Published by Tuttle Publishing,
an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.
with editorial offices at 364 Innovation Drive, North Clarendon, VT 05759 U.S.A.
© 1981 by Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc.
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-1-4629-0336-8 (ebook)
First Tuttle edition published 1981
Printed in Singapore
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PUBLISHER'S FOREWORD
THIS early translation of a classic work of Japanese literature retains its charm more than half a century after initial publication in 1912, and it is a distinct satisfaction to present it once more for the pleasure of discerning readers. The appearance in later years of other English translations of the work has in no way diminished the value of this one, as all who appreciate writing of a truly engaging quality will recognize.
Although it has proven impossible for technical reasons to reproduce the sketch of Ki no Tsurayuki's route that appeared in the original edition, the Tosa Diary continues to provide the reader with a fascinating glimpse of tenth-century Japan, as well as a literary work of enduring stature. With his great experience in translating ancient Japanese poetry, William N. Porter was ideally equipped to render into English the elegant prose and many tanka poems in this book. The publisher takes more than the usual pleasure in offering his translation to the public.
Ki no Tsurayuki (c. 872-946), a court nobleman of high rank, was a diarist, literary theorist, and poet. He was renowned for his erudition and skill in Chinese and Japanese poetry. Between 905 and 922, he, with the assistance of others, compiled the Kokinshu, the first imperial anthology of poetry. His much-cited preface to that work is the first formal articulation of a Japanese poetics and established a model for future generations of poetic criticism.
William N. Porter translated many works from the Japanese between 1909 and 1914. He is best known for his challenging but artful translation of A Hundred Verses from Old Japan: Being a Translation of the "Hyaku-nin-isshiu" (1909), a collection of 100 specimens of Japanese classical tanka (poetry written in a five-line 31-syllable format in a 5-7-5-7-7 pattern) dating from the seventh to thirteenth centuries.
INTRODUCTION
The Tosa Nikki, or Tosa Diary, was written in the year A.D. 935 by Ki no Tsurayuki, a court nobleman of high rank, who died in 946. He had been appointed Governor of the Province of Tosa, in Shikoku, in 930, the first year of the reign of the Emperor Sujaku, and the diary is an account of his journey home by sea to Kyoto, which was then the capital. The total distance is only some 200 miles, but in those days it was considered no small undertaking, and took, as the diary shows, 55 days to accomplish; this period, however, covered several long stops on the way, including a 10 days' delay at Ōminato.
The boat used to convey such an important official would, no doubt, be of more than ordinary size, but there is nothing to tell us how large she was. A cabin is mentioned; but, though we are told that on one occasion a sail was hoisted, they relied chiefly upon oars as a means of propulsion, for sails in those early days were but seldom used. They traveled very leisurely, camping each night upon shore, and remaining there the next day if the weather looked at all threatening. Mr. H. A. C. Bonar's investigations on the subject of early Japanese shipping, as given in his paper read before the Asiatic Society of Japan in 1887, supply little or no information for this early period. He mentions an old canoe which was dug out near Osaka (the ancient port of Naniwa) in the year 1878 and is now shown in the permanent exhibition of that city. Its date could not be ascertained with any certainty, but it was estimated to be over 1000 years old, which would carry it back approximately to the period of the Tosa Diary, and Tsurayuki's ship might very well have been something like it. Its shape is that of a large hollowed out trunk of a tree, its length is 37ft. 5 in., and greatest width 4ft. 8in.
Ki no Tsurayuki was famous as a writer both of prose and poetry. Between the years 905 and 922 he, with assistance from others, compiled the Kokinshū, a famous collection of early Japanese poetry, to which he contributed a preface, which is much admired for its literary though somewhat flowery style. The Tosa Diary, which also ranks high among the literature of Old Japan, is, however, written in a very different tone. The English reader will no doubt be struck by its artless simplicity and quiet humor, which is as welcome as it is unexpected from a Japanese nobleman of the tenth century. His sufferings from sea-sickness, his grief for the loss of his mirror, his pride when his little daughter composes a verse in reply to that made by a visitor whom he evidently dislikes, the endless verses of his own that he cannot resist quoting, and the way in which he depreciates the verses of others, as well as many other details, supply a very human touch to the diary.
A characteristic feature of his style is the contrast of words he introduces; such as, he sang a song of the East, though he was still in the Land of the West', and 'his feelings were somewhat calmed, although the sea was still very rough', &c. The late Dr. Aston in his History of Japanese Literature writes: 'The Tosa Nikki is a striking example of the importance of style. It contains no exciting adventures or romantic situations; there are in it no wise maxims or novel information; its only merit is that it describes in simple yet elegant language, and with a vein of playful humor, the ordinary life of a traveler in Japan at the time when it was written. But this has proved sufficient to give it a high rank amongst Japanese classics, and has ensured its being handed down to our own day as a most esteemed model for composition in the native Japanese style. It has been followed by many imitations, but has had no equal.'
The Japanese language as usually written is a combination of ideographic and phonetic characters, but Tsurayuki opens his diary by announcing that he intends to write it only in phonetics. As these were comparatively simple to learn, while a knowledge of the ideographs involved a profound study of the classical Chinese language, the former became known as the women's language' and the latter as the men's language'. Tsurayuki, therefore, in order to justify his use of phonetics only, writes the diary in the character of a woman and mentions himself only in the third person, which adds considerably to the difficulties of the translator. He also calls himself by many different names, such as yuku hito (the traveler), funagimi (the passenger), but oftenest simply aru hito (a certain personage). To assist the English reader, I have put in inverted commas such