Kagero Nikki, translated here as The Gossamer Years, belongs to the same period as the celebrated Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikuibu. This remarkably frank autobiographical diary and personal confession attempts to describe a difficult relationship as it reveals two tempestuous decades of the author's unhappy marriage and her growing indignation at rival wives and mistresses. Too impetuous to be satisfied as a subsidiary wife, this beautiful (and unnamed) noblewoman of the Heian dynasty protests the marriage system of her time in one of Japanese literature's earliest attempts to portray difficult elements of the predominant social hierarchy. A classic work of early Japanese prose, The Gossamer Years is an important example of the development of Heian literature, which, at its best, represents an extraordinary flowering of realistic expression, an attempt, unique for its age, to treat the human condition with frankness and honesty. A timeless and intimate glimpse into the culture of ancient Japan, this translation by Edward Seidensticker paints a revealing picture of married life in the Heian period.

本作『Gossamer Years』は、平安文学の幻想を剥ぎ取り、人間の剥き出しの感情を刻んだ「魂の告白」です。紫式部が虚構の美を極めた一方で、著者は結婚生活という現実を、驚くほど真摯に描きました。サイデンステッカーの名訳により、遠い過去の孤独と憤りは、現代の我々の心にも生々しく、鮮烈に響き渡ります。 一夫多妻制という不条理に抗い、尊厳を求めてもがく女性の執念は、普遍的な「愛と生」の苦悩を浮き彫りにします。陽炎のように揺らめく幸福を追い、嫉妬や絶望に悶えるその姿は、読み手の魂を揺さぶらずにはいられません。真実のみを語ろうとした著者の痛切な意志こそが、本作を不朽の名作たらしめているのです。