Oshi-Katsu Chronicle, Heian Period: The Diarist Who Adored The Tale of Genji, and Courtiers Hooked on Poetry

Your family keeps chatting happily about a story, and you want to read it too. When you finally get hold of the book, you’re swept into its world. Sarashina Diary (Sarashina Nikki), written some 1,000 years ago, preserves exactly that memory from a girl’s youth.

Binge-reading a work you love, waiting for the person you came to see to take the stage, learning a song and humming it. Here we trace the stories and events that captivated people in the Heian period, laid over the ways we enjoy things today.

1. The Oshi of the Sarashina Diary Author: The Tale of Genji

As a girl, the author of Sarashina Diary listened to her older sister and stepmother talk about stories. She wanted to know more: how the tales went on, who the characters were. At the end of that longing stood The Tale of Genji (Genji Monogatari).

She is known as Sugawara no Takasue’s Daughter, literally “the daughter of a man called Sugawara no Takasue,” because her own name has not come down to us. Sarashina Diary is her look back, as an adult, over her life since girlhood (Ichihara Historical Museum’s explainer, in Japanese).

The girl was then living in Kazusa, in what is now part of Chiba Prefecture. Hearing about a story people were reading in the capital, she couldn’t search for it on a smartphone or collect the whole set at a bookstore. Tale books were shahon, copies written out by hand one volume at a time, so first she had to meet someone who owned one.

When she at last got her hands on the Genji she’d longed for, she read it obsessively. A longed-for work becomes your own precious “oshi.” It’s the same feeling as devouring the next volume of a manga you love today. The National Institute of Japanese Literature (in Japanese) also presents Sarashina Diary as a source showing how absorbed readers of the time were.

The Tale of Genji is a long story of the romances and relationships of Hikaru Genji and his circle. You want to know what happens to the characters, and you can’t stop turning the pages. Story lovers today may well recognize her reading fever.

Heian pastimesRead, watch, see, sing

• The Tale of GenjiLike binge-reading a manga
• Uta-awaseLike following Kohaku
• Procession viewingLike choosing a parade spot
• ImayoLike learning a favorite song

The comparisons help us understand feelings, not claim the two worlds are the same.

2. Lost in Who Performs and Who Wins: The Court’s Uta-Awase

Reading wasn’t the only pleasure. The imperial court also held uta-awase, “poetry matches” in which people competed over the quality of their words.

What will my favorite poet submit? Which side will win? Picture it as watching your oshi’s turn, and your team’s win or loss, on NHK’s New Year’s Eve song show, Kohaku Uta Gassen, and the scene feels a little closer.

In an uta-awase, people split into left and right teams, and each side presented one waka poem at a time on the same topic. A waka is a short poem in a 5-7-5-7-7 pattern that expresses a feeling or a scene. Judges compared the works and decided the winner (Tokyo National Museum’s uta-awase explainer, in Japanese).

1. 01Split into teamsLeft and right sides
2. 02Same topicFor example, "spring"
3. 03One waka eachOne poem at a time
4. 04Judges compareWords, not singing voices
5. 05A side winsIn some cases, winners danced and losers hosted

A contest of poetry, with socializing built in.

Take “spring” as a topic. One person might write about the beauty of blossoms, another about the sadness of parting. The skill lay in how you answered the same theme in words.

What overlaps with Kohaku is the fun of watching two teams’ turns and results. What an uta-awase compares is not singing voices but the words of poetry. Keep that in mind and you can move past “an old-time music show?” and a step closer to how people enjoyed it then.

Records held at the Gotoh Museum include the topics, the left and right poems, and some of the judgments. As with looking back at a contest’s entries and results today, you can read what works were lined up (Gotoh Museum’s collection explainer, in Japanese).

In some cases the winning side danced and the losing side played host, which shows that the event included socializing after the contest was decided (Kanagawa Prefectural Library’s research reply, via the Collaborative Reference Database, in Japanese).

3. “I Want a Spot Where I Can See My Oshi”: The Procession in The Tale of Genji

If you go to see a parade your oshi is in, where you stand matters. You’d rather see their face than stare at the back of someone’s head. And if someone abruptly shoved you out of that spot, the joy you’d been looking forward to would probably wilt.

The “Aoi” chapter of The Tale of Genji also depicts a clash over viewing spots. What follows happens inside the story.

It is the day Hikaru Genji takes part in a purification procession ahead of a festival. His lover, Lady Rokujo (Rokujo no Miyasundokoro), goes out to catch a glimpse of him too. Aristocratic spectators ride in ox-drawn carriages called gissha, and since each carriage takes up space, the roadside was crowded (Doshisha Women’s College, “The Aoi Festival and The Tale of Genji”, in Japanese).

Then the party of Genji’s wife, Aoi no Ue, arrives. Her attendants, trying to secure a viewing spot, shove aside the carriage of his lover, Lady Rokujo. This is the “carriage clash” (kuruma-arasoi) (Doshisha Women’s College explainer, in Japanese).

Sorting out who is who: the person they want to see is Genji, the one pushed aside is his lover, and the ones who arrived later are the wife’s party. For Lady Rokujo, it wasn’t only that she could no longer see well. Being brushed aside in public by the wife’s side of the man she loved was a humiliation.

The one to see

Hikaru Genji

• Takes part in the procession
• The person everyone came for

Pushed aside

Lady Rokujo

• His lover
• Humiliated in public

Arrived later

Aoi no Ue's party

• His wife's attendants
• Pushed the carriage aside

A clash over viewing spots, tangled up with romance and rank.

What carries over to today’s oshi-katsu is the wish to see the person you came for even a little better. Because this scene involves romantic relationships and questions of rank, it isn’t the same as fans squabbling over spots. Still, anyone who has been to an event can imagine how your viewing position can change your mood for the whole day.

4. “I Want to Be Able to Sing My Favorite Song”: Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa’s Passion for Music

You play a favorite song over and over and try singing it at karaoke. For the parts you can’t manage, you listen again until you’ve learned them. Sometimes listening isn’t enough, and you want to sing it that way yourself.

In the late Heian period, one man can be seen in the light of such a music lover: Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa. Even after he stepped down from the throne and took Buddhist vows, he kept a strong grip on politics.

What absorbed him was imayo, the popular songs of the day. The name means “in the current style.” The retired emperor took a woman named Otomae as his teacher and learned songs from people of all kinds of standing (Kyoto City, “Imayo”, in Japanese).

Today, he looks like a music fan who doesn’t just listen closely to a favorite song but goes to study with someone who sings it well. A man with great power in the political world was, when it came to learning songs, the one being taught.

At the time, there was no way to save a recording and replay just the part you liked. To learn how to sing, you had to hear the voice of someone who could. What we now do with a play button, they learned by meeting people and training their ears and bodies.

The retired emperor compiled the lyrics into a song collection called the Ryojin Hisho and also wrote down his experience of learning them. The record of the lyrics is a clue to what words were being sung at the time (Kyoto City’s explainer, in Japanese).

Timeline of Heian-Period Oshi-Katsu

From events where people competed in waka, to a record of a reader absorbed in stories, to Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa’s passion for music: across the long span of the Heian period, the pleasures of reading, watching and singing have left their traces.

1. About 1,000 years agoA girl reads GenjiRecorded in Sarashina Diary
2. At the courtUta-awasePoetry matches with judges
3. Late HeianGo-Shirakawa and imayoPopular songs, gathered as Ryojin Hisho

Reading, watching and singing all leave records.

1. 885Zai Minbukyo-ke Utaawase, the oldest recorded poem contestMusic
2. 905The "Kokin Wakashu" is compiled (20 volumes, about 1,100 poems)Media
3. 960The Tentoku Dairi Utaawase is held, 20 rounds on 12 themesMusic
4. c. 996"The Pillow Book" spreads through the hands of Minamoto no TsunefusaMedia
5. 1008Sugawara no Takasue's Daughter is bornMedia
6. 1008The Murasaki Shikibu Diary holds the oldest record of "The Tale of Genji"Media
7. c. 1010Fujiwara no Kinto compiles the "Sanjurokunin-sen" (Thirty-Six Poets)Music
8. 1020Takasue's Daughter returns to Kyoto at 13, the starting point of the "Sarashina Diary"Media
9. After returning to KyotoTakasue's Daughter is given more than fifty volumes of "The Tale of Genji" by her auntMedia
10. c. 1059The "Sarashina Diary" is said to have been completedMedia
11. 1087Oe no Masafusa writes the "Kairaishi-ki"Performing arts
12. Early 12th centuryOe no Masafusa's "Yujo-ki" calls Kanzaki "the foremost place of pleasure under heaven"Business
13. 12th centuryThe "Genji Monogatari Emaki" (Tale of Genji picture scrolls) is made (National Treasure)Media
14. 1158Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa meets Otomae, and they become master and pupil in imayoPerforming arts
15. 1174A 15-night imayo contest is held at Hojuji-donoPerforming arts
16. c. 1180The "Ryojin Hisho" is said to have been compiled (566 songs survive)Performing arts

Performing Arts and Trend Words of the Heian Period

Uta-awase, the poetry matches, and imayo, the popular songs of the day: once you know what the words mean, you can picture what people were enjoying.

Utaawase (poem contest)

A game and event in which poets were split into left and right teams to compete over waka. It took hold in the Heian period

Gyoyu (imperial music gatherings)

Gatherings of wind and string music hosted by the emperor, retired emperors and court nobles. Held for celebrations and seasonal occasions

Imayo ("current style")

Literally songs of the "present style." They were popular in the late Heian period and loved by Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa

Shirabyoshi

A song-and-dance form in which courtesans or children in men's dress danced while singing imayo. Said to have arisen in the late Heian period

In the diagram, gyoyu is a gathering at court to enjoy music, and kangen, in its explanation, means music played on flutes, string instruments and the like. Imayo was the name for the songs Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa loved.

Binge-reading a book, watching your favorite creators compete, going to see the person you came for, learning a song: read Heian records and stories through these scenes, and they come closer to how we live with the things we love.

In the next installment, Oshi-Katsu Chronicle: Kamakura and Muromachi Periods, we follow shoguns meeting Noh performers, starting from the feelings of “becoming a fan after seeing a stage once” and “wanting to see the next performance too.”

References

• Ichihara Historical Museum, “Sarashina Diary and Kazusa” (in Japanese)
• National Institute of Japanese Literature, “The Tale of Genji: Picture Albums and Old Manuscripts” (in Japanese)
• Tokyo National Museum, National Treasure “Kanpyo no Ontoki Kisai no Miya Uta-awase” (in Japanese)
• Gotoh Museum, records of uta-awase (in Japanese)
• Collaborative Reference Database, Kanagawa Prefectural Library’s research reply on uta-awase (in Japanese)
• Doshisha Women’s College, “The Aoi Festival and The Tale of Genji” (in Japanese)
• Kyoto City, “Cultural History 05: Imayo” (in Japanese)