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Primary sourceDiary entry935 (copy 13th century)

Tosa Nikki

Ki no Tsurayuki · 935 (copy 13th century)

The first kana diary, written by Ki no Tsurayuki in a woman's voice, which created the genre of vernacular prose that Murasaki Shikibu's diary and novel built on.

This earlier kana diary established the vernacular prose tradition that Murasaki Shikibu's diary and novel later built upon.

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Scan of a page of handwritten Japanese cursive calligraphy in brown ink on pale paper, written in vertical columns. This is the final part of the Tosa Nikki diary, copied by Fujiwara no Teika in the 13th century.
Ki no Tsurayuki, Tosa Nikki, 935; copy by Fujiwara no Teika, 13th century.

About this source

What it is

The Tosa Nikki is a poetic diary written by the poet Ki no Tsurayuki, describing a journey back to Kyoto from Tosa province in 935. Though written by a man, it adopts the voice of a fictional female narrator and is composed in Japanese kana rather than Chinese characters.

Why it matters

By writing in kana as a woman, Tsurayuki created the first notable example of the Japanese diary as literature, breaking from the dry official diaries written by men in Chinese. This innovation opened the way for the kana prose that women writers, including Murasaki Shikibu, used for diaries and fiction a century later.

Look closer

  • Why might a male author choose to write as a fictional woman?
  • What does the choice of kana over Chinese characters tell you about who could read this diary?
  • What themes, such as grief, does the diary explore, and why might that matter to later diarists?

This diary entry is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Murasaki Shikibu on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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