‘A Tale Unasked’ by Lady Nijō (Review)

After visits to (West) Germany and Russia, it’s time for our Women in Translation Month travels to take us back to Japan, and today’s choice is a book that sees us heading a fair way back in time, too. We’re off to thirteenth-century Kyoto, where we’re to make the acquaintance of a woman brought up for great things, and for a great man. The problem is that one doesn’t seem to be enough, and several others have her in their sights – what is a young woman to do… ***** The best way to start today’s post is at the beginning of translator Meredith McKinney’s introduction, as it tells us all about the surprising background of the book in question: In 1938 a scholar stumbled upon an old manuscript with the intriguing title of Towazugatari (A Tale Unasked) tucked away in the Travel section of the Imperial Household Library in Tokyo, and decided to take a closer look. He discovered it was a late seventeenth- or early eighteenth-century copy of a much earlier work that was about very much more…