The Confessions of Lady Nijo [Paperback]

Lady Nijo (Author), Karen Brazell (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

Review

One of the oldest books in print by a woman, Confessions of Lady Nijo contains the thoughts, reflections, and poetry of an opinionated Japanese Imperial court concubine, covering the years 1271 to 1306. Writing in diary form towards the end of her life, Lady Nijo chronicles her past life in the Imperial court, where her strong personality and aspirations for a higher position provoked the jealousy of the Empress and caused her dismissal; her travels throughout the country as a Buddhist nun; and her development into a mature and compassionate woman. Whether she is commenting on fashion and personalities at court or coming to understand the lives of the lower-caste, Lady Nijo's reflections show that while much may change in seven hundred years, there is much more that does not. There are births and deaths, marriages and affairs, richness and poverty. Her writing is beautiful and often touching: "The snow covered peaks glowing against the faintly dawning sky gave an unearthly aspect to the scene. Two or three attendants dressed in plain robes accompanied him. I was sad, unbearably sad, when he left." Read this book for its history and intimacy, its feelings of familiarity and difference, its joy and sadness that reach across centuries and continents. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Holly Smith

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Stanford University Press; paperback edition (June 1, 1973)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804709300
• ISBN-13: 978-0804709309
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #80,043 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #29 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Ethnic & National > Japanese
  • #37 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Asian
  • #87 in Books > History > Asia > Japan

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The grief of the three paths a woman must follow, November 25, 2004

By 

Luc REYNAERT (Beernem, Belgium) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Confessions of Lady Nijo (Paperback)

This is a moving and remarkable autobiography.
First, there is the quality of the writing itself, full of beautiful short poems ('A hidden love and tears/enough to form a river-/were there a shoal of meeting/I would drown this self of mine'), comparisons ('my years had passed as quickly as a racing horse glimpsed through a crack') or metaphors ('life is more fleeting than a dream within a dream').
It confirms Lady Nijo's saying that 'the most important accomplishment for a beautiful woman is the ability to write poetry'.

Secondly, there is the extraordinary eventful itinerary of Lady Nijo emotionally as well as physically.
Emotionally, she cannot forget her father ('I shed tears of longing when I recall the care my father gave me') or her first lover at the age of 14 (the Emperor).
Physically, she gives birth before her 18th birthday to two children from different fathers and in her later life struggles for survival.

Thirdly, it gives an interesting look at court life in this period: drinking, singing, playing music, competition between the concubines and promiscuity showing general human characteristics ('She complains that I am treating you as an empress' or 'This road is too easy to be interesting').
But this book also paints aspects of commom life: the fact that many children are taken away from their parents, religious customs or prostitution.

Fourth, it gives a general impression of the importance of religion and psychology: the mighty influence of the karma principle ('I am convinced that this unbearable passion is simply the working out of some karma from the past') and the importance of dreams ('I just dreamed that I turned into a mandarin duck and entered your body').

The overall tone is melancholic ('No matter how many tints the autumn leaves reveal, once the wind rises they do not last long').

K. Brazell's translation as well as her notes are excellent. I would have prefered an afterword instead of an introduction which reveals already the fate of the author.

This is a truly moving tale, not only for Japanese scholars.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A later Classical Japanese Diary and travel book, March 18, 2001

By 

K. Maxwell "katmax1" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Confessions of Lady Nijo (Paperback)

This book is set about 200 years after the events described in the diaries of Sei Shonagon and Lady Murasaki (and tale of Genji), however, this memoir reveals a world fossilised, doing it's very best to imitate the 'elegant' world shown in Lady Murasaki's masterwork Tale of Genji. What comes across is a very conservative society, and if you weren't told the dates of the events taking place you would believe they were set in the 10th or 11th century.

The writer of this memoir is a very independant and sensual woman - who took her lovers regardless of the consequences. The second half of the memoir details her travels around Japan's sacred shrines as a nun later in life. Lady Nijo constantly finds on her travels that the world outside Hein-Kyoto has changed since the days the poems she learnt at court as description of Japan's famous sights were written. Some of the old 'famous' sights have gone and she finds new ones to fill their hole.

If you've an interest in these old Japanese diaries and memoirs, this should be added to your list. It's a later, and lesser known book, but worth the effort of reading.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Confessions of Lady Nijo, March 12, 2004

By 

Pom - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Confessions of Lady Nijo (Paperback)

For such an intresting book its extraordinary so few people have left a review. Anyways, much of the court we see in the novel through lady nijo's eyes is truely fossilized as one reviewer said before, they even go so far as to try and copy musical concerts after those written about in Genji, and theres a great many allusions in the narrative to the tale of genji. The diary itself is extremely enjoyable to read, poigant at times, as for instance when she runs after Gofukakusa's funeral procession barefoot down the street until she loses sight of them. Other times its extremely funny, Im pretty sure Sei Shonogon mentioned the holiday where the women get slapped with sticks, the same was true with Lady Nijo, except she got revenge on the retired emperor by sectioning off the halls and setting up other ladies to keep an eye out for him, when he comes, they descend and all start whacking him with these sticks for revenge. after that there was a huge uproar withen the court that the women actually smacked royalty around. Overall Lady Nijo is very real, and very human in her writing, it makes for an intresting literary and historical read of the Kamekura age. One thing i personally enjoyed was that Lady Nijo was not as vain and condescending as Sei Shonagon, for instance when shes a travelling nun, Nijo actually speaks with commoners, ex-prostitutes, etc etc.