Lady Daibu lived during the decline of the Heian
court in Japan, between the 12th and 13th century.
Like most female writers of the Heian court, little
is known of her life, including her real name. The
first part of her name, Kenreimon-in, comes from
the name of the empress she served as a lady-inwaiting.
The second part of her name is the name
of her male sponsor at court. Several of Lady
Daibu’s poems appeared in the imperial anthology
Shinchokusenshu (1232), but she is mostly
known for her memoirs, the Kenrei Mon’in Ukyo no
Daibu shu (The Journal of Kenreimon-in Ukyo no
Daibu, ca. 1233). Her writing can be studied in relation
to other Japanese female court writers. The
most famous of these writers is MURASAKI SHIKIBU,
author of The Tale of Genji (ca. 1000).
Lady Daibu is not considered a first-rate writer
by most critics, but her writing contains vivid descriptions
of court life and moving reflections on
her tragic affair with the imperial regent Taira no
Sukemori.Although she never writes directly about
political events, her words reflect the tumultuous
times she lived in, particularly when she describes
her despair at the death of her lover in battle. Her
memoirs describe her personal experiences,
interspersed with the poetry that these events inspired.
She also includes poetry that she used to
privately communicate with other members of
court. She wrote short lyrical poems that used images
from nature to express her emotions:
Unforgettable!
That time I gazed
At the morning glory,
With the dawn moon in the sky—
But would I had some way to forget!
The sincerity of Lady Daibu’s writing, together
with her portrayal of life in uncertain times and
her use of imagery to convey emotion, has given
her a place in the history of world literature.
An English Version of a Work by
Lady Daibu
The Poetic Memoirs of Lady Daibu. Edited and translated
by Phillip Tudor Harries. Stanford, Calif.:
Stanford University Press, 1980.