And another
n“Leaving out nothing that
was charming, full of pathos, impressive, or
splendid, she wrote in minute detail about everything having to do with
the magnificent flowering that was Empress Teishi’s reign, yet it
seems she was prudent to the point that she said nothing at all
about the ruin brought on by the death of Michitaka and the exile of
Korechika. Perhaps because she had lost her most reliable patrons,
she went off to stay in the countryside with her wet-nurse’s daughter.
Someone glimpsed her going out into the fields to dry some
sort of greens and muttering to herself: ‘It’s the figures wearing
those court robes I cannot forget.’ She was wearing a plain robe and
a headcloth of rags. So sad! Truly, how she must have longed
for the past.”
– Mumyōzōshi (The
notebook without a name; ca. 1200), cited in Sarra
(1999)