Suchergebnisse

In this paper, after a brief introduction of Towazugatari (A tale no one asked for, 1306), I focus on a particular scene of this work describing, an unusual kemari game played by a group of young ladies in waiting of the abdicated Emperor GoFukakusa (1243–1304). This scene very skillfully provides a picture of the world of politics in the Kamakura period (1185–1333), when using sex and gender to achieve political goals was a widely acknowledged social standard. Starting from the description of the kemari game, I analyze the role of ladies in waiting, the sexual culture at court, and the personal experience of Lady Nijō, whose sexuality was an exchange commodity among the men and even used as a gift. Her memoir, written in retrospect when she became a nun, presents the dramatic story of a woman whose life took a particular direction because of the dominant roles in the patriarcal society, where she was expected to obey the will of her father and his surrogate, GoFukakusa.

In Japanese history the establishment of the ie, or family system, on which patriarchal authority was based, represents one of the most important turning points. The ie that came into being from the late eleventh century onwards, differs from the uji that had characterized previous eras, not so much on account of its patriarchal system but because it would place the married couple in prime position. The family, previously made up of a man engaging in occasional relationships with a number of women, would gradually become a more stable nucleus comprising of a husband with a wife who enjoyed a legally recognized position of privilege compared with all the other concubines. After her husband's death, she would naturally become a sort of substitute figure, often gaining considerable authority and prestige. With the threat of the Mongolian invasions (from 1274 and 1281) and the consequent increase in limitations on women's inheritance rights, many widows were forced to take vows as a sign of loyalty and tangible proof of their choice not to remarry if they were to secure their husband's property. The literary production of Nun Abutsu (1225 ca.-1283 ca.) written in a period which led to the inevitable breakdown of the economic, social, and political balance of Japan, offers a realistic description of women's ambitions, duties and concerns in an era of great transformation. In a close reading of her major works Abutsu no fumi (The letter of Abutsu,1264 ca.), Utatane (Fitful slumbers, XIII century) and Izayoi nikki (The Diary of the sixteenth night moon, 1280 ca.), the book casts light on some important issues in Japanese women's history: the gradual shift from uxorical to virilocal marriage, the consequences of this process for inheritance patterns, the meaning of women's participation in the intellectual life of their time.

Utatane (Fitful Slumbers, ca. 1260) describes a frustrated love affair with a nobleman of high rank from the perspective of a lonely woman who longs for the past. It is a sort of memoir narrated in the first person and written in a style that recalls court diaries and tales of the Heian period (794-1185). The conventions of court poetry, the lives and the female characters depicted in the Genji monogatari (The tale of Genji, XI sec.) and other stories are taken up by the Nun Abutsu and used cleverly in the text as productive ways to narrate her own life. Through a close reading of Utatane, this paper will focus on a few scenes that reveal why Genji monogatari in particular was considered a "literary encyclopedia" for women's creative inspiration in Kamakura period (1185-1333). The examination of some of the numerous literary allusions borrowed from Murasaki Shikibu's masterpiece will help the reader to understand why Nun Abutsu's intertextual strategies are so effective and what they tell us about her and other medieval women in a period of great political and social change.