Nun Abutsu's diary "Izayoi Nikki": contents, composition, style

The article is devoted to a monument of Japanese Medieval literature «Izayoi nikki» written by Nun Abutsu (1221?-1283). This work most likely was gathered and compiled after Abutsu’s death in 1283. Despite the genre designation nikki (日記, «daily recording», «diary») Abutsu’s work differs from another traditional diaries by its contents, style, and composition. «Izayoi nikki» - «The Diary of the Waning Moon» or «The Journal of the Sixteenth-Night Moon» - is not only interesting but also a very important work for the Medieval Japanese literature. First, it is popular among the Japanese, since today this diary is one of the most read works of the Kamakura period. Second, the research of «Izayoi nikki» in context of the diary literature, demonstrates development of a genre nikki. Moreover, the diary consists of about 90 poems, which are the great example of women’s poetry tradition at this time. Finally, the personality of the author herself is very appealing to research deeply. Abutsu was married a famous poet Fujiwara-no Tameie and, more likely, played a key role in dividing the Fujiwara house into three poetic schools (Nijo, Kyogoku and Reizei). Tameie willed the Hosokawa estate to his eldest son Tameuji in 1259. However, that had happened before Abustu borne him two more sons in his old age. In 1274 Tameie handed issued documents to Abutsu’s son Tamesuke. After Tameie’s death the fight between Tameuji and Abutsu, representing Tamesuke, was on. Abutsu went to Kamakura to ask Shogunate to solve this issue. Some days before the trip, she started writing her diary. The article is focused on the author’s biography, problems on dating, composition and style of the work. The diary is interesting due to its succession and innovation in such a popular genre of Japanese literature as nikki. The detailed research of «Izayoi nikki» demonstrates diffusiveness of genre borders in Medieval Japanese literature. This work is considered as nikki by convention. In a closer review, the importance of poetry and description of the scene where the poem was composed becomes clear and the work looks more like uta-monogatari genre. Describing her trip from Heian to Kamakura Abutsu follows the tradition and focuses on composing poems on famous places (meisho) she had passed. The diary was supposed to keep memory of Abutsu and convey the knowledge of poetry to descendants. Some researches treat «Izayoi nikki» as a textbook or even a manual of poetry, which Abutsu wrote to her children and grandchildren. As the last famous work by a woman, as the best known diary or travel account in Japanese written between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, and as one of the five or six mostly read works of the Kamakura period, the «Izayoi nikki» has an important place in Japanese literature. «Izayoi nikki» gives valuable materials about culture and language of that time and definitely should be interesting for researches devoted to development of diary tradition in Japanese literature.