A certain gentleman, Fujiwara no Kaneie by name, received a promotion. He was made vice-minister of war. What a nuisance! ¡°The post was so distasteful,¡± his wife noted in her diary, ¡°that he quite ignored his official duties.¡±
His boss, the war minister, sent a reproachful poem: ¡°Threads in the same skein. Why then do they not meet?¡± Kaneie replied, ¡°How sad to be told that being of the same skein should mean so little.¡± ¡°Not meeting¡± suggests Kaneie¡¯s truancy. ¡°Same skein¡± could mean ¡°same office.¡± Or ¡°same family¡± ¡ª the all-powerful Fujiwara.
Where are we? In the 10th century, in the nation¡¯s capital, Heian-kyo, today¡¯s Kyoto. The indolently aristocratic, exquisitely cultured, ceremoniously mannered, squeamishly pacifist Heian Period (794-1185) is in full flower. The supreme literary masterpiece of the era, ¡°The Tale of Genji,¡± is a generation in the future, but a promising precursor of greater writing to come is the ¡°Kagero Nikki¡± (¡°The Gossamer Years¡±). Part-diary and part-memoir, it is the work of a high-born lady whose name is not known.
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