Michitsuna, ___ 935c-995c ___ Japanese ___ n/a

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
The name of the author of 'The Gossamer Years' is not known, although she is referred to as the mother of Michitsuna. She was an accomplished poet, and 36 of her poems were collected in imperial anthologies. She married Fujiwara no Kaneie, who was regent in 986 and chancellor in 989. Their son, Michitsuna, never became as successful as Kaneie's descendants by another wife who were de facto rulers of Japan for a century. Michitsuna's mother's diary covers 20 years, and focuses mostly on her marriage and her son.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
954-974 ___ literary love/sex family royalty

WEB TEXT LINKS
etext
about
about and extracts
 

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
 

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
The Gossamer Years: The Diary of a Noblewoman of Heian Japan
 

May 2005, July 2008, April 2013
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.