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''The Diary of Lady Murasaki'' (紫式部日記 ''Murasaki Shikibu Nikki'') is the title of fragments of a diary written by the 11th-century Japanese Heian era lady-in-waiting and writer Murasaki Shikibu, author of ''The Tale of Genji''. The work is written in kana, then a newly developed writing system for vernacular Japanese that was more common among women, who were generally unschooled in Chinese. Unlike modern diaries or journals, 10th-century Heian diaries tend to emphasize important events more than ordinary day-to-day life and do not follow a strict chronological order. The work includes vignettes, waka poems, and an epistolary section written in the form of a long letter. Probably written between 1008 and 1010, when Murasaki was in service at the imperial court, the largest portion of the diary chronicles the birth of Empress Shōshi's (''Akiko'') children. Shorter vignettes describe interactions among imperial ladies-in-waiting and other court writers, such as Izumi Shikibu, Akazome Emon and Sei Shōnagon. Murasaki includes her observations and opinions throughout, bringing to the work a sense of life at the early 10th century Heian court, lacking in other literature or chronicles of the era. A Japanese picture scroll, the Murasaki Shikibu Diary Emaki was produced during the Kamakura period in the 13th century, and the fragments of the diary serve as the basis for three important translations to English in the 20th century. == Background == From the late 10th to early 11th centuries, at the peak of the Heian period, Japan moved away from predominantly Chinese influences and sought to establish a unique national culture of its own. The formation of Japanese classical literature emerged in women's writing of the period.〔Henshall (1999), 24–25〕〔Bowring (2005), xii〕 The gradual shift toward using the vernacular kana writing system, away from classical Chinese styles, was most evident in court literature where waka poetry, in the form of 31 syllables, became immensely popular. Haruo Shirane explains that: "Waka became integral to the everyday life of the aristocracy, functioning as a form of elevated dialogue and the primary means of communication between the sexes, who usually were physically segregated from each other."〔 The rise of kana allowed female aristocratic writers at court to form a foundation for "subsequent court literature", explains Shirane〔 Kokin Wakashū's first imperial waka collection, published c. 905, set the foundation for court literature. Up to this point, the Chinese language had traditionally been the language of men in the public sphere. By the early-11th century, though, new genres of court literature were appearing in the form of diaries and poetic stories. Women who were relegated to the private sphere quickly embraced the use of kana, unlike men who still conducted business in the public sphere in Chinese.〔Shirane (2008), 114〕 Women's writing showed a marked difference from men's: it was more personal and introspective in nature, reflecting an "an internal psychological dimension".〔 Thus written Japanese was developed by women who used the language as a form of self-expression and, as Japanese literature scholar Richard Bowring says, women who undertook the process of building "a flexible written style out of a language that has only previously existed in a spoken form".〔Bowring (2005), xviii〕 The powerful Fujiwara clan had two imperial empresses at Emperor Ichijō's court during this period, each with her own competitive court, whose ladies-in-waiting were proficient writers producing works honoring their mistresses and the Fujiwara.〔Shirane (2008), 115〕 These ladies-in-waiting produced three noteworthy Heian era diaries in the genre of Nikki Bungaku – Murasaki's ''Murasaki Shikibu nikki'', Sei Shōnagon's ''The Pillow Book'' and Izumi Shikibu's (''Izumi Shikibu Nikki'').〔Shirane (2008), 113〕 Murasaki's covers a discrete period, most likely from 1008 to 1010.〔 Only short and fragmentary pieces of the diary survive and its importance lies, in part, in the revelations about the author, about whom most of the known biographical facts come from it and from her c. 1014 short poetry collection, the ''Murasaki Shikibu shū'' (or ''Poetic Memoirs'').〔Shirane (1987), 215〕 Murasaki's given name is unknown. Women were often identified by their rank or that of a husband or another close male relative. "Muraski" is a nickname given her at court, from a character in ''Tale of the Genji''; "Shikibu" denotes her father's rank at the Ministry of Ceremonials (''Shikibu-shō'').〔Tyler, Royall. ("Murasaki Shikibu: Brief Life of a Legendary Novelist: c. 973 – c. 1014" ). (May, 2002) ''Harvard Magazine''. Retrieved August 21, 2011〕 A member of a minor branch of the Fujiwara clan, her father was a scholar of Chinese literature who educated both his children in classical Chinese, although educating a female child was exceedingly uncommon.〔 Around 998 Murasaki married Fujiwara no Nobutaka (c. 950 – c. 1001);〔Bowring (2005), xxxv〕 she gave birth to a daughter in 999. Two years later her husband died.〔 Scholars are unsure when she started writing the novel (monogatari) ''The Tale of Genji'' but she was certainly writing after she was widowed, perhaps in a state of grief.〔 In her diary she describes her feelings after her husband's death: "I felt depressed and confused. For some years I had existed from day to day in listless fashion ... doing little more than registering the passage of time .... The thought of my continuing loneliness was quite unbearable".〔qtd in Mulhern (1991), 84〕 On the strength of her reputation as an author, Murasaki entered service with Empress Shōshi at court, almost certainly at the request of Shōshi's father, Fujiwara no Michinaga,〔Shirane (2008), 293〕 perhaps as an incentive to continue adding chapters to ''The Tale of Genji''.〔Rohlich (1984), 540〕 She began writing her diary after entering imperial service.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Diary of Lady Murasaki」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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