{"id":8641,"date":"2020-02-21T12:44:11","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T11:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.facsimilefinder.com\/articles\/?p=8641"},"modified":"2021-02-15T18:26:57","modified_gmt":"2021-02-15T17:26:57","slug":"seven-reasons-fall-for-japanese-illustrated-scrolls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.facsimilefinder.com\/articles\/seven-reasons-fall-for-japanese-illustrated-scrolls\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven Reasons to Fall for Japanese Illustrated Scrolls"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

1. The Voice of Women in Kana Diaries<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Murasaki<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

During the Heian period<\/strong> in Japan (from 794 to 1185) many diaries<\/strong>, both public and private, were written by men<\/strong>. But while these texts contain statements that reflect the judgments and emotions of their authors, there is in them much less of a sense of the living voice<\/strong> than in diaries written in the Japanese <\/strong>kana<\/strong><\/em> syllabary<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is why Ki no Tsurayuki<\/strong> (872 \u2013 945) found a new means to express himself when he took on the guise of a woman<\/strong>, and opened his Tosa Diary<\/strong> (Tosa nikki<\/em>) with the sentence:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I write this thinking that I, a woman, might also try my hand at one of those things the men write, that they call a diary<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This medium\u2014the kana<\/em> diary\u2014made it possible for him to voice his longing<\/strong> for the distant capital during an appointment in the provinces, and to give vent to his grief<\/strong> after a beloved daughter<\/strong> died in that remote area. Kana<\/em> prose (kanabumi<\/strong>) was the only form of writing really suited to the production of a “voice<\/strong>” that might call up a reader’s sympathies<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Murasaki Shikibu<\/strong> (973-1019?) composed a record of the joyous events<\/a> surrounding the birth of a prince<\/strong> to Empress Sh\u014dshi<\/strong>, in whose service she was employed following the death of her husband after only two years of marriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n