship as it reveals two tempestuous decades of the author's unhappy marriage and her growing indignation at rival wives and mistresses. Too impetuous to be satisfied as a subsidiary wife, this beautiful (and unnamed) noblewoman of the Heian dynasty protests the marriage system of her time in one of Japanese literature's earliest attempts to portray difficult elements of the predominant social hierarchy. A classic work of early Japanese prose, The Gossamer Years is an important example of the development of He...