Category Archives: poetry
An Ideal Heian Gift
What could be a better holiday present than a Kai-Awase clam shell game set with Heian poets and their particular poems hand painted on the inner shells? This evening, while feasting with friends and family or watching television, spare a … Continue reading
Rebuff Unwanted Advances Delicately
As we’ve previously seen, Heian-era aristocrats used poetry to communicate in most areas of life. One major advantage of poetic communication is that one could be indirect and discreet while still conveying a strong message. Murasaki Shikibu, author of “The … Continue reading
Filed under Michinaga, Murasaki Shikibu, poetry, romance
A Break in the Mountains
I have only just returned from a long trip away from my native soil, and though it is decidedly un-Heian to travel abroad, that is what I just did. Heian-era Japanese became more and more isolated from the world. They … Continue reading
Demand Poems from All Your Friends
In one of the many anecdotes that characterizes Sei Shonagon’s The Pillow Book, Sei, a lady in waiting to the Empress Sadako, (who is the wife of Emperor Ichijo and a niece of Michinaga) goes with the other ladies in … Continue reading
Filed under Michinaga, Pillow Book, poetry, Sadako
An Ideal Heian Gentleman, Part II
The Heian world had strict codes of behavior everyone kept to, and this was true of romantic entanglements as well. The result of this was that there was no sitting around each day by the door waiting for the messenger’s … Continue reading
