Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan
Heian court diaries by Japanese noblewomen, transmitted in a tradition where several diarists' personal names were never recorded.
- Original byline
- Anonymous
- Published
- Date not recorded
- Form
- Other works
- Authorship
- Still unknown
- Reason for anonymity
- Unrecorded
- Copyright
- Public domain
The authorship story
Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan is the English title under which several Heian period court diaries circulated in translation, including the Sarashina diary. Their authors were noblewomen of the tenth and eleventh century Japanese court, and in several cases their personal names were never recorded: court custom identified women by their fathers' or husbands' offices, so literature knows authors as, for example, the daughter of Sugawara no Takasue. The anonymity here is a documented feature of Heian naming culture rather than concealment, and it means some of classical Japan's finest prose survives without its writers' names.
Questions readers ask
Who wrote Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan?
Nobody knows. No author for Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan has been identified in the documented record.
Can I read Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan for free?
Yes. Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan is in the public domain and the full text is free to read at Project Gutenberg.
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