To use a rather facile, shopworn term, the “world” ( sekai) of their works differs in several respects. She thus knew a good many eminent people in society.ĤThe Genji monogatari and The Kagerō Diary depict, grosso modo, the same world and reflect the same social code and patterns of thinking they are also written in the same language, one thought to have been routinely used by female aristocrats in the capital (these last two nouns being redundant).ĥThat said, the two works also reflect the very different personalities of their authors and their own world views-or the world view each offers the reader according to her purpose. Although Kaneie himself had not yet risen to power during the years of their marriage, The Kagerō Diary reveals that Michitsuna’s mother maintained closer relations with Kaneie’s brothers than he did himself, and that she also kept up with his sisters in the imperial harem. Although Michitsuna’s mother rarely came to court (perhaps only for poetry contests or the like), she was one of the wives of Fujiwara no Kaneie 藤原兼家 (929-990), a member of the prominent family then in power. Murasaki Shikibu served the empress Shōshi 彰子 for many years. Their fathers both held this office both were learned men descended from families of poets, and both undoubtedly educated their daughters and gave them access to their libraries.ģMichitsuna’s mother and Murasaki Shikibu were in contact with the high aristocracy to some extent. They belonged to the same social class, the midranking nobility from which provincial governors ( zuryō) were drawn. 1ĢThe Kagerō author, known only as “the mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna” 藤原道綱母, and Murasaki Shikibu are separated by a generation or two: the former was born in 936 and the latter around 970.
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