Author: Dr. Isabell "Izzy" Jenkins

Cited by

• Barbara Lazar (1)
  • IN: The Pillow Book of the Flower Samurai (2012) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: For readers not familiar with the Kozaisho Diaries, Dr Sosiko Yatsumura and I worked Kobe, Japan's rugged terrain, from 2000 to 2010. The site yielded discoveries worth our blisters. We unearthed a burial place with two complete skeletons. The bodies faced each other, in the extended position, the male on the left, the female on the right. The crowning glory was a document box sealed into a separate chamber. The box was undamaged, wrapped in oiled cloths with a waxed seal. Gold and mother-of-pearl cranes fly across a heavily lacquered background of gold and silver dust on its lid. The seal was identified as that of Minamoto no Yoshitsune, the victor of the Ichinotani battle in 1184. The tests on the papers and other contents support the dating of mid-to-late twelfth century. I save the best for last. Inside the box, intact, we found the Kozaisho Diaries or, as they were called in Heian Japan (the period 794 - 1185) pillow books i.e. diaries people stored where they slept. My deep thanks go to Dr Bernard Hoffenberg's hard work and superlative translation. Readers may check the published papers about these documents. The diary was written from the Taira Clan's perspective, not the victorious Minamoto Clan of the civil war, the Genpei War (1180-85). There are a significant number of discrepancies with the Heike Monogatari, the fictionalized account of the war written about fifty years earlier. I bet on the bones. The bones don't lie.
    FROM: NULL, (2012), Book, US