A Tale Unasked

Lady Nijo’s A Tale Unasked (Towazugatari) is the last, and arguably the finest, among classical Japanese literature''s famous ‘women''s diaries’. Thought to have been completed around 1307, when the author was in her late forties, the first two thirds of this autobiographical work document in rich and compelling detail the experiences of an imperial concubine whose time at court was ruled and finally ruined by her passionate and complicated love life. The final third of the work equally memorably describes her peripatetic life after the emperor expelled her from the court in her mid-twenties and she became a nun, wandering the roads of Japan as a form of Buddhist austerity.

Meredith McKinney''s superb translation breathes new life into Lady Nijo''s fascinating diaries, which survived her era in a single copy and were only rediscovered in the 1940s.

A new translation of one of classical Japan's greatest literary works‘It is from a desire not to let this impulse count for nothing that I have written this foolish tale of mine. I have no hope that it will remain for future generations to remember me by’Japanese noblewoman Lady Nijo was made the Emperor’s concubine aged fourteen and then, after several illicit affairs, was expelled from the palace, becoming a nun and travelling the country in pilgrimage. A Tale Unasked is her extraordinary memoir of her eventful life, lost for centuries and discovered in the Imperial Library. Filled with startling revelations of the secret intrigues, splendour and sexual politics of courtly life, it is also a moving portrait of a woman of rich intelligence and sensitivity trying to survive in a difficult world. This new translation beautifully renders the sinuous elegance of a remarkable work of classical Japanese literature. Translated by Meredith McKinney

• | Author: Lady Nijo, Meredith McKinney
• | Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• | Publication Date: Oct 02, 2025
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language: eng
• | Binding: Paperback / softback
• | ISBN-13: 9780241562468
• | ISBN-10: 0241562465