Sex & The Book / The love at court lived by a geisha between eros, enchantment and poetry

What did it mean to be a concubine of the emperor in 13th century Japan? What kind of life did he lead, what were his dreams, fears and desires? The young Nijō, born in Kyoto in 1258 from a family of very noble origins, spent the first part of her life at court, offering her body, her attention and all her delicate art to the service of Emperor Go Fukakusa. Orphaned by her mother at the age of two, she became the favorite of Her Highness, then 28, when she was just thirteen. She could boast the charm of a cultured and refined woman, full of artistic talent and knowledge of poetry, as well as an unrivaled beauty that went hand in hand only with her sensitivity. Unfortunately, however, the jealousies of the court and her own sentimental restlessness would have cost her the expulsion from the Palace and would have forced her, at the age of twenty-five, to become a nun and spend the rest of her life on a pilgrimage.

It is precisely then that Nijō begins to devote himself to writing. He writes a sort of untitled autobiography, later called in the seventeenth century by Emperor Reigen Towazugatari, that is Spontaneous confession - became in the Italian translation Diary of an Imperial Concubine. This wonderful and important work, both for its literary quality and for the historical testimony it gives us, was lost until, in 1940, a professor found a copy - probably incomplete - in the imperial library of Kyoto. The Diary consists of five books: the first three tell the story of Nijō at Go Fukakusa's court, while the last two deal with his vicissitudes and travels following his expulsion from the court.

What is the reason for your languor? " I wonder. I lay down without even mentioning to answer him. He lay down beside me and besieged me with the most varied promises.I understood that by now I could no longer resist him, my soul was that of the poem "If the world did not exist", but at the same time I was shocked at the thought of what lack of feeling I would have shown if the "evening smoke that disappeared for love" had learned that I was leaning in that direction. He does not even utter a semblance of an answer, but that night he was ruthlessly resolute and my thin robe was torn violently. I had nothing left to save, and the very thought of remaining in the world hated me.

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Little Nijō does not understand what is happening, why in the palace of her father, the Dainagon (i.e. the Councilor of State), refreshments and sumptuous furnishings are being prepared, because in her own room screens are mounted and she is offered such white clothes and fragrant. Her father explains to her that that night they would receive a visit from the emperor and that she herself would have to serve him, ordering her not to behave stubbornly. Nijō still does not understand that she has been chosen and ends up falling asleep before her arrival. Open your eyes, you find the emperor in bed next to her who confesses his love to her, that he has always lived waiting to have her, because she had always been destined for him. Nijō is so irritated and so surprised that she reacts abruptly and pushes her lord away. Her resistance, however, did not last long: the following night the emperor returned to see her and this time he did not allow himself to be begged, he took by force what belongs to him by royal right, then kidnaps her and takes her to the Palace with him to make her his concubine. If at first all this causes pain and suffering in the girl, it will not be long before she realizes that she is in love with His Highness and that she cannot bear to share him with anyone ...

Between enchanted gardens and the scent of flowers, between the rustling of silk and deer in the woods, the sound of rain, harp and lutes, the story of Nijō draws us into a suspended time, into a kingdom where eroticism is made of nocturnal encounters, whispered words and lost rituals. The enveloping sensuality of our concubine, capable of enthralling even the most powerful man in the empire, will help you to discover within yourself an enchanting power that needs neither provocation nor excesses to hit the target, but simple and delicate poetry.

by Giuliana Altamura

Here you can read the previous appointment with the Sex & The Book / Extreme love, eroticism and madness according to Régine Deforges