Chapters 6-7

[telophase]

So behind, now! I figure, instead of doing full summaries, since others have done that already, I'll stick with cultural footnotes.

Comments

[tekalynn]

IIRC, unless I'm completely on crack, that Shonagon also complains about guys who are klutzes at putting on their makeup, and who as a result have big blotchy patches of skin showing "like earth through snow".

[telophase]

[shonagon]How unaesthetic![/shonagon]

[kate_nepveu]

the body itself was considered vulgar in Heian times

I am trying and failing to keep my brain from speculating what sex was like for them.

maneuvered things so that emperors could only marry Fujiwara women

Does Morris say how, in 1068, the Fujiwaras let an emperor without a Fujiwara mother come to the throne?

everyone turns one year older at the new year

Yes, that's in the Seidensticker introduction.

Thanks for the useful notes!

[telophase]

I am trying and failing to keep my brain from speculating what sex was like for them.

I suspect denial came in quite handy. :D That was probably also an ideal, and individuals' mileage varied.

Does Morris say how, in 1068, the Fujiwaras let an emperor without a Fujiwara mother come to the throne?

Yeah, actually, although the book is at home and I am at work at the moment - IIRC, it was due to a rash of infertility and some other things (early deaths, maybe?), and I think the conclusion we're supposed to draw is that it was due in large part to inbreeding.

[kate_nepveu]

Ah yes, inbreeding, the nearly-inevitable end result of all such attempts. Thanks!

[rachelmanija]

I think Norimitsu was actually Sei Shonagon's older brother, but yeah, he totally missed her point and was given to public declarations that he hated poetry.

[telophase]

I'm going to have to look at that again - Morris was pretty damn sure he was her lover/husband. Was there more than one Norimitsu?

[tekalynn]

Didn't they refer to each other as older brother/younger sister, but possibly as an honorific and/or a joke?

[rachelmanija]

Yeah, I think that's it. And I think it's true that Morris thought they were lovers etc., but I think it's also possible that their relationship was non-sexual and they really did see themselves as having more of a brother-sister type relationship. Of course, it's been a while since I've read Shonagon, but I kind of feel like a lot of scholars tend to jump to conclusions in male-female relationships and assume that there's no way for two unrelated people of the opposite sex to be close without it being a romantic-sexual relationship.

Lianne