A Wayward Wife
[Seken Musume Kataki, I, 2] by Ejima Kiseki
Ejima Kiseki (1667–1736) as a novelist was clearly in the tradition of Saikaku, and numerous echoes if not actual imitations of the earlier writer may be found in Kiseki’s works. However, his “character-books” (katakimono) have a charm and humor of their own, and have enjoyed deserved popularity. The following tale is from his “Characters of Worldly Young Women” (1716), one of Kiseki’s most famous works.
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“Obviously morning-glories are best at morning,” declares the mistress, “not to say how much cooler it is.” And so that night she leaves orders to fill tiers of lacquer boxes with savory rice and a variety of tidbits, prepared exactly to her taste, to arrange several chairs at a back hedge as far as possible from the house, and to lay a floral carpet. “Cedar picks for the food, a gold lacquer tray … be sure to use that exquisite tea from Toganoo! Have the bath ready before six. As to my hair, you may do it in three folds, and please take out a sheer gown with wide sleeves and a pink lining—the sash ought to be dark gray satin, the undersash pale but speckled with huge dots. It must all seem quite perfect: you know how the neighbors stare. So put the maids in fresh summer kimonos, won’t you? And do send a sedan chair to Kama no za for my sister, at the usual time.” After issuing a bewildering set of instructions to her housekeeper, who has long had charge of kitchen affairs, she retires to lie at ease in the shelter of an ample mosquito net; and tiny bells tinkle at its corners as the servants fan her, by turns, till she drops off to sleep.
Such are her airs merely to look at flowers in her own garden.
And modern matrons have their other caprices too. They reserve
