Shikibu, Izumi ___ n/a-n/a ___ Japanese ___ poet

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Only sketchy details about Izumi Shikibu, one of the great Japanese poets (and lovers) of this period, are known. She was the daughter of Ôe no Masamune, served at the court of Fujiwara no Akiko, and married Tachibana no Michisada, a man much older than herself. She gave birth to a daughter, Koshikibu no Naishi, who like Shikibu, became an accomplished poet. In 999, Michisada was appointed Governor of Izumi. Shikibu, meanwhile, had a relationship with Prince Tametaka, which caused a rift with Michisada. Tametaka died and Shikibu then fell for his half brother, Prince Atsumichi. It is the story of this latter relationship which is said to form the basis for the famous diary (although there is some dispute as to whether it is fiction or not). Atsumichi died young and Shikibu was married again, this time to Fujiwara no Yasumasa.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1003 ___ literary love/sex

WEB TEXT LINKS
etext
a bit about

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
 

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
The Diary of Izumi Shikibu
The Izumi Shikibu Diary
 

May 2005, August 2008
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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.