Writing, Clothes, Sex in Kagero-Nikki : The Story of a Female "Textual" Maker(<Special Issue>Rapport in the Ancient World)

Abstract

Undoubtedly the author of Kagero-Nikki is the forerunner in female literature of the Ocho era when we think of the great influence that she actually made on other female writers. But in her life the author, Michitsuna-no-Haha, came to be more indifferently treated by her husband Kaneie as she was developing her writing talent and establishing herself as a full-fledged writer. Michitsuna-no-Haha was both an artist and house-wife in her married life. She wove texts as well as textiles. Thus the question of the origin of this miraculous and extraordinary text inevitably demands a biographical reading. In other words, we need to re-read it as the story of a writer/wife who experienced love and estrangement and always felt tension between two kinds of "textual" weaving.