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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
Great companion piece to Genji…half of the book is a foreword providing historical/cultural context, and is just as if not more interesting than the diary content itself. As for the diary, half of it is chronicling the birth of a prince, to the house she’s a lady in waiting for, and she goes into great detail about the various ceremonies and the color/patterns of robes worn. Then comes a personal letter that reveals a lot of her inner feelings, quite melancholy and probably my favorite section.
Very interesting depiction of court life at the time and reading her comments on what everyone wore, the little poems, the sneak peeks of the tale of Genji. It’s not for everyone — I struggled to imagine/visualise the dress and all the individuals mentioned and some scenes. Still, my one gripe with this is the translators annotations and footnotes throughout the short diary passage, some of which seem rather unhelpful and aimed at overly doubting Murasaki and implying that the other sources he references are more reliable. One of them in particular that bothered me was to do with an exchange of poems between Murasaki and another lady in waiting which could be open to interpretation as romantic or not but the translators slammed this down as “this is nothing more than a conventional exchange between friends” ok Richard if you say so
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Murasaki Shikibu's observations and descriptions are so delicate and insightful, while maintaining a wry sense of humor and refusing to become too precious about the people around her. The translation by Richard Bowring, first published in 1996, is well-researched and carefully annotated, but it is showing its age. Bowring's perspective as a cis straight white man is at work when he makes generalizations about the lives of women in the Heian court, of course, and when he prioritizes the information from men's court diaries over Murasaki's diary in questions of confirming dates or corroborating how certain events played out. It's going to be unavoidable, no matter who is doing the interpretation, and could be more an issue of needing an update to reflect more recent research. But Bowring's limitations are especially glaring when he advises us not to read too much into Murasaki's correspondence with another female attendant with whom she worked, which included an exchange of love poetry. Despite the explicit references to romantic imagery and diction that clearly indicates a lover's vow of faithfulness and longing, we are reminded that this is nothing more than a platonic friendship expressed in passionate terms. All I can say at this point is that, as a tenured professor of premodern Japanese literature and poetry, I'm here to tell you to go right ahead and make of that letter what you will -- and celebrate the queerness that shines through in Murasaki's beautiful and carefully written diary.
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
I mainly picked up this book because it was so short (only 65 pages) and I was hoping to blow through something fast. While I did accomplish that goal, I was a bit disappointed by how little there was in the text itself. While a great work of literature and a valuable insight into court life in 11th century Japan, I found the introduction to be of more use to me than the text itself.
Things I Liked
1. Introduction: Richard Bowring’s introduction is extremely helpful for understanding the content of the Diary, especially if you’re a Western reader with little knowledge of Japanese history. All sections are clearly divided by heading so the information is easy to find, and Bowring doesn’t spend a lot of time summarizing a timeline of historical events. Instead, we get a nice, condensed intro to 11th century Japanese culture as well as a good overview of the manuscript history.
2. Annotations and Appendices: The footnotes for the text are extremely helpful for understanding what’s going on in the text at a particular moment. I appreciated that they weren’t in the back of the book. The appendices are also useful for quick reference.
3. Asides: Lady Murasaki describes a lot of rituals and court experiences in the Diary, but my interest was mostly heightened by her little asides where she offered personal reactions to something like a courtier’s dress or a poem. These interjections reminded me that the accounts I was reading has some actual bearing on the author, and I liked seeing some smug or judgmental comments here and there.
Things I Didn’t Like
1. Content: There’s not a whole lot that happens in this book, and the introduction warns us as much. It’s less a diary of personal reactions and more a description of two years of court life. Thus, it’s less valuable as a narrative or entertaining read and more valuable for people interested in learning more about court life and Japanese culture.
2. Confusion: I must admit, there were times when I had no idea what was going on in the text. There were also a lot of names, and I couldn’t keep them all straight. I kind of wished there was some list of characters with descriptions to remind me who they were.
3. Endless Descriptions of Ceremonial Dress: There are paragraphs and paragraphs dedicated to describing the wardrobe of everyone at court, which can be a little tiring if you’re trying to read this book for reasons other than to learn about history or medieval Japanese culture.
Recommendations: I would recommend this book if you’re interested in Japanese history, Japanese literature, “medieval” Japan, and/or court life and ceremony.
Things I Liked
1. Introduction: Richard Bowring’s introduction is extremely helpful for understanding the content of the Diary, especially if you’re a Western reader with little knowledge of Japanese history. All sections are clearly divided by heading so the information is easy to find, and Bowring doesn’t spend a lot of time summarizing a timeline of historical events. Instead, we get a nice, condensed intro to 11th century Japanese culture as well as a good overview of the manuscript history.
2. Annotations and Appendices: The footnotes for the text are extremely helpful for understanding what’s going on in the text at a particular moment. I appreciated that they weren’t in the back of the book. The appendices are also useful for quick reference.
3. Asides: Lady Murasaki describes a lot of rituals and court experiences in the Diary, but my interest was mostly heightened by her little asides where she offered personal reactions to something like a courtier’s dress or a poem. These interjections reminded me that the accounts I was reading has some actual bearing on the author, and I liked seeing some smug or judgmental comments here and there.
Things I Didn’t Like
1. Content: There’s not a whole lot that happens in this book, and the introduction warns us as much. It’s less a diary of personal reactions and more a description of two years of court life. Thus, it’s less valuable as a narrative or entertaining read and more valuable for people interested in learning more about court life and Japanese culture.
2. Confusion: I must admit, there were times when I had no idea what was going on in the text. There were also a lot of names, and I couldn’t keep them all straight. I kind of wished there was some list of characters with descriptions to remind me who they were.
3. Endless Descriptions of Ceremonial Dress: There are paragraphs and paragraphs dedicated to describing the wardrobe of everyone at court, which can be a little tiring if you’re trying to read this book for reasons other than to learn about history or medieval Japanese culture.
Recommendations: I would recommend this book if you’re interested in Japanese history, Japanese literature, “medieval” Japan, and/or court life and ceremony.
funny
informative
fast-paced
It’s a slim volume, and indeed in the introduction by Richard Bowring, it is general consensus that the diary as I was holding in my hands is fragments of what it was. Which is a shame because it would have been a beautiful piece of history as a whole. Instead we are left to mere speculation for a lot of parts, including as to why the tone changes from a journal style to that of a letter written to an intimate.
Indeed the theories for this are expounded in the thorough introduction which covers Japanese names and dates, cultural background, language and style, poetry, religious background, architecture, dress and women’s titles.
The biography of Murasaki’s life is interesting and does it’s best to patch together the little of what is known about Mursaki (her real name, for example, is not known).
The diary itself is given extensive analysis, in it’s structure, evidence of additional parts, and it’s date of composition.
All this means by the time you reach the diary itself, you are wondering just what it will contain, even after glimpses of it given as examples. In some cases, certainly for a casual reader, you would be forgiven for wondering if it was worth it.
There is no doubt that historically the diary is crucial, but while reading it it is difficult not to get bogged down in Names, titles (I particularly liked Yorimichi’s – Commander of the Gate Guards of the Left), footnotes (a necessity, given the word play on some of the witty poetry exchanges) and the flicking to the appendix to see the ground layouts during the different days festivities.
However, when the diary switches to that of a letter, there are some fascinating insights:
“It is very easy to criticise others but far more difficult to put one’s own principles into practice, and it is when one forgets this truth, lauds oneself to the skies, treats everyone else as worthless and generally despises others that one’s own character is clearly revealed”
(About the women in the High Priestess’s household)
The poetry is beautiful and I delighted in the sparring nature of their composition and there is a strong melancholy running through the diary that Mursaki hints at.
At the end of the two years covered by the diary, an important son has been born and festivities and ceremonies have been observed and documented, including details of the colours worn by the women at court and the roles played by different nobles and servents. However it seems that a full diary would have put this into context of Murasaki’s own life, which despite being written by her hand, seems just out of reach.
Still I believe any inadequacies in the book will have been brought by myself, indeed it seems a bit silly wishing for more of the diary, when we are indeed lucky to have what we do, but perhaps it’s not something for a casual reader, or perhaps if I had a much stronger interest in Japanese history and culture I would have enjoyed it much more than I did.
blog review here )
Indeed the theories for this are expounded in the thorough introduction which covers Japanese names and dates, cultural background, language and style, poetry, religious background, architecture, dress and women’s titles.
The biography of Murasaki’s life is interesting and does it’s best to patch together the little of what is known about Mursaki (her real name, for example, is not known).
The diary itself is given extensive analysis, in it’s structure, evidence of additional parts, and it’s date of composition.
All this means by the time you reach the diary itself, you are wondering just what it will contain, even after glimpses of it given as examples. In some cases, certainly for a casual reader, you would be forgiven for wondering if it was worth it.
There is no doubt that historically the diary is crucial, but while reading it it is difficult not to get bogged down in Names, titles (I particularly liked Yorimichi’s – Commander of the Gate Guards of the Left), footnotes (a necessity, given the word play on some of the witty poetry exchanges) and the flicking to the appendix to see the ground layouts during the different days festivities.
However, when the diary switches to that of a letter, there are some fascinating insights:
“It is very easy to criticise others but far more difficult to put one’s own principles into practice, and it is when one forgets this truth, lauds oneself to the skies, treats everyone else as worthless and generally despises others that one’s own character is clearly revealed”
(About the women in the High Priestess’s household)
The poetry is beautiful and I delighted in the sparring nature of their composition and there is a strong melancholy running through the diary that Mursaki hints at.
At the end of the two years covered by the diary, an important son has been born and festivities and ceremonies have been observed and documented, including details of the colours worn by the women at court and the roles played by different nobles and servents. However it seems that a full diary would have put this into context of Murasaki’s own life, which despite being written by her hand, seems just out of reach.
Still I believe any inadequacies in the book will have been brought by myself, indeed it seems a bit silly wishing for more of the diary, when we are indeed lucky to have what we do, but perhaps it’s not something for a casual reader, or perhaps if I had a much stronger interest in Japanese history and culture I would have enjoyed it much more than I did.
blog review here )