Kagerō Nikki

During the Heian Period, prominent families often collected and compiled their poems in a family collection, or kashū. It is likely that Fujiwara no Kaneie, her husband, asked the Mother of Michitsuna to create such a collection for their family. However, because she decided to add her own experiences along with the poems that she and Kaneie exchanged, Kagerō Nikki emerged. From the outset, the Mother of Michitsuna reveals her concerns by exploring the reality of her condition. It is commonly believed that Michitsuna’s Mother began writing the work in around 971, when she was facing one of her marriage crises. ==Story==

Sonja Arntzen argued that the work also functions as a record of the death of Michitsuna’s Mother’s marriage and her struggle to find a reason for living. Kagerō Nikki unfolds around the principal relationship between Michitsuna’s Mother and her husband, Fujiwara no Kaneie, while also placing a hefty emphasis on the author’s other social relationships, such that between herself, her son, and later on her adopted daughter. The diary entries detail events of particular emotional significance, such as when Kaneie visits other women while she stays at home taking care of their son ("the boy"). The Mother of Michitsuna's deep feelings for Kaneie are apparent in the way her words take on a tone of inner anguish as Kaneie's visits dwindle. In an attempt to find solace, the Mother of Michitsuna makes pilgrimages to temples and mountains of religious importance. She often expresses her desire to become a nun, but the effect that act would have on her son’s future plagues her mind and prevents her from ever taking Buddhist vows. Towards the end of the diary, she finally reconciles herself to her separation from Kaneie, and determines to devote herself to caring for her son and her adopted daughter. The story ends with Michitsuna’s mother watching the festival of the souls’ return in the new year, and she hears a knock on her door during the late night. The visitor’s identity is never disclosed in the work. ==Style==

Kagerō Nikki is said to be a diary, but it is "written in a mixture of styles; the first half characterized more by memoir, the latter half by day-to-day entry." The amount of time that passes between events is sometimes weeks or months. The Mother of Michitsuna is credited with creating "a new form of self-expression and psychological exploration that expanded the potential of kana prose writing and influenced subsequent woman's writing, including The Tale of Genji." Donald Keene has described Kagerō Nikki as “a self-portrait devastating in its honesty,” one “written passionately and without a thought to how readers might judge her actions.” Another characteristic of the work is the unique way in which the author labels people in her life. For example, in one entry she writes "that 'splendid' personage of Machi Alley" when referring to the woman with whom Kaneie is having an affair. The sarcastic tone reflects the author’s attitude to the person in question: "This method of labeling people shows how very egocentric she was in her dealings with others, defining them solely in relationship to herself." ==Marriage customs==

Kagerō Nikki is the first piece of literature in which Heian social relations and customs are clearly drawn out. The marriage customs in Japan at the time revolved around the idea of "duolocal residence", in which the husband lived in a separate house while the wife stayed at her parents’ residence. ==Author==

Life Born in 935 as the daughter of a provincial governor, Fujiwara no Tomoyasu, the Mother of Michitsuna was a lower- to mid-level member of the aristocratic class. In 954, at the age of nineteen, she married Fujiwara no Kaneie (929-990), who had recently attained the position of captain of the Right Guards. Kaneie later became the Minister of the Right and Regent after his daughter gave birth to Emperor En'yū's son. Although Kaneie continued to climb the social hierarchy, the Mother of Michitsuna’s position as a secondary wife and mother of only one child left her in an unstable social position. In Book 3 of Kagerō Nikki, Michitsuna asks his mother to create poems that can help him court the woman that he was trying to pursue. Another instance was when Michitsuna’s Mother passed on her knowledge of literary excellence by teaching her adopted daughter calligraphy and waka. In addition, to reject the advances of an older man who was trying to court her daughter, the author also produced poems in response to his courtship. Marriage Politics Michitsuna’s Mother lived during the age of monogatari, or “tale” or “romance” literature. While this is so, the author depicts her life story as one that does not have its own happy ending. Instead, she writes about the realities of marriage during her time—one that is driven by politics. While both sons and daughters are important to marriage politics, women are regarded as having a more crucial role to this system as they are regarded as the bearers of the next generation. This is the reason why Michitsuna’s mother bemoaned having a son instead of a daughter in Book 3. Legacy In a society in which kana writing was considered a women's activity, inferior to the Chinese writing of educated men, Heian women produced what are today known as some of the most enduring and classical works in Japanese literature. The Mother of Michitsuna speculated that her work would be as ephemeral as "the diary of a mayfly or the shimmering heat on a summer's day," yet she played a crucial role in this legacy. Despite Michitsuna’s Mother’s portrayal of herself as someone who is ordinary and has little significance, the impact that her work has on Japanese literature would disagree with her sentiment. ==See also==