page_title: Murasaki Shikibu Diary Emaki
section_title: Fifth day of birth celebration of Atsuhira-shinnō
hierarchical_section_title: Murasaki Shikibu Diary Emaki / Extant scrolls / Hachisuka scroll / Fifth day of birth celebration of Atsuhira-shinnō
caption_attribution_description: English: Part of the Murasaki Shikibu Diary Emaki, Hachisuka edition. color and ink on paper, 21cm height.
context_page_description: The Murasaki Shikibu Diary Emaki is a mid-13th century emaki, a Japanese picture scroll, inspired by the private diary of Murasaki Shikibu, lady-in-waiting at the 10th/11th centuries Heian court and author of The Tale of Genji. This emaki belongs to the classical style of Japanese painting known as yamato-e and revives the iconography of the Heian period.
  Today there remain four paper scrolls of the emaki in varying condition and stored in different collections: Hachisuka, Matsudaira, Hinohara scrolls, and Fujita scroll. Of the extant scrolls, the first relates the celebrations on occasion of the birth of prince Atsunari in 1008 and the last those of the birth of Prince Atsunaga in 1009. This difference in time indicates that the original emaki most likely consisted of more scrolls than exist today.
context_section_description: The second to fifth scenes of the Hachisuka scroll are set in the evening of Kankō 5, 9th month, 15th day (October 16, 1008). On that day, the prime minister and baby's grandfather, Fujiwara no Michinaga, celebrates the birth. In the second text scene of the emaki, Murasaki Shikibu describes how everybody including servants, minor officials and high nobility was joyful and happy. Tables with rice balls (mochi) were placed in the garden, the full moon shone beautifully and torches made the scene as bright as in daylight. There is one illustration following this scene.
  The third text is split in two parts, followed by three illustrations. The text contains a detailed description of how the dinner was served to the queen including the names of the maids of honour and their father's names. The ladies who had not been selected to attend "wept bitterly". Other people involved in the ceremony included uneme, mohitori, migusiage, tonomori, kanmori no nyokwan and door keepers. According to Murasaki Shikibu so many people were involved that it was hard to get through.
  The relatively short fourth scene describes that the maids of honour exit from the queen's room which had been partitioned off by misu entering the torch-lit garden. It also gives more details and an interpretation of the dress of one of those maids, Lady Oshikibu.
  The short fifth passage is a continuation of the previous events and relates an exchange of courtesies between court ladies and a monk who had kept night watch telling religious and other stories. Murasaki Shikibu tells him: You cannot see such a lovely thing every day, to which he replies: Indeed! indeed! clapping his hands in joy and neglecting his Buddha. The illustration shows an elderly priest near the left border of the painting pushing open a folding screen beyond which three court ladies are seated. Murasaki Shikibu is seated closest to the monk directly behind the screen.
caption: Fourth painting (right), fifth painting (middle) and fourth text section (left)
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