Murasaki Shikibu Diary Emaki

The Murasaki Shikibu Diary Emaki (紫式部日記絵巻, Murasaki Shikibu nikki emaki^?) is a mid-13th century emaki, a Japanese picture scroll, inspired by the private diary (nikki) of Murasaki Shikibu, lady-in-waiting at the 10th/11th centuries Heian court and author of The Tale of Genji. This emaki belongs to the classical style of Japanese painting known as yamato-e and revives the iconography of the Heian period.

Today there remain four paper scrolls of the emaki in varying condition and stored in different collections: Hachisuka, Matsudaira, Hinohara scrolls (Tokyo), and Fujita scroll (Fujita Art Museum, Osaka). Of the extant scrolls, the first relates the celebrations on occasion of the birth of prince Atsunari (Atsuhira, later Emperor Go-Ichijō) in 1008 and the last those of the birth of Prince Atsunaga (later Emperor Go-Suzaku) in 1009. This difference in time indicates that the original emaki most likely consisted of more scrolls than exist today.

The Diary of Lady Murasaki (紫式部日記, Murasaki Shikibu Nikki^?) records the daily life of the Heian era lady-in-waiting and writer, Lady Murasaki Shikibu, author of The Tale of Genji. Most likely written between 1008 and 1010, the largest portion consists of descriptive passages of the birth of Empress Shōshi's (Akiko) children (future Emperors Go-Ichijō and Go-Suzaku) and related festivities, with smaller vignettes describing life at the Imperial court and relations between other ladies-in-waiting and court writers such as Izumi Shikibu, Akazome Emon and Sei Shōnagon. It also gives a lively account of the regency of the powerful Fujiwara no Michinaga. Like the romantic novel Genji Monogatari, the diary deals with emotions and human relationships, particularly with Murasaki Shikibu's constraints at the court of Akiko, loneliness and futility after her husband's death (in 1001). The author is critical of her contemporaries, the men for their discourteous ways (including Fujiwara no Michinaga) and the women for their inexperience and lack of education and will. The diary is considered a masterpiece of Nikki Bungaku.

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