eleventh centuries of our era. The lords and ladies of those days step out before us with all the frivolity, but also with all the elegance, of their narrow aristocratic existence, which was bounded by the horizon of the old capital, Kyōto. We have their poetastering, their amorous intrigues of course, their interminable moon-gazings and performances on the flute, even minute descriptions of their dresses and of the parties they gave,—one among various witnesses to the fact that many of these books were written by women. The earliest story commonly classed among the romances is more properly a fairy-tale; for it deals with the adventures of a maiden who was exiled from the moon to this our workaday world. It is entitled Takeiori Mono-gatari, or the "Bamboo-cutter's Romance," because the maiden was discovered in a section of bamboo, where she lay sparkling like gold. To mention but three or four more out of a hundred, there are the Utsubo Mono-gatari and the Ise Mono-gatari, both attributed to the tenth century, the Sumiyoshi Mono-gatari, of uncertain date, and the Konjaku Mono-gatari, with its sequel the Uji Shūi, which are collections of shorter tales. The most celebrated of all, is the voluminous Genji Mono-gatari, which dates from the year 1004.
VII. Miscellanies. These books are a sort of olla podrida of the thoughts of their authors, jotted down without any attempt at classification, but with a great deal of literary chiselling. The two miscellanies most to be recommended are the Makura no Sōshi, by a Court lady named Sei Shōnagon who flourished in the eleventh century, and the Tsurezure-Gusa by a Buddhist monk who died in the year 1350.
VIII. Diaries. Of these, the Hojoki is probably the one which the student will find most interesting. Like the Tsurezure-Gusa, it is the work of a Buddhist monk. The author describes the calamities of his times, and expatiates on the superiority of life in a hermit's cell to that which he had previously led amidst worldly vanities. It dates from about the year 1200. The Murasaki Shikibu Niki,[1] which is the diary of the most celebrated of Japanese
- ↑ This word is commonly pronounced nikki, but niki is more ancient and correct.
