Tales Of Ise's The Confessions Of Lady Nijo

Mono no aware, or “the pathos of things”, was an aesthetic extensively utilized in Japanese literature. To further expand, this bittersweet term describes the beauty in things that dwindle and its role of impermanence in life. In the autobiographical narrative The Confessions of Lady Nijo, this particular aesthetic is highlighted in Book Four when she journeys pasts the Eight Bridges in Yatsuhashi. During this scene, an allusion to Section Nine in the Tales of Ise is concocted. To elucidate about this allusion, Section Nine in the Tales of Ise acquaints with a group of nameless men in the story who exile themselves to the Eastern Provinces of Japan. The men eventually stumble upon the glorious Eight Bridges at Yatsuhashi. The site’s beauty compels one of the men to compose a poem which ultimately makes all of them weep puffing up their dried rice. The Tales of Ise reference alludes to Lady Nijo’s premonition by demonstrating the aesthetic of mono no aware and the impermanent aspects in her life.

Lady Nijo goes through these relationships like a modern day soap opera. However, her polyamorous promiscuity usually leads to heart wrenching conflicts especially with her husband GoFukakusa—the Emperor of Japan. In Book Four of the autobiography, Lady Nijo is traveling as a form of exiling herself from reality and her ties with everyone. When she arrives at this destination of Yatsuhashi, she quotes “At the place known as the Eight Bridges, finding that the bridges were gone and the rivers dried up, I felt as though I had lost a friend.” And composes the poem that states, “The web of my trouble still / Streams out in all directions, / Yet not a trace remains / Of the Eight