Sacred Rites in Moonlight: Ben no Naishi Nikki

Reference & Research Book News, August, 2005

PL792

1-885445-22-9

Sacred rites in moonlight; Ben no Naishi Nikki.

Nikki, Ben no Naishi. Ed. and trans. by S. Yumiko Hulvey.

Cornell East Asia Program, [c]2005

324 p.

$25.00 (pa)

Ben no Naishi (1228-1270) created an innovative poetic account of her life as a naishi (female courtier) serving at the court of Go-Fukakusa. In her introduction to this translation, Hulvey (Japanese, U. of Florida) reassesses traditional scholarship that regards the work as a product of a naive author who compiled her text without any literary purpose and argues instead that Ben no Naishi was guided by her devotion to the sacred and secular duties of the naishi. Hulvey includes valuable descriptions of Ben no Naishi's literary heritage and family tree as well as a bibliographic essay. Published by the East Asia Program at Cornell University.