60
New Reflections
hitori ya nagaki
will I wander alone
yami ni madowamu
lost in the long darkness?
82
But after briefly identifying Senshi, the entry then skips along to the next
event: another of Michinaga’s daughters, Empress Ishi (1000–36), giving
birth to a princess whose eventual presentation to the future Emperor
Goreizei (1025–68) also inspires a poem that makes a play on the “day of
the rat.”
83
This brings its reader forward to another new year, 1027, and
the first imperial visit of the year to the J
ō
t
ō
mon-in. Her home, described
as even more “brilliant” (
haebaeshi
) than usual, is praised as being “like
something from a Chinese painting—the color of the mountains, the
green of the waters, the placement of the trees and stones were quite de-
lightful,” and the splendor of the robes and dancing are all “beyond
words.”
84
From there, the account moves directly to the eleventh month
and Michinaga’s death. Without preamble, it announces the intensifica-
tion of his illness and recounts the rites and prayers undertaken on his
behalf. Just
before reporting his death, the narrator muses, “His descen-
dants were the emperor and crown prince, so even in his time of illness,
had there in the past ever been one who flourished such as he?”
85
This is
followed by a short note on the birth of a new princess in 1029 and a lon-
ger reminiscence about the festivities for the seventieth birthday of Mi-
chinaga’s widow, Minamoto no Rinshi (964–1053), in 1033. Among the
guests is none other than Akazome Emon (the author of
Flowering For-
tunes
, mentioned in the introduction), and she composes a celebratory
verse. This, in turn, reminds the narrator of a diff
erent verse composed
by Emon on “the day of the rat,” bringing everything back full circle in
terms of calendrical events.
86
The “Day of the Rat” concludes with the
death of Emperor Goichij
ō
(1008–36), which provokes memories of both
a
kanshi
by the late emperor and a
waka
lamenting his passing.
87
In the
repeated citation of poetry, the types of events with which the passage of
82. Takehana,
Imakagami
, 1:69.
83. Takehana,
Imakagami
, 1:72.
84. Takehana,
Imakagami
, 1:75–76.
85. Takehana,
Imakagami
, 1:78.
86. Takehana,
Imakagami
, 1:82.
87. Takehana,
Imakagami
, 1:86–87.
Refuge in the Past during the Final Age
61
time is marked, and the wandering narrative focus, the “Day of the Rat”
affords a good sense of how history is constructed and ordered within the
world of
The New Mirror
.
With the conclusion of the royal biographies, the text arrives at the
narrative present, only to return again to origins with the next set of
biographies: the
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