Ki no Tsurayuki 紀貫之
waka poet · provincial governor · Heian Japan · 872?–945?
A waka poet and official of the Heian period. He wrote up the fifty-five-day sea journey from his post in Tosa back to Kyoto as a diary in kana, pretending to be a woman. He had lost a young daughter in Tosa.
Posts
c. 935 · The writer was a male official past sixty. At the time men kept diaries only in Chinese
Diaries are things men are said to keep; I, a woman, will try keeping one too.
男もすなる日記といふものを、女もしてみむとてするなり。Tosa Diary (Tosa nikki), the first sentence
c. 935 · Boarding the ship, leaving behind the little daughter who died at his post
Even as I think "home to the capital," what makes it sad is that there is one who will not be going back.
都へとおもふもものゝかなしきはかへらぬ人のあればなりけりTosa Diary (Tosa nikki)
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