The Pillow-Book of Sei Shōnagon (14 page)

*
See
A Wreath of Cloud
(
Genji,
part iii).

†
In
Court Ladies of Old Japan
(Constable, 1921) two diaries of the period, as well as that of Murasaki, are translated. Of these, the “Diary of Izumi Shikibu” is not a genuine document, but a romance written round the well-known story of Izumi’s love-affairs; the
Sarashina Diary
is a much worked-up and highly literary production. For the
Kager
ō
nikki
, “Gossamer Diary,” see introduction to
The Tale of Genji
, vol. ii.

*
Finished in A.D. 720. Translated by W. G. Aston.

†
He also organized the building of the great harbor at Uozumi.

*
Only 26 pages long. It is contained in the
T’ang Tai Ts’ung Shu
, or Minor Works of the T’ang dynasty.

†
Buddhists being forbidden to kill.

*
Who is so unhappy about his appearance that he hides all day and only comes out at night.

*
For Buddhist observances.

*
An allusion to the poem: “In this mountain village, after the snowstorm, no roads are left; and my heart is full of pity for him who I know will come.” Taira no Kanemori, the author of this poem, had died a few months before.

*
Another Fujiwara grandee, a distant cousin of their host.

*
Twenty-one of them were led in procession.

*
The first poem that children learned to write.

*
Probably in 984.

*
Of the year 995.

†
Instead of walking to the Eastern Gate, the only one which the Palace staff was supposed to use.

*
The Kamo festival, in the fourth month.

†
The Empress’s maternal uncle. The Empress’s mother came of a comparatively humble family.

*
Fujiwara no Kiminobu, aged eighteen; cousin of the Empress
*
A soft, high-crowned cap
†
The bulls that drew it had to be unyoked at the Palace gate.

*
See
The Sacred Tree
.

*
Then a child of four. His mother was Kane-iye’s daughter.

†
Second daughter of Kane-iye’s brother, Tamemitsu.

*
The year of the cuckoo-expedition that Sh
ō
nagon has just described.

†
See above, p. 46.

*
An allusion to the poem: “Like a river that has dived into the earth, but is flowing all the while; so my heart, long silent, leaps up replenished in its love.”

Moreover, the azalea signifies silence because it is of the shade of yellow known as
kuchinashi
and
kuchi nashi
means “mouthless,” “dumb.”

*
998, third month. Yukinari was then twenty-six. He died at the age of fifty-five, in 1027. Often called K
ō
zei.

*
This gentleman was evidently carrying on an affair with Ben no Naishi. There was a Clerk of the Left and a Clerk of the Right. The person referred to is either Minamoto no Yoriyoshi or Fujiwara no Tadasuke.

†
A few years later Yukinari became known as the greatest calligrapher of his time.

*
For the Empress.

†
To the Analects of Confucius: “If you are wrong, don’t stand on ceremony with yourself, but change!” Yukinari thinks that Sh
ō
nagon is inviting him to take liberties with her.

*
Brother-in-law of Murasaki, authoress of
The Tale of Genji
.

†
Presumably Noritaka was closely related to Sh
ō
nagon’s companion.

‡
The ladies were dressing in an alcove curtained offfrom the rest of the room.

*
Minamoto no Tsunefusa, 969-1023.

†
Minamoto no Narimasa. This gentleman, together with Tsunefusa and Tadanobu, reappears in Murasaki’s
Diary
. The three make music together at the time of the Empress Akiko’s confinement (A.D. 1008); “but not a regular concert, for fear of disturbing the Prime Minister.”

‡
In early Japanese poetry “sister” means beloved. But at this period it indicated a platonic relationship and is often contrasted with words implying greater intimacy. Tachibana no Norimitsu was famous for his courage; he once coped single-handed with a band of robbers that had entered Tadanobu’s house.

*
An edible seaweed.

†
Meaning “If you are tempted to speak, stuff seaweed in your mouth as you did last time.”

*
Sh
ō
nagon’s father died before she went to Court.

*
The adverb he uses (
rais
ō
to
), evidently a very emphatic one, was a slang expression of the time, the exact meaning of which is uncertain.

*
Out to the front of the house.

†
A courtier not admitted on to the Imperial dais.

*
Mikasa means “Three Umbrellas.”

†
A member of the Minamoto clan; afterwards Governor of Awa.

*
For “five limbs” the speaker uses a pedantic Chinese expression, corresponding to a Latinism in English.

†
When the New Year appointments were announced.

*
Cloth soaked in sticky oil.

†
As opposed to the barrack roll-calls.

‡
The ladies-in-waiting’s quarters in the Empress’s apartments, as opposed to their rooms in the less prominent parts of the Palace.

*
A movable partition which concealed the washing-place. On the inside was painted a cat; on the outside, sparrows and bamboos.

*
Summer, 998 (?).

*
In 996.

*
The Minami no In, the palace of Michitaka, the Empress’s father. Th is episode must have taken place in the twelfth month of 992.

†
I.e.
two hours, the Japanese hour being twice ours.

‡
Reading
hiraginu
.

*
Lespedeza bicolor.

†
Eularia japonica.

*
Which would be in Chinese, as these magicians worked according to a method deduced from the Chinese
Book of Changes
.

*
Minamoto no Narinobu (born A.D. 972) was a son of Prince Okihira (953-1041).

*
Temple of Kwannon, near Ky
ō
to.

†
Translated by de la Vallée Poussin, Geuthner, 1923
seq
.; a treatise by Vasubandhu, expounding the philosophy of the Sarv
ā
sstiv
ā
dins.

*
Slipped on over one’s outdoor boots, like the slippers worn in a mosque.

†
Literally, the low rails in front of the altar.

‡
The priests were employed to make dedications on behalf of their patrons.

*
Used in the decoration of Buddhist altars.

†
Allusion not identified. Must be to a poem such as: “In this mountain temple at evening when the bell sounds, to know that it is ringing for our good, how comforting the thought!”

*
When the great scholar Moto-ori visited this temple in 1772 he was startled by the sudden noise of the conch-horn, blown at the hour of the Serpent (9 a.m.). At once there came into his mind this passage from
The Pillow Book
and “the figure of Sh
ō
nagon seemed to rise up before me” (
Sugagasa Nikki
, third month, seventh day). It is in this same temple that, in
The Tale of Genji
, Murasaki lays the scene of the meeting between Ukon and the long-lost Tamakatsura. The local people (Moto-ori tells us) had no idea that the characters in
Genji
were imaginary, and pointed out to him “the tomb of Tamakatsura.”

†
A note folded up and twisted into an elaborate knot. In this case it would contain instructions for special services or prayers.

*
A
ky
ō
ge
or ritual for “instruction and transformation” of evil influences.

*
The early service, at about 3 a.m.

†
I.e.
Kwannon, whose
s
ū
tra
forms the 25th chapter of the
Hokkey
ō
.

*
A Chinese who became so completely absorbed in the
Tao T
ē
Ching
of Lao Tzu that he sat reading it on the edge of a river until (according to one version of the story) the spring floods carried him away.

†
Of the Scriptures.

‡
Yoroshi
, “good,” is used by Sh
ō
nagon just as we use the word “good” in such expressions as “a good while ago,”
etc.
Aston (p. 116) did not understand this and completely mistranslates the sentence.

*
It was the anniversary of his father’s death, or the like, and he should have remained strictly closeted at home. The “taboo-ticket,”
mono-imi no fuda
, was worn as a sign that he must not be disturbed.

*
The Empress’s brother, Ry
ū
-en.

†
A creature that squeezes its way into the shells of other fish.