The Diary of Lady Murasaki

Murasaki’s diary is an interesting read, it gives a glimpse into a time we rarely learn about with direct recollection. There was a good amount I found interesting about the life of people like her and Murasaki’s feelings being injected onto these situations made the whole thing feel more real than simply reading an article on it.

I do feel like a lot of the enjoyment I got from the book however was from the first 20-30 pages that were a more general look into life at that time and the family trees and history of Japan as a whole before the diary actually began.

That's not to say the diary itself is without merit though as there were definitely parts I enjoyed that were only possible from her perspective. One that sticks out is when Murasaki sends off a poem passage as a message to Lady Koshosho and by the time she receives a reply, she can’t remember what was originally sent so replies in a vague manner. Little moments like that really help the era being written about feel lived in.

It’s unfortunate then, that this may only be a smaller part of a larger diary and we don’t know for sure how much of it is lost today because as is, it kind of just ends, as well as the fact that a lot of the actual poetry isnt included due to language barriers and poetry being especially hard to translate across.