Diaries of Court Ladies
Nowadays people are carrying pretty folding fans.
Since the twentieth of the Eighth month, the more favoured court nobles and officers have been on night duty, passing the nights in the corridor, or on the mats of the veranda idly amusing themselves. Young men who are unskilled in koto or fué [harp or flute] amuse themselves with tonearasoi[1] and imayo,[2] and at such a time this is entertaining. Narinobu, the Queen's Grand Chamberlain, Tsunefusa, the Lieutenant-General of the Left Bodyguard and State Councillor, and Narimasa, the Major-General of the Bodyguard and Governor of Mino, passed the night in diversions. The Lord Prime Minister must have been apprehensive, for he has forbidden all public entertainment. Those who have long retired from the court have come in crowds to ask after the Queen's welfare, so we have had no peace.
Twenty-sixth day. We finished the preparation of perfume[3] and distributed it to all. A number of us who had been making it into balls assembled together. On my way from Her Majesty's chamber I peeped into Ben Saisho's room. She was sleeping. She wore garments of hagi[4] and shion[4] over which she had put a strongly perfumed lustrous robe. Her face was
- ↑ Tonearasoi: at present not known.
- ↑ Imayo, or "new style," a kind of song in vogue in those days. The verse consists of eight or ten alternating seven- and five-syllable lines.
- ↑ This perfume was composed of purified Borneo camphor, aloe wood and musk, and was used to perfume clothing, etc.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Hagi: violet-coloured dress with blue lining, the violet dye taken from sapan-wood; Shion: pale purple dress with blue lining.
