Ogimachi Machiko

Ōgimachi Machiko (正親町町子, 1675 - 1724) was a Japanese noble lady, scholar, member of the Ōgimachi family of court nobles during the Edo period. She is known for her diary, Matsukage no nikki, which details numerous events of that period in a writing style inspired by the Tale of Genji.[1]

Life

Machiko was the daughter of the Major Counsellor (dainagon) of the Emperor of Japan, Ogimachi Sanetoyo. She was also the younger sister of a notable Shinto scholar, Ogimachi Kimmichi. She received the highest education as an aristocrat of the privileged class. She learned the arts considered essential for the nobles of the Imperial court, including the arts of calligraphy, waka poetry. Her family traced their line to the celebrated classical scholar Sanjônishi Sanetaka (1455-1537).

At the age of sixteen, Machiko became the concubine of Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu, who became the protégé of the fifth Tokugawa shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi.

Notable works

Machiko wrote the Matsukage nikki (Diary in the Shade of a Pine Tree), a famous military accounts from the period of 1685–1709. Consisting of four kan, the military account is modelled on the Eiga Monogatari. Just as this monogatari gives an account of the magnificenfe of Fujiwara no Michinaga, Machiko's diary gives a detailed account of Yoshiyasu's glory during this period. Characteristic of the work is the typically female power of observation.[2]

References
  1. Pestman, P. W. (1971). Acta Orientalia Neerlandica: Proceedings of the Congress of the Dutch Oriental Society Held in Leiden on the Occasion of Its 50th Anniversary, 8th-9th May 1970. Brill Archive.
  2. Kornicki, P. F.; Patessio, Mara; Rowley, G. G. (2010-01-08). The Female as Subject: Reading and Writing in Early Modern Japan. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-1-929280-65-0.
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