Lady Nijō

Lady Nijō (1258 – after 1307) was a noblewoman, poet and author. She was a concubine of Emperor Go-Fukakusa from 1271 to 1283, and became a Buddhist nun. Her memoir, Towazugatari (“An Unasked-For Tale”, commonly translated into English as The Confessions of Lady Nijō), is the work for which she is known today, and the main source of information on her life.

Lady Nijō came from the Koga family, a branch of the Minamoto clan descended from Emperor Murakami. Her father and paternal grandfather held important positions at the imperial court, and many of her relatives and ancestors had excellent reputations for their literary abilities. Her real name is not known. As was the custom of the time she was given the name Nijō after the street of that name and indicated that she held a high position.

Her memoir Towazugatari (“An Unasked-For Tale” or “The Confessions of Lady Nijō”) describes her life at court as a concubine of Emperor Go-Fukakusa from 1271 to 1283. Emperor Go-Fukakusa was interested in Nijō’s mother, who died shortly after she was born. The emperor took Nijō into the court and there she was raised.  Towazugatari begins in 1271, when Nijō, aged 14, is given by her father to Go-Fukakusa as a concubine.

Nijō’s life at the court was plagued by numerous troubles. Her father died when she was 15, and her relationship with the emperor was strained from the beginning, because she took several other lovers over the years, including one whom she knew before becoming a concubine. Her lovers included Saionji Sanekane (1249 – 1322), for whom she had a daughter and Prince Shojo (d. 1281) for whom she had two sons. Matters were complicated further by Nijō’s pregnancies: the only child she bore to Go-Fukakusa died in infancy, and the other three children she had were not by the emperor. Go-Fukakusa’s consort, Higashi-nijō, did not like Lady Nijō and was jealous. Higashi-nijō succeeded in expelling her from the court in 1283.

After leaving the imperial court, like many women in Medieval Japan enduring difficult circumstances, Nijō became a Buddhist nun. She traveled to sacred and historical places. Towazugatari ends in 1306, and nothing is known about what happened to Nijō afterwards or when she died.

Towazugatari was written c. 1307.The work is considered one of the greatest works of Japanese literature, as well being a rare account of events not typically recorded in premodern Japanese literary works.

Nijō’s autobiography did not enjoy wide circulation, perhaps due to Nijō’s too intimate portrayal of Emperor Go-Fukakusa. A single 17th-century copy was discovered among the holdings of the Imperial Household in 1940, with several gaps in Book 5, noted. The book was published in 1950, with a complete annotated edition following in 1966. There are two English translations:

• Karen Brazell. The Confessions of Lady Nijo. A Zenith book published by Arrow Books Ltd., London, 1973.
• Wilfrid Whitehouse and Eizo Yanagisawa. Lady Nijo’s own story; Towazugatari: the candid diary of a thirteenth-century Japanese imperial concubine. Tuttle, Rutland, Vt. 1974.