The Tosa Diary

It is generally a man who writes what is called a Diary, but now a woman will see what she can do.

One year on the twenty-first day of the twelfth month ‘a certain personage’ left home at the Hour of the Dog (8.0 p-m.), which was the beginning of this modest record. He had just completed the usual period of four or five years as Governor of a Province; everything had been wound up, documents, &c., had been handed over, and now he was about to go down to the place of embarkation; for he was to travel on shipboard. All sorts of people, both friends and strangers, came to see him off, including many who had served him faithfully during the past years, and who sorrowed at the thought of losing him that day. There was endless bustle and confusion; and so with one thing and another the night drew on.

22nd day.—He prayed for a calm voyage to the Land of Izumi. Fujiwara no Tokisané came to ‘turn his horse’s head’, although he was to travel by sea. Upper, middle, and lower classes all drank too heavily, and, wonderful to relate, there they were on the edge of the salt sea itself all useless and incompetent!