SOURCE: “Fitful Slumbers: Nun Abutsu's Utatane,” in Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 43, No. 4, Winter, 1988, pp. 391-416.

In the following essay, Wallace provides an introduction to Utatane, discussing its sources, authorship, style, and date of composition.

Utatane, Fitful Slumbers, is a short prose work written in the Kamakura period by the nun Abutsu, d. 1283, best known for her association with the poet Fujiwara Tameie, 1198-1275, and her travel diary Izayoi Nikki Diary of the Waning Moon. This diary recorded her journey to Kamakura in 1227 to place before the shogunate her case regarding the rightful heirship of Tamesuke, her son, to some of the Mikohidari family poetic writings and parts of the Hosokawa estate.¹

The author was known variously as Ankamon'in Echizen, Ankamon'in Uemon no Suke, and Ankamon'in Shijō, indicating her position in the service of Ankamon'in, the empress of the Retired Emperor Juntoku, and her gradual rise in court rank, before...