Among the Japanese literary “Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry” is the poet, Izumi Shikibu (和泉式部), also called, “The Floating Lady” (浮かれ女, “ukareme”).  Shikibu was probably born around 976AD, during the mid “Heian period” (794 to 1185 ).

“Heian” (平安) is Japanese for “peace” or “tranquility”, and the period began after the Fujiwara clan gained control of the Imperial House of Japan.  It is commonly considered the last classical period of Japanese history, and its start is marked by the movement of the country’s capital from Nara to Heian-jo, or what is now the city of Kyōto.

During this time, Chinese cultural influences reached a peak in Japan, introducing Buddhist and Taoist thought and Chinese arts into Japanese culture. As a result, the period is known as a time when the imperial court produced what are considered to be among the nation’s greatest arts, literary works, and poetry.

It was within this environment that Izumi Shikibu was born the daughter of the Governor of Ecjizen, Oe no Masamune, and his wife, Taira no Yasuhira, who was herself the daughter of the governor of Etchu. Aside from her birth into a family of bureaucrats serving the Fujiwara court, little is actually known of Izumi Shikibu’s life. Even her name is derived via Heian tradition from her husband’s role as the governor of Izumi province, and her father’s title of “shikibu”, an official in charge of court ceremonies.

This was an era of arranged marriages, where men of wealth could have several wives or mistresses. However, women were expected to remain faithful to their families.  So after a series of affairs within the court, Shikibu was probably compelled by her family to become the wife of Tachibana no Michisada at the age of twenty.  Seventeen-years her senior, he would give her the sobriquet of, The Floating Lady, in reference to her outgoing and sociable personality.

In 997, Shikibu gave birth to a daughter, Koshikibu no Naishi, who would herself become known as a poet.  Then in 999, Michisada was appointed Governor of Izumi, and Shikibu traveled with him to the province near modern day Osaka.

Shikibu was unhappy with life in Izumi, and soon returned alone to the capital.  And some time thereafter, she began an affair with Prince Tametaka (為敬皇子). The affair ultimately caused her to be disowned by her parents… and unsurprisingly, divorced by her husband.  But after only a year, Tametaka fell ill and died.

The “Eiga Monogatari” (The Story of Splendor), a record of the life of Fujiwara no Michinaga, implied that Tametaka’s illness and death were due to his “continual nocturnal escapades.” Shikibu, nevertheless, mourned Tametaka’s death… while starting a relationship with his half brother, Prince Atsumichi (敦道皇子).

Accompanying the somewhat younger prince to Imperial Court events and functions, Shikibu became the center of much court gossip.  When Shikibu eventually moved into the prince’s home, his primary wife departed in a rage.  It was during this period when Izumi Shikibu wrote the diary that came to be known as, “Izumi Shikibu Nikki”.  Written in the third-person, it contains over one-hundred poems in distinctly Japanese styles.

Shikibu’s relationship with Atsumichi would last for about four-years, until Atsumichi’s death at the age of 27 in 1007.  Some time after, Shikibu joined the court of Fujiwara no Shōshi, who was the daughter of Fujiwara no Michinaga, and the consort of the Emperor Ichijō.  While there, she would marry Fujiwara no Yasumasa, a famed military commander whom she accompanied to his posting in Tango Province on the Sea of Japan.

Shikibu and Yasumasa would remain together until Shikibu’s death, despite Shikibu having had several apparent affairs during their marriage.  Nothing is known of when Shikibu died, except that she outlived her daughter who died during childbirth in 1025, that her last known poem was written in 1027, and that she may have written a letter as late as 1033.

Izumi Shikibu Nikki is today considered among the principal works of Japanese poetry from the Heian court.  Shikibu’s poetic autobiography, Izumi Shikibu Shū, passed down in several versions containing from 647 to 902 poems, is also considered the single most prominent work by any individual poet of the Heian-period.

There is some suggestion in subsequent Japanese literature that Shikibu spent her final few years devoted to an ascetic Buddhist life. But her writings allude to many lovers and to a life of passion, once commenting, “my very eyes feel amorous.” And they also contain momentary reflections on loneliness, abandonment, and laments for those who preceded her in death. Together, these reveal insights into the passionate heart of a woman who was both an unhesitating and independent spirit, and yet very much the cultural product of her own era in Japanese history.

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Poems by Izumi Shikibu from: The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Onono Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan, translated by Jane Hirshfield and Mariko Aratani (1990).

秋までの命も知らず春の野に萩の古枝をやくとやくかな

君こふる心はちゞに碎くれど一もうせぬ物にぞありける

我といかでつれなくなりて心みむつらき人こそ忘れ難けれ

*Written while watching her grandchildren upon the death of her daughter in 1025:
とゞめおきて誰をあはれと思ふらん子はまさるらん子はまさりけり

夕暮は物ぞ悲しき鐘の音をあすも聞べき身とし知らねば

立ちのぼる煙につけて思ふかないつまた我を人のかく見ん