The Gossamer Years: The Diary of a Noblewoman of Heian Japan (Tuttle Classics) [Paperback]

Edward Seidensticker (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 1989 | Series: Tuttle Classics

This diary of a mid-Heian noblewoman, chronicling her confinement in the lonely grandeur of court life, is one of the earliest attempt in Japanese literature at historical narrative.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Tuttle Publishing (December 15, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804811237
• ISBN-13: 978-0804811231
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #369,629 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A strange, compelling book by a strange, compelling lady, May 22, 1999

By 

Paul Smit - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gossamer Years: The Diary of a Noblewoman of Heian Japan (Tuttle Classics) (Paperback)

As is usual in books by women from the Heian period, her real name is unknown. She is chiefly known as "the mother of Michitsune", and to all intents and purposes she should be faceless, another drop of water in the great clepsydra of time. It is only through her diary, here called "the Gossamer Years" that we can get an impression of her at all. But what an impression it is! Her uncompromising honesty reveals much that is unpleasant. Her evil glee when trouble strikes a rival for the attentions of her husband, Fujiwara no Kaneie, is really quite reprehensible. Still it, and the motivations for it, are described so graphically that one can almost hear the swishing of her skin as she rubs her hands together. Her honesty also gives us an intense understanding of her wants and views and needs. For all her darker qualities, for all her inability to be content with her many blessings, she is also intelligent, sensitive and perseverant. Having read her most intimate thoughts, we come away with a feeling of deep insight, of understanding, and even of sympathy.

This edition of the book is excellently produced. The notes (a considerable number of them) are at the end of the book, and shed a very informative light upon the body of the main text. It pays to read the book through twice; once without the notes, and once with.

All in all a rewarding, interesting and strangely timeless volume.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Context for Gossamer Years, September 1, 2002

By 

M. Kei "~K~" (Chesapeake Bay, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gossamer Years: The Diary of a Noblewoman of Heian Japan (Tuttle Classics) (Paperback)

If you are new the Heian period, this should not be your first book; The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu and The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon are required reading, along with excepts from the Kokinshu. However, if you're already familiar with the literature and history of the Heian period, and want to know more about the lives of women in this time period, then this diary is an excellent source.

Teachers of Japanese literature might find it useful to pair readings from the idealized novel Tale of Genji with similiar episodes in the real life Gossamer Years -- all too often students are left dazzled by the brilliance of Murasaki's novel and tend to believe it represents an accurate view of court life in the Heian period. Murasaki's novel is high literature and possessed of significant psychological insight and truly deserves its status as a great work of world literature, but it is fiction. The Gossamer Years, written by a real woman about her real life, gives a very different view of how it felt to actually live with a philandering husband and court intrigues, as well as worrying about more ordinary tasks such as sewing and raising a son.

The reader who wants more exciting stories and courtly tales from the Heian period would probably be better entertained by works such as The Changelings (a tale of a brother and sister who swap places in life), The Tale of Ise (poetry and episodes from the life of a gentleman famous as a poet and a lover), and the The Tale of the Heike (the epic tale of the rise and fall of the House of Taira, a sequence of events which formally ended the Heian era and ushered in the rule of the samurai).

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Context for Gossamer Years, September 1, 2002

By 

M. Kei "~K~" (Chesapeake Bay, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gossamer Years: The Diary of a Noblewoman of Heian Japan (Tuttle Classics) (Paperback)

If you are new the Heian period, this should not be your first book; The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu and The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon are required reading, along with excepts from the Kokinshu. However, if you're already familiar with the literature and history of the Heian period, and want to know more about the lives of women in this time period, then this diary is an excellent source.

Teachers of Japanese literature might find it useful to pair readings from the idealized novel Tale of Genji with similiar episodes in the real life Gossamer Years -- all too often students are left dazzled by the brilliance of Murasaki's novel and tend to believe it represents an accurate view of court life in the Heian period. Murasaki's novel is high literature and possessed of significant psychological insight and truly deserves its status as a great work of world literature, but it is fiction. The Gossamer Years, written by a real woman about her real life, gives a very different view of how it felt to actually live with a philandering husband and court intrigues, as well as worrying about more ordinary tasks such as sewing and raising a son.

The reader who wants more exciting stories and courtly tales from the Heian period would probably be better entertained by works such as The Changelings (a tale of a brother and sister who swap places in life), The Tale of Ise (poetry and episodes from the life of a gentleman famous as a poet and a lover), and the The Tale of the Heike (the epic tale of the rise and fall of the House of Taira, a sequence of events which formally ended the Heian era and ushered in the rule of the samurai).